Chapter 5 - Fired Before Dessert.
Victor came through the employee entrance so fast that he nearly knocked over a bus tub.
Mara, Ethan, and Carl met him in the corridor outside the security room.
Serena was nowhere behind him.
Victor looked at Ethan first.
Then his eyes settled on Mara.
“We need to talk.”
Mara crossed her arms.
“You had that chance when the fork was in front of you.”
Victor held up the envelope.
“This changes things.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“What’s inside?”
Victor looked toward the hallway.
“Not here.”
“You’ve spent the last hour telling people where they can and can’t stand.”
Ethan’s voice was quiet.
“That ended.”
Victor took a folded sheet from the envelope.
It was a photograph.
Mara’s breath caught.
Claire Bennett was standing on a sidewalk outside a convenience store.
The photograph had been taken from across the street.
A date was printed in the bottom corner.
Three weeks ago.
Mara grabbed the image.
“No.”
Victor flinched at the force in her voice.
“This can’t be real.”
Ethan looked at the timestamp.
“Do you recognize the location?”
Mara stared at the storefront behind her sister.
The sign was partly blocked by a passing truck.
She could make out only the final word.
MARKET.
Claire looked older than Mara remembered.
Her hair was shorter.
She wore sunglasses and a gray coat.
But it was her.
Mara knew the angle of her shoulders.
She knew the small scar above her left eyebrow.
She knew the silver ring Claire had worn since college.
“Where did you get this?”
Victor looked toward the alley.
“From the car.”
“Daniel gave it to you?” Ethan asked.
“I never saw his face.”
“You saw enough to know who it was.”
Victor did not answer.
Mara shoved the photograph toward him.
“What does my sister have to do with tonight?”
Victor’s expression hardened as if he needed anger to say the next sentence.
“More than you think.”
Ethan stepped between them before Mara could move closer.
“Start at the beginning.”
Victor rubbed both hands over his face.
“I didn’t prepare your plate.”
“You said that already.”
“I prepared the dish.”
Victor pointed toward the kitchen.
“I plated every component except the final garnish.”
“Who finished it?”
“I don’t know.”
Mara stared at him.
“You run the kitchen.”
“Normally, yes.”
“What was different tonight?”
Victor looked at Ethan.
“Serena told me Table Twelve was receiving a private investor tasting.”
Ethan shook his head.
“I authorized no tasting.”
“I know that now.”
Victor’s voice became lower.
“She told me your office requested no interruptions and no questions.”
“What office?”
“Your executive office.”
Ethan thought of Daniel.
Mara thought of the deleted footage.
“What about the blue mark?” she asked.
Victor looked at her sharply.
“You know about that?”
“I’ve known about it for two years.”
His face changed.
“Claire told you.”
Mara stepped closer.
“You knew my sister.”
Victor closed his eyes for half a second.
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“Well enough to know why she left.”
Mara’s anger rose so quickly she felt dizzy.
“You let my family believe she vanished.”
“I was trying to keep her alive.”
The corridor went silent.
Mara’s voice dropped.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said you helped her.”
“I helped her leave.”
“Where?”
“I never knew the destination.”
“Who arranged it?”
Victor looked down at the photograph in Mara’s hand.
“She did.”
Mara laughed once, bitterly.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Victor pointed at the photograph.
“That picture is a message to me.”
“What message?” Ethan asked.
“That they can find her.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
“Who are they?”
Victor looked toward the security room.
“Northstar.”
Mara felt the word hit like a door slamming shut.
“The vendor?”
Victor nodded.
“It isn’t a vendor.”
“What is it?”
“A pass-through company.”
“For what?”
Victor looked at Ethan.
“Money.”
The answer was simple enough to be worse than anything dramatic.
Ethan’s expression became unreadable.
Victor continued.
“Private dining bills, event deposits, vendor rebates, consulting fees.”
“They move money through restaurants?”
“Restaurants, clubs, hotels, anywhere wealthy clients don’t question inflated service costs.”
Mara stared at him.
“And the blue mark?”
Victor’s eyes moved to the kitchen.
“A warning inside the operation.”
“From who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does it warn about?”
Victor hesitated.
“That a plate has been interfered with after it leaves normal kitchen control.”
Mara’s skin went cold.
“So you knew.”
“I knew when you put the fork in front of me.”
“Then why did you act like I was crazy?”
Victor’s voice cracked for the first time.
“Because Serena was watching.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“And if she knew you recognized the mark?”
Victor looked at the photograph of Claire.
“She’d know Claire told me what it meant.”
Mara shook her head.
“You’re protecting yourself.”
“I was protecting her.”
“By firing me?”
“I didn’t fire you.”
“Serena did while you stood there.”
Victor looked at her.
“I needed you out of the building.”
Mara’s anger stalled.
“What?”
“I wanted you gone before the people behind that plate realized you understood the mark.”
Ethan’s phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
A message from Daniel.
WHERE ARE YOU?
Ethan typed nothing.
A second message arrived.
WE NEED TO TALK BEFORE YOU BELIEVE THE WAITRESS.
Mara saw it.
Victor saw it too.
Then a third message appeared.
ASK HER WHY SHE REALLY TOOK THE JOB AT AURELIA.
Mara went still.
Ethan looked at her.
Victor looked confused.
Ethan’s voice was calm, but the trust from minutes earlier had changed.
“Mara.”
She knew exactly what he was going to ask.
May you like
She also knew the truth would make her look worse before it made anything clearer.
“Why did you really take this job?”
