Chapter 4: What He Signs

The security office sat at the end of a hall on the ground floor, behind a door that said STAFF ONLY.

Inside were six monitors, a coffee machine and a steel desk the size of a rowboat.

One wall was covered in camera feeds.

The other wall was bare, except for a calendar with nothing written on it.

"Sit," Reuben said.

He took a gray accordion folder out of a locked drawer and put it in front of me.

"Everything I've signed in three years. Read it."

"Why?"

"Because you've been looking at my name with a face like a closed door since Monday."

I opened the folder.

The first form was a termination slip for a cocktail server.

Stapled behind it was a sheet of paper in the same angular handwriting I'd seen on the clipboard.

Incident note, it said at the top, and then a date.

Employee reported a manager's hand on her back to HR on the 3rd.

Written warning issued on the 5th for attendance.

Terminated on the 9th for attendance.

Attendance records show perfect punctuality for ten months.

I turned the page.

The second form was a dealer.

Her note said she had told a floor supervisor about the tip pool being cut fifteen percent before it reached the dealers.

She was fired six days later for "table errors."

The third was a bell captain, the fourth a pit boss.

Each one had a slip.

Each slip had a note.

Each note ended with the same line in the same handwriting.

Countersigned under protest. R. Lowry.

I read until my coffee went cold.

"Thirty-one," I said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Lady Boss Takes on Vegas Bullies! from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.