The Matching Game. Everyone Knew The Answer. Except Me novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Torn Page

Ben put the old phone in my hand at six on Thursday morning, in the staff lot, inside a sandwich bag.

"It's the only copy," he said. "I'm not allowed to be near it."

"Where does it go?"

"Anywhere Cass can't walk in on."

I gave it to the night auditor at the front desk, who signed it into the hotel safe under a made-up room number.

"Don't tell me what's on it," she said. "I'll just guard it."

That night, after the last banquet broke down, I called the night crew into the kitchen.

There were three of them.

The cook, the bartender and the woman from the front desk stood around the steel prep table with their arms folded.

All three had watched the video of me paying the check.

All three had been polite about it for four days.

"I need the ballroom screen on Saturday," I said. "Near the end, someone will start a file from the booth. Nobody stops it. Nobody touches the power."

"Whose file?" the bartender asked.

"Mine."

The cook wiped his hands on his apron.

"Is this about the woman with the bob?"

"Yes."

"She tipped the staff at the Christmas party in compliments," he said. "Forty people. She said we were family."

The bartender snorted. "She told me my pour was 'sweet.'"

"I'll do the breaker panel," the cook said. "I'll stand in front of it with a ladle."

"You don't need a ladle."

"I want a ladle."

The auditor was already writing on an index card. "Ben runs the slides from the booth. I'll sit beside him and watch his hands."

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