Chapter 3 - THE REPORT AGAINST NORAForty-three names kept Nora awake.
Not Ethan sitting in her kitchen at two in the morning.
Not Finn standing near the window.
Not even the photograph of Sam.
Forty-three.
She imagined forty-three versions of herself.
Forty-three overdue bills.
Forty-three parents making food stretch.
Forty-three workers afraid of immigration questions, arrest records, unstable housing, missing documents.
“Go home,” Nora told Ethan.
He looked up.
“I’m not in your home.”
“You are literally inside my kitchen.”
“I’m inside a chair.”
“The chair is inside my kitchen.”
“Fair.”
He opened a bag.
Soup.
Bread.
Chicken.
Nora’s stomach made a humiliating sound.
Ethan politely pretended not to hear.
“I’ll pay you.”
“No.”
“Then I’m not eating.”
He looked at her.
“You fainted because you were starving.”
“I fainted because Gregory stole my money.”
“Both are true.”
“Price.”
“What?”
“How much?”
Ethan considered the expensive meal.
“Twenty dollars.”
“That costs more than twenty.”
“Tonight it costs twenty.”
“You’re terrible at pretending not to help.”
“I’m terrible at many things.”
That surprised her.
She ate.
Slowly at first.
Then too quickly.
Ethan read reconstructed payroll pages.
“Why did Gregory choose cash workers?”
Nora swallowed.
“Because people with paperwork complain.”
“You mean payroll paperwork?”
“And immigration documents.”
Ethan looked up.
“Who?”
“Luis, maybe.”
The concept changed when he said:
“Targeted.”
Gregory did not steal randomly.
He selected people with expensive reasons to remain quiet.
Then Nora’s phone rang.
Carla.
“Ms. Davis, I need you tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“The report was amended.”
Nora’s stomach tightened.
“With what?”
“An allegation that you stole prescription medication from L’Osteria.”
Nora nearly laughed.
“I don’t take pills.”
“Photographs were submitted.”
“What photographs?”
“We need to discuss them in person.”
Nora looked at Ethan.
“They’re trying to take Sam.”
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Gregory.”
She froze.
“You knew him before yesterday.”
Ethan did not answer immediately.
“That pause was an answer.”
He closed the file.
“I knew of him.”
“Why?”
“L’Osteria has been losing cash.”
“You own it?”
“No.”
“Then why do you care?”
“The owner asked me to look.”
“Why you?”
“Because I’m good at finding where money goes.”
Nora stared.
“That sounds suspiciously criminal.”
Finn looked away.
Ethan ignored him.
“So you already suspected Gregory.”
“Yes.”
“And you thought I might be part of it.”
“At first.”
“Fantastic.”
“I was wrong.”
“Congratulations.”
The next morning Carla showed Nora the photographs.
Prescription bottle.
White tablets.
Locker.
Her name taped across the front.
“That is not mine.”
Carla nodded.
“I need evidence.”
Nora’s phone vibrated.
Finn.
Video still.
Gregory entering the staff hallway.
Second image.
Opening Nora’s locker.
Third.
Placing something inside.
The prescription bottle.
Carla stared.
“Send this.”
Nora did.
Then called Ethan.
“He planted it.”
“Yes.”
“Why risk that much over three hundred dollars?”
“Because you took something.”
“The payroll strip?”
“More.”
Nora frowned.
“What?”
“Your pawnshop receipt.”
She found it.
Receipt for her mother’s necklace.
“Turn it over.”
Blue ink.
Dates.
Amounts.
Initials.
Nora’s mouth dried.
“Whose writing?”
“Luis Ortega’s.”
“What?”
“He was recording cash movements.”
“How did it get in my bag?”
“We think he put it there during your final shift.”
Nora remembered Luis asking to borrow a pen.
Looking toward the kitchen.
Tense.
Then:
“Where is he?”
Silence.
“Ethan.”
“We cannot find him.”
“When was he last seen?”
“Three nights ago.”
The night before Nora was fired.
She stared at the amounts.
“What’s the total?”
“Just over two hundred thousand.”
Nora sat.
The room seemed to shift.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph.
Luis at a bus terminal.
Alive.
Below it:
Tell Hayes to stop digging.
Nora called Ethan.
“They know.”
“Lock the door.”
“I’m at Family Services.”
“Where exactly?”
She looked toward the front windows.
Across the street, a man lowered a phone.
Then walked away.
“Nora?”
Her voice dropped.
“They’re watching me.”
And for the first time, Nora understood something worse than Gregory cheating workers.
May you like
Somebody had invested time and money into making poor people afraid.
Gregory might only be one person working inside a much larger system.
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