Chapter 11
They didn't let me sit in at first. I heard them call the supervisor from the front desk. His voice was loud in the hallway, confused, then flat. "Yeah, okay. Sure." Chairs scraped in the conference room across from the marble table. The door shut, but the walls in that office were thin and paneled, not real walls, and I could hear murmurs when I stood near the break room door.
HR was a woman named Carla. She'd come in with a folder and a calm voice. She started the way those meetings always start. "We're just gathering facts. No decisions yet."
Marcus played the video. Even from where I stood I heard the little click at 15:07 again through the laptop speaker. No one spoke for a long time after it.
Then the supervisor said, "That was just covering a staffing gap. I didn't forge anything."
Carla: "Whose code is 4472?"
"Mine - no, Olivia's. She said I could use it when she was out. For approvals."
"Did she say that in writing?" That was Marcus, quiet.
A pause. "She told me last month. Verbally. We were short two people on nights. I had to fill the sheet or we'd get flagged for understaffing. I put Maya down because she's reliable. She never complained."
Carla's pen scratched. "Did Maya volunteer for those three nights? Did she sign the volunteer sheet?"
"The sheet's on my desk," he said quickly. Too quickly. "Everyone signs."
Dave spoke then. "We pulled it. Signature's loopy. Not hers. We have her actual handwriting from this morning."
Another long pause. I could picture the supervisor's face the way it had looked on camera - glancing over his shoulder before he pressed green.
"It wasn't malice toward Maya," he said, and his voice dropped. "Look, we get a bonus if we keep coverage at a hundred percent without calling in temp agency. Temps cost double. My numbers were short. I figured she'd want the hours anyway. She never said no."
"You never asked her," Marcus said.
"I told her she was scheduled. Same thing."
"No," Marcus said. The word was low, and it stopped everything. "It's not."
I heard Carla turn a page. "Maya wrote in her statement she was handed the schedule and cloth at the elevator and told to keep working. She said she needed the money and didn't ask why. Is that accurate?"
He didn't answer right away. I pushed the break room door open an inch and they saw me. Carla looked up and gestured for me to come in. The supervisor was sitting at the black marble table - the same table - with the white schedule and the silver terminal in the middle like evidence at a trial. The yellow at 15:00 and 15:07 looked garish under the warm spots.
I sat down across from him. He wouldn't meet my eyes at first. His hands were folded too tight.
"Did I ever say I wanted three nights straight?" I asked. My voice was steadier than I expected.
He shook his head once, small. "You didn't say anything. You just took the paper."
"Because you handed it to me at 14:58 and said Olivia approved it. I thought if I said I was tired I'd get cut entirely. I have rent due. I didn't know you were using her code."
Carla was writing everything. Marcus watched the supervisor, not me.
"It was a management decision," the supervisor said to Carla, trying to sound formal. "I was trying to keep us covered."
"You pressed the green button at 15:07 while she was asleep on this table," Marcus said. He slid the printed log across the marble. "Three times. Local terminal. While she was in this room or you had her slumped over it. That's not coverage. That's falsification of hours and approval."
The supervisor stared at the log line: CODE 4472 GREEN 15:07 TERM-02. His shoulders dropped. "Are you suspending me?"
"Pending review," Carla said. "Effective immediately. You'll hand over your keys and code fob. No contact with scheduling or staff until HR completes the investigation. And no, you won't be in the building when Maya finishes her shift."
He stood, slow. He looked at me once, and for a second I saw something like embarrassment, not anger. "I didn't think you'd fall asleep like that. Right there."
May you like
"I worked almost thirty-six hours," I said. "I didn't think you'd watch me do it and press the button anyway."
He didn't have an answer for that. Dave held the door open. The supervisor walked out without touching the schedule or the terminal.
