Chapter 5 - The Busboy Who Remembered My Name
They kept me in the small interview room off the security office and left the door open. That was the point. I could hear everything in the hallway without being able to leave.
Dmitri stood by the door frame with his arms at his sides. He didn't look at me. He looked past me, at the hallway, at the camera monitor, at anyone who passed. My hands were in my lap and I kept turning my wrists so my palms faced up, then down again. The adrenaline from the ballroom had burned off and left my fingers cold.
Victor was at the narrow table by the monitors. He hadn't moved the coupe. Someone had covered that marble table upstairs with a tray and told staff not to touch it, and the liquid was now in a sealed evidence cup beside the keyboard. He held his phone low and waited.
A knock came and the night manager brought the busboy in. He was maybe nineteen, hair still damp with sweat, his white service shirt untucked on one side, his black apron tied too tight. He saw me first and his face did something complicated.
"Yeah, that's Lena," he said before anyone asked him.
Dmitri stepped aside just enough to let him in. Victor didn't stand.
"What's your name," Victor said. His voice was even.
"Marco. Marco Reyes."
"Marco, you worked the floor tonight pouring champagne," Victor said. "Tell me about the coupe glass for my table."
Marco swallowed. He looked at me again like he wanted permission. I gave him nothing because I didn't know what he was supposed to say.
"I was on trays," he said. "Lena was folding napkins by the service door around eight thirty. She saw my tray before I went out."
Victor glanced at me once, then back to Marco. "What did she see."
"The coupe looked off," Marco said. "She said it looked cloudy. Like the bubbles were wrong. She told me not to serve it. She said tell the bar to remake it."
My chest loosened a fraction. He remembered. I hadn't been sure he would.
I said, "I told him to dump it."
Victor held up a hand, not sharp, just enough to pause me. "Let him finish."
Marco nodded fast. "She did. She told me dump it and get a fresh one. I was going to. I had it on the back counter by the kitchen pass."
"What happened to it," Victor said.
Marco's hands twisted the edge of his apron. "Chef Felix told me to hurry. We were behind. He said stop staring and move. He grabbed a tray and I grabbed the wrong glass. I thought I grabbed the new one but I swapped them. I put the cloudy one back on the table tray because it was closer. I didn't realize until Lena ran out."
The room got very still. The monitor hummed. Somewhere down the hall an ice machine dropped a load.
I could see Victor put it together without changing his expression. He looked at the sealed cup with the pale liquid inside it, then at me.
"You warned him before I ever touched the glass," he said to me.
I nodded. "Around eight thirty. Eight forty maybe. Before the speeches."
"Why didn't you tell a manager," he said.
"Felix was the manager on that pass," Marco said quietly. "He was the one rushing us."
Victor didn't react to that right away. He asked Marco, "Did anyone else touch that tray. Anyone in a blazer, anyone not in uniform."
Marco stared at the floor. "Guys were coming in and out for refills. I didn't see. I was trying not to get yelled at."
Victor studied him for a long beat. Then he nodded to Dmitri. Dmitri stepped forward and put a hand lightly on Marco's shoulder and guided him back toward the hallway.
"Wait in the break room," Victor said to Marco. "Don't talk to anyone about this. Someone will get you water."
When the door closed again it was just the three of us and the monitors. Victor finally sat down across from me. He didn't sit close. He left the width of the table between us.
"You tried to stop it at the service counter," he said. "Not just on the floor."
"I didn't want to make a scene," I said. My voice sounded thin. "I thought if he dumped it, that was it. Then I saw the server set it down in front of you."
"And Felix told him to hurry," Victor said. It wasn't a question. He was filing it away. "So the glass went back to my table after you flagged it."
I nodded. He leaned back slightly and I saw his jaw work once, the way it had in the ballroom when he looked down at the spill.
"You understand what this means," he said. "You had no reason to warn him if you were the one who did it."
I didn't answer. My hands were still cold.
"It doesn't clear you completely," he said, honest and flat. "But it changes where I'm looking. It's not you I'm worried about right now. It's who was in a position to set that glass back in front of me, and why Felix was in such a hurry to get trays out."
Dmitri moved at the doorway and said low, "Blazer guest is still at the bar."
Victor nodded once without looking away from me. "Bring him in next. Separate from everyone else."
May you like
He stood, picked up the sealed cup, and turned it slowly so the liquid caught the light. "Stay here," he told me. Not unkind, just firm. "You're not in trouble for the warning. I need you to stay where I can see you until we talk to him."
The door stayed open, and I could hear the ballroom music still playing faintly two floors up, like nothing had happened at all.
