Chapter 5 - MARIA'S APARTMENT
We found Maria that afternoon.
She had not disappeared.
She had been hiding.
When she saw my face through the chain, she tried to shut it.
'Please,' June said from behind me. 'It's me.'
The door opened three inches.
Maria looked thinner than her employee photo.
She let June in first.
Not me.
That was fair.
Inside, Maria showed us a folder containing every pay statement she had saved.
'I asked Patricia Lowe why the company was taking almost half my check,' she said. 'She told me I owed placement debt.'
'What debt?'
'For training. Uniforms. background checks. Things I never agreed to.'
'And when you complained?'
'A man came to my apartment.'
June's hand tightened around hers.
'Who?'
Maria looked at me.
'Owen Mercer.'
The room went cold.
'He came himself?'
'He said I was confusing company generosity with entitlement.'
My stomach turned.
Maria said Owen offered her $18,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement.
She refused.
Two days later, she was fired.
The severance record was created anyway and routed to Northstar.
'Why didn't you sue?'
She laughed.
'With what money?'
Then Maria pulled out her phone.
'I recorded him.'
The audio was rough but clear.
Owen's voice said, 'People like you always think the number on the top line belongs to you. It doesn't. The agency decides what your labor is worth.'
I closed my eyes.
Then another voice entered the recording.
A woman.
'Wrap this up, Owen. Declan's audit team is in the building tomorrow.'
Grace stared at me.
I recognized the voice.
Natalie Sloan.
May you like
My chief financial officer.
The woman who had personally presented our clean-audit certificate to the board three months earlier.
