Chapter 5 - The Reckoning in Booth Seven
The entire restaurant went deathly quiet.
The line cooks peeked out from behind the heat lamps in the kitchen. The dishwashers stopped their machines. Renee stood frozen near table four, her jaw virtually on the floor.
"Stealing?" Grant squeaked, his voice cracking like a teenager's. "Mr. Cole, that's... that's a lie! I’ve run this store with absolute integrity! You can check the books!"
"We did check the books, Grant," the corporate accountant stepped forward, pulling a thick stack of printed financial reports from his briefcase. "Over the last nine months, you’ve been logging fake 'waste' reports for prime rib and seafood, then selling those inventory items to a local catering business for cash. You’ve also been altering time cards—clogging off servers fifteen minutes early while charging the store full labor hours and pocketing the difference."
Grant began to sweat profusely, wiping his forehead with his sleeve. "There’s... there’s been a mistake! The system—"
"The only mistake made here," Everett interrupted, his voice dropping into a register of pure, unadulterated steel, "was putting a petty bully in charge of good people."
Everett stood up, taking a step toward Grant. The two police officers stepped up beside him.
"At 8:45 this morning," Everett continued, his eyes fixed on Grant’s trembling face, "a young woman named Claire Dawson came into this building. Her child had a 103-degree fever. She was terrified, broke, and desperate. Instead of showing an ounce of human decency, instead of offering her a loan or sending her home with pay, you dragged her into the middle of this room and tried to destroy her dignity."
"She broke policy!" Grant screamed, his composure completely shattering into pathetic desperation. "You have a strict policy about children in the workplace! I was enforcing your rules, Mr. Cole!"
"My rules were designed to protect people, Grant," Everett said coldly. "Not to give small men a weapon to beat down desperate mothers."
Everett nodded to the police officers. "Officers. Mr. Mercer has six grand larceny charges waiting for him at the precinct. Take him out."
The two officers stepped forward, grabbing Grant’s arms and pulling them behind his back. The metallic click of handcuffs echoed through the dining room.
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"You can't do this to me!" Grant yelled, struggling against the officers as he was dragged toward the front doors. "I dedicated three years of my life to this place! You can't fire me over some worthless server!"
"She isn't a worthless server, Grant," Everett called out as the doors swung open into the rain. "She’s the new General Manager of this store."
