Chapter 7 — Kitchen staff reports missing cash — Then the manager’s financial motive becomes clear
The kitchen porter stood firmly by the swinging service doors.
He rested his palms flat against the wooden frame.
I saw her handle duplicate transactions last week, the kitchen porter said, his voice carrying clearly across the quiet dining floor.
He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of the staff and the customer.
She prints out a guest check for a table that already paid by card.
Then she tells the servers the register glitch-cleared the transaction.
She makes them take cash from the diners anyway.
The manager stepped back, her shoulders stiffening against the dark wood paneling of the back counter.
You don’t know what you are talking about, the manager snapped, her voice rising in panic.
Get back to the kitchen before I write you up for insubordination.
Nobody is going back anywhere until we look at the weekly cash drop logs, Marcus said.
Marcus reached back down to the open register drawer.
He lifted the plastic coin tray.
Hidden beneath the metal insert sat a small stack of untallied guest receipts.
Each slip represented a paid table that had been manually overridden on the terminal.
Every single one of them was marked paid by card in the digital archive.
And every single one of them had a matching handwritten cash total scrawled on the back.
It wasn’t a one-time mistake, the customer in the black dress said, shaking her head slowly.
It was a systematic way to skim cash right out of the restaurant drawer.
And you used a young family member to cover your tracks when a guest asked questions, Mia added, standing tall beside the table of napkins.
The manager glared at the counter, her fingers gripping the edge of the wood so tightly her knuckles turned white.
You are ruining this establishment with these lies, the manager whispered through clenched teeth.
We need the owner on the phone right now, the customer declared, pulling out her mobile device.
The customer tapped the screen firmly.
She looked straight at the manager and pressed call.