Chapter 9 - The Housekeeper's Ledger
At 12:17 A.M., Mireille placed a grocery bag on the conference table.
"I kept copies."
Inside were invoices.
Not company originals.
Photographs, printouts, handwritten notes.
"Why?" Elise asked.
"Because people kept disappearing after they asked questions."
Mireille opened a spiral notebook.
She had written every suspicious vendor charge she encountered while checking housekeeping deliveries.
Towels that never arrived.
Cleaning machines billed twice.
A two-hundred-thousand-euro kitchen renovation that consisted of new cabinet handles.
Then the staff entries.
Thirty-seven employees listed on payroll who did not exist.
Antoine stared at the names.
"Ghost employees."
"Where did the salaries go?" Elise asked.
He traced the account numbers.
All thirty-seven routed through the same payroll processor.
Then to Azure Coast Advisory.
Sébastien leaned back. "This proves sloppy administration, not theft."
Mireille looked at him with open disgust.
"My son lost his apartment because you paid his wages three weeks late."
He shrugged. "Cash flow happens."
Elise's temper finally moved.
"No. Theft happens. Cash flow is what thieves call it in meetings."
Sébastien stood.
Vincent stood too.
"Sit down."
For a second, the two men stared at each other.
Sébastien sat.
Antoine flipped to the oldest ghost-payroll record.
"These started fourteen months ago."
Elise frowned.
"Before Blue Wing."
"Yes."
"Then the loan isn't the beginning."
Mireille shook her head.
"No."
She reached deeper into the bag and removed an envelope.
"This is."
Inside was a photocopy of a death certificate.
René Morel.
Elise's father.
She looked up sharply.
"Why do you have this?"
"Because someone requested a certified copy from the hotel legal office fourteen months ago."
"For what purpose?"
Mireille handed her the attached form.
Elise read it once.
Then again.
APPLICATION TO ACTIVATE SUCCESSOR FOUNDER AUTHORITY.
Applicant: Sébastien Morel.
Her cousin's signature sat at the bottom.
May you like
But the date was impossible.
He had applied for Founder authority three weeks before René Morel died.
