Chapter 3 - THE HANDCUFFS WERE FOR THE WRONG PERSON
I screamed when the officer touched Mom.
“No!”
Mom turned quickly and lifted me into her arms.
“It’s okay.”
It wasn’t.
I knew what handcuffs were.
Bad people got handcuffs.
Mom wasn’t bad.
The man with the badge stepped closer.
“Megan Carter, you’re being questioned regarding theft from this establishment.”
Vincent moved between him and my mother.
The room changed instantly.
“Questioned?” Vincent asked.
The officer frowned.
“This is police business.”
“Then use police words correctly.”
The detective looked irritated.
“Who are you?”
Nobody in the restaurant breathed.
One of the uniformed officers whispered something to him.
The detective’s face changed.
Not much.
Just enough.
“Mr. Kane.”
Vincent glanced at his badge.
“Detective Warren Bell.”
Bell straightened.
“We received a complaint concerning cash theft.”
“From whom?”
“That isn’t relevant.”
David spoke from behind us.
“From me.”
Mom flinched.
I buried my face against her neck.
Vincent turned toward David.
“You called them?”
“I reported an employee stealing.”
“When?”
David hesitated.
Detective Bell answered.
“Four days ago.”
Vincent looked at Mom.
“Did you know about this?”
She shook her head.
David crossed his arms.
“Megan was seen accessing the office safe.”
“I was told to.”
“By who?”
“You.”
David laughed.
“Convenient.”
Mom’s breathing changed.
Fast.
Shallow.
I had seen it once before when our car got stuck beneath an underpass during a storm.
“Mom.”
“I’m okay, baby.”
Vincent looked at Detective Bell.
“What evidence do you have?”
Bell’s expression hardened.
“I’m not discussing an active investigation with you.”
“You’re trying to handcuff a woman in front of her child based on a complaint from a man who has spent eleven weeks withholding employee wages and leaving threatening voicemails.”
Bell looked at David.
David’s face twitched.
“That has nothing to do with the missing money.”
“How much is missing?”
“Twenty-eight thousand dollars.”
Mom gasped.
“That’s insane.”
David pointed at her.
“Only three people had the safe code.”
“You gave me the code because you made me do deposits.”
“And money started disappearing.”
“You told me the register was short because of accounting errors.”
“It wasn’t.”
Vincent’s attorney, Elliot, stood.
“Detective, has an arrest warrant been issued?”
Bell frowned.
“I said she needs to come in.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Bell stared at him.
“No warrant.”
“Probable cause?”
“We have surveillance footage.”
Mom froze.
David smiled.
Vincent noticed both.
“Show us.”
“That’s evidence.”
David said quickly, “I can show him.”
Detective Bell looked annoyed.
“You shouldn’t.”
But David had already moved toward the office.
Vincent followed.
So did Mom.
So did everyone else.
The office was tiny.
Only six people fit inside, so I sat on Mom’s hip while Vincent, Elliot, David, Detective Bell and one officer crowded around a computer.
David clicked a folder.
A grainy black-and-white video appeared.
It showed the office at night.
Mom walked in.
She opened the safe.
She took out an envelope.
She put it in her bag.
Then she left.
I looked at her.
She looked sick.
“That was November third.”
David folded his arms.
“Exactly.”
Mom shook her head.
“You told me to take that envelope.”
“Why would I do that?”
“It was vendor cash. You said Marco from GreenLine Supplies would collect it outside because you didn’t want it recorded.”
David laughed.
“There is no GreenLine Supplies.”
Vincent looked at him.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Mom stared at the screen.
“You told me—”
“You stole twenty-eight thousand dollars.”
“No.”
David looked at Detective Bell.
“You see what I’ve been dealing with?”
Vincent raised one finger.
“Play the footage again.”
David’s mouth tightened.
“It’s clear.”
“Again.”
David replayed it.
Vincent watched.
Then he said, “Pause.”
The image froze.
Mom stood beside the safe.
Vincent pointed toward the bottom corner of the screen.
“What time?”
Elliot leaned closer.
“11:42 p.m.”
Vincent looked at Mom.
“What time did the restaurant close?”
“Ten.”
“Why were you there?”
“David told me to stay.”
“Text?”
She shook her head.
“He called.”
“Do you have the call log?”
“Yes.”
David scoffed.
“A phone call proves nothing.”
Vincent ignored him.
“Continue.”
The video resumed.
Mom took the envelope and left.
Vincent said, “How much was in that envelope?”
David hesitated.
“Twenty-eight thousand.”
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“The woman on camera carries it in one hand.”
“So?”
“So twenty-eight thousand dollars in mostly twenties and fifties would make a much thicker package.”
David’s eyes flickered.
Detective Bell looked at the monitor again.
Vincent looked at Elliot.
“Estimate?”
“Depends on denominations. If mostly hundreds, two hundred eighty bills. Roughly an inch and a quarter thick.”
The envelope in the footage was thin.
Very thin.
Vincent looked at Mom.
“What was inside?”
“Maybe three thousand.”
David snapped, “She doesn’t know.”
“I counted it.”
He stopped.
Mom stared at him.
“You told me to count it twice.”
The room became silent.
Vincent’s voice dropped.
“Do you have records of the alleged missing amount, David?”
“The safe log.”
“Show it.”
David didn’t move.
Detective Bell finally looked suspicious.
“Mr. Sterling?”
David cleared his throat.
“There was a technical problem with the system.”
Elliot looked at the computer.
“What kind?”
“A deletion.”
“Convenient,” Mom whispered.
David glared at her.
Vincent looked toward the ceiling.
“There are two cameras in this office.”
David’s head snapped up.
I followed Vincent’s gaze.
A small camera sat over the filing cabinet.
Another was hidden above the door.
David’s face drained.
Detective Bell looked up.
“You only provided footage from one camera.”
“The other doesn’t work.”
“Since when?”
“Months.”
Vincent looked toward the camera.
“Red light is on.”
David’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Elliot smiled faintly.
“Detective, perhaps we should view the second recording.”
David stepped between them and the desk.
“The system is private property.”
Bell’s patience vanished.
“You reported felony theft.”
David hesitated.
“That doesn’t give you permission to search everything.”
“No,” Bell said. “But you invited us onto the property and volunteered surveillance footage as evidence.”
Vincent leaned against the wall.
“Funny thing about evidence. Sometimes it keeps talking.”
David’s face tightened.
Bell reached for the computer mouse.
David grabbed his wrist.
Every bodyguard in the hallway moved.
Every officer moved too.
For one terrifying second, everyone seemed to forget I was there.
Mom pulled me against her chest.
David released Bell.
“Fine.”
Bell clicked through the camera system.
Camera Two.
November third.
11:37 p.m.
The footage showed David entering the office.
Alone.
He opened the safe.
He removed several thick bundles of cash.
He placed them inside a black duffel bag.
Then he closed the safe.
Five minutes later, Mom entered.
She removed the thin envelope.
My mother made a sound I had never heard before.
Not crying.
Not laughing.
Something in between.
David backed toward the door.
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
Detective Bell stared at him.
“You removed cash before she entered.”
“It was my money.”
“You told police the safe was full before Megan Carter accessed it.”
“I misunderstood the timeline.”
“You signed a sworn statement.”
David’s eyes flicked toward the hallway.
That was when he ran.
He shoved past the uniformed officer and bolted through the kitchen.
“David!” Bell shouted.
Mom covered my ears.
Vincent didn’t move.
His men did.
By the time David reached the dining room, three bodyguards blocked the front entrance.
He spun around.
Luis blocked the kitchen.
Mark stood beside him.
Then Teresa.
Then the bartender.
David had spent years ordering these people around.
Now none of them moved aside.
“Get out of my way!”
Luis crossed his arms.
“No.”
“You’re fired.”
“I haven’t been paid.”
David tried another direction.
Vincent walked out of the office.
“Looking for somewhere to go?”
David pointed at him.
“You did this.”
Vincent’s face remained calm.
“No.”
He nodded toward me.
“She did.”
Everyone looked at me.
I didn’t like it.
So I hid behind Mom.
Detective Bell entered the dining room.
“David Sterling, turn around.”
“This is insane.”
“Turn around.”
“I know people at City Hall.”
“Wonderful. You can call them after booking.”
Bell pulled out his handcuffs.
David stared at them.
Then at Mom.
And something ugly appeared in his face.
“You ungrateful little—”
Vincent took one step forward.
David stopped.
Bell cuffed him.
For the first time that day, Mom’s shoulders lowered.
Just a little.
But then David laughed.
“You think this fixes anything?”
Mom stared at him.
“You forged the theft.”
David smiled.
“You have no idea what you’ve stepped into.”
Bell pushed him toward the door.
“Save it.”
David twisted around.
“I’m not the one you should be afraid of, Megan.”
Vincent’s expression changed.
“What does that mean?”
David said nothing.
“Who are you afraid of?” Vincent asked.
David smiled again.
Then his eyes shifted toward the large front window.
Vincent followed his gaze.
Across the street, a black SUV was parked at the curb.
Its windows were dark.
Vincent’s bodyguards immediately moved.
“Plate,” one said.
“Obscured.”
The SUV pulled away.
Fast.
Vincent watched it disappear.
Mom hugged me tighter.
“What was that?”
Nobody answered.
Then Elliot’s phone rang.
He listened.
His expression changed.
“Vincent.”
“What?”
“Our accountant found the preliminary payroll numbers.”
“How bad?”
Elliot looked at the employees standing around the restaurant.
“Sterling’s Bistro owes current and former workers at least eighty-six thousand dollars.”
Mom gasped.
Elliot wasn’t finished.
“And someone has been moving much larger amounts through the restaurant.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“How large?”
“Over two million in the past fourteen months.”
The restaurant became silent again.
I tugged Vincent’s sleeve.
He looked down.
“Is two million more than five thousand?”
“Yes.”
“A lot more?”
“A lot.”
I thought about that.
Then I looked at the purple stars on Mom’s paper.
“Did they skip dinner too?”
Vincent stared at me for a long moment.
His face went very still.
“Somebody did.”
Outside, Detective Bell put David into the back of a police car.
Before the door closed, David turned his head toward us.
He smiled.
Not because he was winning.
May you like
Because he believed someone worse was coming.
And for the first time all day, even Vincent Kane looked concerned.
