"We have to get this beyond his office," Paige said.
Brett nodded. "Through the protected reporting line. Not through another manager who'll put it on Grant's desk."
At lunchtime, they submitted separate reports using a channel listed in the employee handbook. Paige attached her correction and the secure incident-reference number. She did not upload the video to herself, email it to strangers, or try to circulate a copy outside the hotel's authorized systems. She only made sure that someone outside the property could find the record before another order could bury it.
Within an hour, Miriam Sloane called Paige directly. She asked her to confirm that the report was voluntary, that she wanted her earlier statement corrected, and that she understood investigators might need to ask uncomfortable questions about why she had signed it. Paige said yes to all three. Miriam did not promise there would be no consequences, but she promised that Paige would not be required to answer through the manager whose conduct was under review.
"I should have stopped him on Tuesday," Paige said, her voice breaking.
"You can still tell the truth about Tuesday," Miriam answered. "That's what we're asking you to do."
Whitley knew something was changing before he knew what it was. He came out of his office and found Paige looking at him without her usual reflexive smile. Brett avoided being alone with him. An unfamiliar call appeared on the duty manager's phone from the central compliance office, and an employee ended the conversation before Whitley approached. He told himself the unease was ordinary nerves before a prestigious visit.
He summoned the department heads to the conference room and walked them through Friday's program. The entrance carpet would be replaced with a red runner normally reserved for weddings, the brass doors polished twice, the lobby flowers arranged in the exact colors of the company's latest promotional materials. All available staff would stand in a line. He wanted no unapproved guests seated in the lobby when the chairwoman arrived.
"What do you mean by unapproved?" Paige asked.
Whitley looked at her as though she had interrupted an obvious instruction. "People who don't have reservations, people waiting for someone else to pay, people taking shelter from the weather. We all know what a hotel entrance is for."
Paige looked toward the window. It was raining again, lightly now, and a delivery driver stood just outside the canopy trying to keep a paper invoice dry. She wondered how many ordinary visitors Grant had treated as problems without ever writing their names down. She wondered how many employees had learned to look away because doing so was the only way to keep their jobs.
After the meeting, Whitley stopped her by the elevators. "I hope we don't have another misunderstanding about an incident report."
"No, sir," she said. "I don't think there'll be any misunderstanding about it again."