Leon looked down at his notes. "Mistakes aren't always exactly double."
"No. And they aren't usually entered at the same point in the service sequence, either. The overrides are keyed just before the check is presented. In several cases, the charge was reversed only after a guest questioned it. In others, the guests paid and left."
"How much?"
"The excess charges we can confirm total more than nine hundred dollars. That doesn't include any cash tips or any transactions that may have been handled outside the register. The number could be higher."
Leon leaned back. "Darren calls it margin protection."
"It's not margin protection. It's deceptive billing."
"And Ellis?"
June was silent for a moment. "His manager account was used to approve the opening of the override feature, but the actual charges were Darren's. We need to ask him what he knew."
Leon closed the notebook. Ellis Grant had run Ninth for seventeen years. He had been with the group almost as long as Leon, and in three weeks he was due to retire. Ellis had earned the right to be trusted. He had also earned enough responsibility that trust could not absolve him of what happened under his roof.
"Call Ellis," Leon said. "Tell him to be at Ninth at eight tomorrow morning. Bring Darren. Don't tell Darren why."
"You're going to confront them before we finish the audit?"
"I'm going to ask them to explain thirty-one identical decisions. The audit can keep running while they talk."
"And the server?"
"Rosalind Petrakis. Call her at nine."
June was quiet again. "You're offering her a job?"
"I'm offering her a conversation. The job comes after we know what she wants and what she's ready to do."
"Forty years ago," June said softly, "I could have been her."
Leon looked toward the dark window. "So could I. Today, I just watched."
"Then tomorrow we stop watching."
At 7:42 the next morning, Darren Pike arrived at Ninth wearing a charcoal suit and carrying a leather folder. He had been expecting a quiet meeting with Ellis to finalize his transition into the general manager's office. For three weeks, he had been speaking as if the promotion were already a fact. He had told suppliers to route questions through him. He had begun rearranging the staff schedule. He had even asked the assistant manager to clear a drawer in the office Ellis would soon vacate.
He found Ellis waiting in the small conference room behind the host station. The older manager looked as if he had not slept well. His hair was neatly combed, but he had forgotten to button one cuff. Beside him sat a woman Darren did not recognize, dressed in a dark suit with a slim folder open in front of her.
"Big meeting," Darren said, hanging his jacket on the back of a chair. "Am I getting the keys early?"
Ellis did not smile. "I don't know what this is, Darren. You'll both know in a minute."
The woman introduced herself. "June Haverty. Legal and compliance."
Darren's expression tightened. He had seen June at regional meetings, but she rarely visited individual restaurants unless there was a contract dispute or a serious compliance issue.
"Good morning," he said. "Is there a problem?"
"We'll get to that," June replied. "Please sit down."
The door opened again. Leon walked in wearing the same faded jacket and the same brown boots. Darren stared at him, then looked at Ellis as if expecting an explanation.
"You?" he said. "What are you doing here?"