She was on the bench outside, cup in her hands, staring at it. He sat beside her.
"Are you okay?"
She looked at him, eyes tired, not from one bad experience, but from a lifetime of them.
"I just wanted a cup of coffee in a nice place. That's all." Harold's chest tightened.
"You deserve that."
Patricia almost smiled, didn't get there. She threw the cup away and walked off.
Harold sat on that bench a long time, then texted Ray. "It's worse than I thought." "One more day, then legal, HR, and the conference room. Friday morning. Every employee present."
Ray replied in 4 seconds.
"What are you going to do?"
"My job."
Day five. Thursday, before dawn.
Harold arrived at the flagship at 4:30 a.m. The store didn't open until 5:30.
He had 1 hour alone with the back office. He used his corporate login, masked through the IT system as a routine audit check. Ray had set it up the night before. No fingerprints, no alerts, just access.
He sat in the cramped manager's office, a windowless room behind the break room, barely big enough for a desk, a filing cabinet, and a printer that looked like it hadn't been serviced since the store opened.
The chair squeaked when he sat down. The desk smelled like old coffee and dust.
He started with the tip distribution records, 12 months.
Every weekly payout logged digitally through the POS system.
Harold pulled the numbers into a spreadsheet on his phone and ran the math.
Tiffany and Jenna's combined weekly tips averaged $410.
Across all 40 Iron Brew locations, the average two-person front of house tip split was $95.
Four times higher. Not twice. Not a little more. Four times.
Emma Sullivan's tip share had decreased every month for nine consecutive months. From $62 per week down to $11.
The same period Tiffany had been on staff.
Harold screenshotted every page. Next, Ron Hadley's quarterly innovation reports. Harold pulled them from the regional shared drive. Four regional menu initiatives submitted over the past 14 months.
Each one credited to Ron as the originator.
Autumn Maple Cortado, submitted October last year. Summer Berry Cold Brew, submitted June.
Holiday Spice Latte, submitted December. Banana Pecan Bread, submitted March this year.