Chapter 9
The Sedgewick replacements created another problem.
Most had done nothing wrong.
Five employees.
Two waiters.
One assistant cook.
A night porter.
A florist coordinator.
Everyone assumed I would remove them because Delphine brought them in.
I didn’t.
That would repeat her mistake in reverse.
I interviewed each.
Not interrogation.
Employment.
Three were excellent.
Stayed.
One wanted to return to the Sedgewick hotel.
Left.
The night porter had been feeding Delphine details about arrivals.
He admitted it.
Why?
She hired him.
He thought she was his real boss.
That was exactly the ambiguity we needed to end.
He left too.
Not punished beyond access.
Precision.
Sabina watched how I handled it.
Later she said:
“I thought you’d fire all of them.”
“Why?”
She gave me a look.
Apparently my reputation.
Fair.
“You don’t punish the whole table for one person spilling wine.”
She smiled faintly.
“Unless it’s expensive wine?”
“Depends.”
That was the first time we joked.
May you like
It mattered less than fiction likes to pretend.
But it mattered.
