Chapter 3
Rocco interviewed employees separately.
Not in the management office.
Not with bodyguards standing behind him.
His attorney warned him that employees who feared the Castellano name would tell him what they thought he wanted to hear.
So an outside human-resources investigator conducted most of the interviews.
Rocco received summaries afterward.
They were ugly.
Dominic had created an unwritten class system inside the club.
Members ate.
Senior family ate.
Management ate.
Vendors waited near service entrances.
Delivery workers were forbidden from taking unused food unless Dominic personally approved it.
Staff who questioned him lost desirable shifts.
One server had been suspended after giving a leftover sandwich to a delivery driver.
Dominic called it “protecting standards.”
Employees called it fear.
Rocco thought about Maeve.
Street trash doesn’t eat inside my club.
That sentence had not come from sudden anger.
It came from a culture Dominic had already built.
The investigation also confirmed something financially important.
Dominic had increased purchases from several vendors shortly before putting their invoices on hold.
Carter Bakery was one.
The florist was another.
The cleaning company had been given an expanded weekend contract three weeks before its first payment delay.
Rocco showed the pattern to Samuel.
“Why increase exposure to vendors you supposedly think are underperforming?”
Samuel shook his head.
“You wouldn’t.”
Unless poor performance had never been the issue.
Then another vendor called.
Her name was Linda Marsh. Her family’s linen company had served the club for eleven years.
She sounded nervous.
“Mr. Castellano, are we actually getting paid?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then Rocco added:
“I’m having the invoices verified independently. If they’re legitimate, you’ll be paid.”
Linda started crying.
Rocco looked at the phone.
“What happened?”
“We almost closed.”
“Because of us?”
“Because of you and two hotels hitting us late at the same time.”
Rocco frowned.
“Did Dominic know that?”
“He knew everything. I begged him.”
“What did he say?”
Linda hesitated.
“He said maybe I needed somebody better at managing cash.”
Then she mentioned something that caught Rocco’s attention.
Three days after Dominic refused her payment request, a private lending company contacted her.
Harbor Bridge Capital.
They offered emergency working capital.
Quick approval.
No long bank process.
Rocco wrote the name down.
“Did you take it?”
“Yes.”
“Terms?”
“Terrible.”
“Why sign?”
“Because payroll was Friday.”
After the call, Samuel searched the other vendor files.
The butcher had also received a Harbor Bridge offer.
So had the cleaning contractor.
Always within days of a club payment hold.
May you like
That was the second clue.
Someone knew exactly when these businesses became desperate enough to borrow.
