Chapter 16: Work Tensions

I’ve been tracking the register for weeks. But I’m not the only one who’s been watching.

Here’s the thing about secrets: they want to be kept. They press against your lips, your teeth, your tongue, begging you to hold them in. And the longer you hold them, the heavier they become.

I’ve been holding Silas’s secret for weeks now. The notebook is full. The envelope of cash is thick. The photographs are organized by date, time, and amount.

But I haven’t told anyone.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I told Willow. I told River. I told the notebook, page after page, night after night.

I haven’t told Marlene. I haven’t told Piper. I haven’t told the one person who could actually do something about it.

And now, Piper is pulling me aside after a shift, and I can tell by the look on her face that she knows.

The Office

The restaurant is closed. The doors are locked. The fryers are off. Gus is in the back, scrubbing the grill. Hazel is mopping the floor. I don’t know where Silas is. Probably already gone. He’s been leaving early lately, slipping out before the final count.

Piper gestures to the office. “We need to talk.”

I follow her in. The office is small, just a desk, a filing cabinet, and a chair. I’ve been here before. With Silas. When he confessed.

Piper closes the door. She doesn’t sit. She leans against the desk, her arms crossed, her expression unreadable.

“You’ve been tracking the register,” she says.

It’s not a question.

I don’t deny it. “Yes.”

“The shortages. The pattern. The connection to Silas’s shifts.”

“Yes.”

She nods slowly. “I’ve seen it too.”

I stare at her. “You have?”

“I’m the shift lead, Kate. I close the register four nights a week. I’ve known something was wrong for months. Maybe longer.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

Piper is quiet for a moment. She looks at the floor, at the wall, at the filing cabinet, anywhere but at me.

“Because I was scared,” she says. “Because Silas has been here for eight years. Because Marlene trusts him. Because if I accused him and I was wrong, I’d lose my job.”

“Even though you knew you weren’t wrong?”

“Even then.”

The words hang in the air between us.

I think about all the nights I counted the register, all the times I wrote down the shortages, all the photographs I took when no one was looking. I thought I was the only one. I thought I was alone in this.

But Piper knew. Piper was watching too. And she didn’t do anything.

“Why are you telling me this now?” I ask.

“Because you’re not going to let it go. I can see it in your face. You’re going to do something, whether I help you or not. And I don’t want to be on the wrong side of whatever happens next.”