Chapter 3
Daniel brought the six reports at eight the next morning.
Jordan was still asleep, so I asked the hotel’s family services attendant, whom I had met the night before, to sit in the adjoining lounge where he could see her when he woke. I stayed in the suite’s sitting room with the door open.
The reports were short. One guest had been asked whether he could afford the deposit. Another had been told a conference was probably at the hotel across the street. Two families had waited while staff checked reservations that were already in the system.
Claire appeared in four accounts. Other employees appeared in two.
I set the papers down.
“What does ‘guest confusion’ mean?”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“It’s the category our customer relations team used. It should never have been the final explanation without a review.”
“Who closed them?”
“Most were routed to my deputy, Graham Ellis.”
“Related to Mrs. Ellis?”
“No. Different family.”
I looked through the notes. Three guests had never been called back. One had received a dining credit. None had received a clear explanation of what the hotel found.
“Did you know these were here?”
“I saw the monthly totals. I didn’t open the individual files.”
I remembered Dad telling me that a neat chart could hide a messy room.
“Let’s speak to the people who were there,” I said.
Daniel arranged interviews with the concierge, the front desk supervisor, and a housekeeper who had submitted a report about one incident. I made it clear no employee would be penalized for speaking honestly.
The concierge’s name was Malik. He was the one who had helped Mrs. Ellis upstairs.
“She told Claire her daughter’s name and room number,” he said. “I offered to call. Claire said I should wait until she checked whether the daughter was really a guest.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you challenge her?”
“I asked again. She told me she was handling it.”
He looked down.
“I could’ve called anyway.”
I understood the pressure of disagreeing with a manager in a crowded lobby.
“Thank you for telling me what happened.”
The housekeeper, Ms. Benton, described helping a family find the right elevator after they had been questioned at the desk. Their reservation was valid. She had filed a note because the mother was crying.
“I asked if anyone followed up,” Ms. Benton said. “My supervisor told me guest services had closed it.”
She had been with the hotel for nineteen years. I asked what had changed.
“People hurry more,” she said. “Some still do wonderful work. But when someone makes a mistake, they want to smooth it over before anyone learns why.”
Her words stayed with me.
At noon, Jordan woke from a nap and asked if we could explore. I took him to the indoor garden near the lobby. Malik greeted us and showed him a fountain shaped like a small stone river.
Jordan reached toward the water, then looked at me.
“You can touch it,” I said.
He dipped two fingers in and laughed.
Claire entered through a side door. She was carrying a cardboard box of belongings from the staff office. When she saw us, she stopped.
Jordan stepped behind me.
Claire noticed. For the first time, her face showed something other than irritation or shock.
“Ms. Brooks,” she said. “May I speak to you?”
“Jordan is with me.”
“I know. I owe both of you an apology.”
I waited.
“What I said yesterday was wrong,” she told him. “You and your mother had a reservation. I should have welcomed you.”
Jordan held on to my coat.
“Why didn’t you?” he asked.
Claire’s eyes filled. She looked at me, but I did not answer for her.
“I judged you without checking,” she said. “That was unfair.”
Jordan said nothing. He was six; he did not owe her comfort.
“Thank you for saying it plainly,” I told her. “The review is still underway.”
“I understand.”
She walked on.
Jordan watched her go.
“Is she in trouble?”
“She’s being asked to answer for what she did. The hotel has to decide what happens next.”
“Do I have to talk to her again?”
“No.”
He let go of my coat and returned to the fountain.
Later, Daniel told me Claire had given a statement to human resources. She said she had followed an informal practice of challenging people who “looked out of place” in the lobby. She claimed Graham had encouraged it when the hotel hosted expensive events.
I asked Daniel whether Graham had documented such a policy.
“He says he didn’t.”
“Then we need to speak to him and check the training records.”
May you like
Daniel nodded.
I looked toward the garden where Jordan was counting the stones beside the fountain. The problem was already larger than one employee’s words. I needed to know who had allowed those words to become routine.
