“Why would I need to go into his room?” Brendan asked, eyes darting nervously between Marc and me.
I sighed. “Right, skipping the hemming and hawing, remember? Have you or have you not been accessing Rowan’s room to get your hands on his pills to give to Mitchell?”
“Why would I do that?” he asked. I never understood the desire to stall for time when someone was already caught, maybe not in the act, but I knew what I’d seen in the logs. The computer system was my baby, and I had toiled over it repeatedly to make sure it was easy to use and helpful for anyone who wanted to access it. The system tracked who went into rooms that required a pass to access, and while guest access was limited, Guides could easily go into another dormitory room, sending no alert to the system. It logged access, though, and a quick scan of Rowan’s room’s logs told me Brendan only accessed Rowan’s room when it was empty.
“Look,” I said, crossing my arms. “I’m not going to pretend that you’re not in deep shit for what’s gone on. I also won’t pretend that pretending this isn’t at the very least suspicious, if not outright indicative of your part in this debacle, won’t end up with you in even worse trouble.”
“What, like the cops?” Brendan asked sullenly. “Rowan would be in the shit too, since they’re his pills.”
Marc cleared his throat. “His prescribed medication would get him in trouble?”
It was a lie, but I noticed the surprise that flashed over Brendan’s face, and the way he looked at me and immediatelyshut his mouth before he said anything else. I snorted. “You almost protested that, didn’t you? Why?”
“I wasn’t,” he said stiffly, looking between us. “But last I checked, guests aren’t supposed to have that sorta thing in their rooms.”
“I’m going to put this plainly,” I said with a shake of my head. “While I haven’t poured over everything, I’m going to guess that every single time your pass was used to access Rowan’s room, he and Luka were absent. And I’ll bet you were using your pass at other places in most of those cases, and in places you normally would.”
“My pass has gone missing before,” he said with a frown. “I’ve reported that.”
“Not in the past month,” I said, raising a brow. “So, either you’ve been losing your pass repeatedly in the past four weeks without mentioning it, which is not a great look for you, or you’re continuing to lie despite the evidence hanging over you like a neon, guilty sign.”
“We will comb over everything,” Marc said firmly, his voice steady but not harsh. “The more evidence that mounts up, the worse it could be. How we handle Rowan is not part of this discussion, but if we have to involve the authorities, we will.”
“Mitchell is higher than a kite right now,” I said with a growl. “So, he’s doubling down on not giving away who’s been giving him the meds, but when that high goes away, and he remembers he’s supposed to be sober? Do you think his guilt won’t lead him to tell us who our problem is?”
Brendan stared at me. “What, like if he goes into withdrawal? That’s cruel.”
“I don’t want to hear about cruelty. Helping someone fall off the wagon when they want to be sober is far crueler than what you’re accusing me of,” I said, shaking my head. “And clearly you don’t remember what Mitchell is like; he has been fightinglikehellto keep his sobriety for the sake of his little girl. And when his head isn’t clouded by drugs, that is his sole mission. So yes, right now he’s resolute, but that resolution will fall apart the minute he sobers up and realizes what’s happened. See, I know this because I’ve spoken to him, gotten to know him, and not just so I can throw pills his way. Maybe you should have tried it, then perhaps you wouldn’t have done this.”
“You can’t prove shit,” Brendan said, jutting his chin out stubbornly.
“We’ll see about that, won’t we?” I asked, looking at Marc.
Marc cleared his throat and nodded. “You’ll remain in your room while we sort through everything. If we’re wrong, then you’ll have our full apology, and I’m sure we can come up with some sort of compensation. If, however, we determine it was you, then we will bring the authorities in. I’ll give you a few hours to think about it.”
“So, tell you I did it and get fired, or don’t tell you and I get fired and arrested?” he asked.
“I’m sure being arrested will do wonders for your future job prospects. Oh, and if you leave, we’ll skip everything and let the cops handle things. Message me if you feel like talking with genuine honesty,” I told him as I stepped out of the room, knowing Marc’s farewell was a better ending than anything I could come up with.
Marc followed me out, and I tapped the pad. The room was put into administrative privacy mode so no one could get in. If he tried to exit, I would be informed and, well, my first call would be to the police. It wasn’t as if he could get far even if he got out of the resort. We were miles from town, and most of our employees, Brendan included, lived here full-time or used arranged transportation to get to and from the resort between seasons.
“I will never understand the point of trying to double down when the evidence is mounting up so high you’re lost in its shadow,” I muttered as we continued walking. A few early risers were around, giving us curious looks. It wasn’t as if any of them had heard the conversation we’d had with Brendan. The private rooms were all built so you could have a concert in them without disturbing your next-door neighbors. Some called that a safety risk considering we brought in men who were, at times, troubled, but it had been important to me that everyone who stayed here felt they had one place in the building that was solely their own, a refuge where they could do as they pleased.
“Some people can’t accept reality…though I think in this case, we caught him with his pants down and no ready defense,” he said and then snorted. “Literally.”
“That was the point,” I said with a shrug as we made our way back to the elevator. “I’ll be honest, I was not ready for this to be on my list for the day.”
“Nor was I,” he chuckled as he hit the button. “I suppose we should have expected something would break the peace we’ve managed up to this point.”
I sighed, leaning back against the wall of the elevator. “I would joke that this place is never really peaceful, that comes with running a resort full of men who aren’t doing their best in life, but it wouldn’t be very funny.”
“Strange,” Marc said as the car came to a stop and the doors slid open. “You’ve shown no awareness of how unfunny your jokes are before; this must have been a blow.”
“I’m the funniest person you know,” I told him with a snort.
“Considering I deal with lawyers, politicians, police, and CEOs, it wouldn’t exactly be a feat worthy of mention to be funnier than them,” he said with a shake of his head, staring at the door where we had left Rowan and Luka to talk things through. “Think they’re doing alright?”
“I imagine that will depend on how pissed off Luka is with him for lying to him for the past few months,” I said with a sigh. “Don’t even know what I’m going to do about Luka though.”
