New Story - written exclusively on Steemit - WiP - Bouncer Part 48

This is turning out to be quite a tale (I know, my opinion...) and I think it'll make a novel-sized story.

I'm listening to the feedback and if something resonates, I've decided that I'll go with it (thanks @kiwideb).

Feel free to give feedback on characters, storylines etc - even if you think it's harsh.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, part 27, Part 28, Part 29, Part 30 Part 31 Part 32 Part 34 Part 35 Part 36 Part 37 Part 38 Part 39 Part 40 Part 41 Part 42 Part 43 Part 44 Part 45 Part 46 Part 47

Pictures from Google free to use search

Please note: This is the FIRST DRAFT, no editing, written straight onto paper. I don't know how to highlight that any more than it is. I'll NOT be making any alterations to what's already been written. As a good friend and excellent author has said, First draft is a race to get the story down before it decides to stop telling itself to you. Thanks Glenn. @alienbutt

101 pages, 41,637 words so far.

What do you think of this for a cover?

---

Liz cocked her head in a quizzical manner. “What do you know about this?” she said.

“Claire is Mikhail’s niece. His wife’s brother’s daughter. It looks like she was planted here for some reason and now she got herself sacked, he wants her back in,” Zack said.

“If she was supposed to be here under-cover, getting the sack will have scuppered their plans to find out how the club is doing,” Taylor said.

“Yes, I agree,” Anthony said. “But now we know she’s a thief, even if she was re-hired, she’d be under constant scrutiny and therefore, no good as a spy.”

“So that means there’s someone else here that we have to find and sack,” Liz said.

“Or at least find and keep an eye on,” Zack said. “I think we should re-hire her.”

“You what?” Taylor said.

From the expressions on Liz and Anthony’s faces, Zack assumed they had the same misgivings.

“Think about it,” Zack said, holding his hands up in a surrender position to stop an onslaught of difficult questions. “Claire comes back, she’s smug that she thinks we’ve been told what to do and she thinks she’s bullet-proof and gets sloppy. She makes contact with the one we don’t know about and we sack them both. In the meantime, we lock-down all aspects of the business, giving access to important information to people we trust. That means keeping the office door locked at all times.”

“Oh, that would explain something,” Anthony said.

“What’s happened?” Liz asked.

“I misplaced my office key. I don’t keep it on the same keyring as the rest of my keys, and I just knew I’d put it on my desk,” Anthony said. “I went out of the office and it wasn’t there when I came back. I hunted high and low for that key. A few hours later, there it was, on the floor under my chair. I knew I’d looked there before but I was so relieved to find it…”

“It could have been copied,” Taylor said.

“More than likely,” Liz said, closing her eyes and putting her fingers to her brow.

“I’m so sorry,” Anthony said.

“Never apologise,” Zack and Taylor said in unison.

They looked at each other and laughed. Liz and Anthony looked at the brothers, puzzled.

“It was something our dad used to say. ‘Never apologise, but make sure you learn from it and move on’,” Taylor said.

Anthony nodded but remained silent. He paused then moved Liz away from the desk. He turned on the CCTV monitors and looked through files on the hard drive. He clicked a folder marked ‘Reception’ and opened a file named ‘under stairs’.

“We have no need to have that thief back, I can find out who took the key,” he said in a confident and triumphant tone.

He clicked the file he’d searched for and moved the mouse across the bar at the bottom of the image. The images moved rapidly forward, giving a preview of the recording. Anthony watched the numbers moving and stopped the preview.

The four people in the small office crowded around the monitor to watch the action.

Anthony left the office and a few moments later, someone came in, took the key and slipped out of the office. Anthony paused the recording.

“Danny? What the hell?” Zack said.

Liz sighed. “Perfect. I have to find another bar manager now!” she said.

“What about Deb?” Taylor said.

“Deb? On the VIP bar?” Liz said.

“Yeah, she’s honest, reliable, clever and trustworthy,” Taylor said. “I think Zack would vouch for her.”

“Of course I would, but I don’t know what experience she has,” he said. “I know she’s worked on a number of bars at different clubs, but whether she has managerial experience is anyone’s guess.”

“Not anyone’s guess at all. I have her CV here,” Anthony said, going through a filing cabinet.

Reading from the pages he held, Anthony hummed and hawed a little then condensed the information.

“She managed a bar and grill on a day-to-day basis, provided banquet services for private parties. Ooh that’s a good skill, we could hire out the top floor for corporate events once the restaurant kitchen is up and running,” Anthony said. “She hired and trained new employees, maintained and updated inventory and she has qualifications from the Academy of Food and Wine service as well as the British Institute of Innkeeping.”

Anthony looked up from the pages. “Why did we not employ her in the first place? She seems too good to be true.”

He passed the CV to Liz and she read for herself, nodding the right places. “I’ll have to ask if she wants the job, even if it’s only on a temporary contract. I seem to think she had other commitments that prevented full-time work,” Liz said.

“We still need another couple of bar staff to replace her and Claire then,” Anthony said, taking the CV and putting it back in the filing cabinet. “It’s a good thing the licence is in your name, Liz. If it had been in Danny’s name, we’d be scuppered.”

“You know how Viktor works, he’d have put the licence in Danny’s name once he proved himself. This has happened too many times before,” Liz said.