Why Scott Ran
Chapter 05 - Why Scott Ran
Patricia Nguyen, director of the downtown shelter Walter had mentioned, agreed to meet Daniel the following morning, her expression carefully guarded until he explained the full situation, Eli's family, the watch, the desperate circumstances that had apparently driven Scott Bennett to sell the one possession he'd sworn to protect.
"I remember him," Patricia said slowly, once Daniel finished. "Scott. He stayed with us for almost three months, last winter. Quiet man, carried himself like someone deeply ashamed of needing help at all."
"Do you know where he is now," Daniel asked, urgency plain in his voice.
"He left us in the spring," Patricia said. "Found seasonal work at a warehouse outside the city, moved into a shared rental with two other men from the shelter. I have an old address, though I can't guarantee it's still current."
"I need to understand what happened to him," Daniel said. "Before all this. His wife mentioned he'd lost his job under circumstances he never fully explained."
Patricia's expression shifted, something careful and knowing crossing her face. "He talked about that, some nights, when the shame got heavy enough that he needed to say it out loud to someone who wouldn't judge him for it."
"What did he say," Daniel asked.
"He said he was accused of stealing from the hotel where he worked," Patricia said. "A considerable sum, missing from a guest's room safe during an audit. He swore he never touched it, said someone set him up, though he never fully explained who or why. He said nobody believed him, that the accusation alone was enough to end his career in an industry built entirely on trust and reputation."
Daniel felt his stomach turn, the specific, sickening possibility building steadily that his own company's oversight, following the Ashford Regency's acquisition, might have played some direct role in destroying an innocent man's life.
"I need the address you have," Daniel said. "And I need to understand exactly what happened at that hotel, the specific timeline of his termination."
Patricia provided the address, along with what additional details she remembered, and Daniel left the shelter with a considerable weight settling over him, the specific, growing certainty that finding Scott Bennett was going to require considerably more than simply tracking down his current address.
It was going to require uncovering exactly what had happened inside his own hotel company, over a year ago, to destroy an innocent employee's entire life so completely that disappearing seemed like the only remaining option.
May you like
He called his head of human resources that same afternoon, requesting the complete personnel file for Scott Bennett, along with every document related to the theft investigation that had apparently ended his career.
"I want everything," Daniel said. "Every interview, every piece of evidence, every name involved in that decision. I have reason to believe we made a serious mistake, and I intend to understand exactly how it happened."
