“Hey boss, you need to look at this.”Jefferson Mitchell, one of Zee’s employees, passed him an iPad, bringing up the security feed from half an hour ago.
“What’s going on?”Zee took the iPad, wariness in his sore, aching muscles.The Red Hot 1920s had been a success, and members were on their way out of the club.
Zee looked up from the iPad as Miss Helena touched his arm.
“Ella said she’d help me with a dress emergency, so I’ll see you this week.”
“Looking forward to it,” Zee said.
He searched her face to see if there were any signs that Ella had confided in one of her best friends about him being an asshole.But Miss Helena simply blew him a kiss and waved to Jefferson.
Zee played the feed, noticing the timestamp that showed the video was from a couple of hours ago.
A van circles the parking lot once, twice.Idled at the door, drove to the back and then drove away.
Lots of reasons someone might idle and not come into Club Bandit.
Maybe they were invited by a member and changed their minds.Maybe it’s a member’s vehicle, and they got called to work.
Those excuses seemed flimsy, and Zee rubbed his hand through his chin.
It had been a hell of a week.
Ever since the university sent out the press release about his official appointment with the swim team, his inbox had been filled with messages from journalists and podcast hosts.Zee had been touched by his former teammates and competitors reaching out with congratulations.
But there were a few times when he answered his phone and someone had hung up or he had voicemail of silence, and after the first few times, he wondered.
That was paranoia, a throwback to the times when he had to worry about a fan getting too close or showing their affection too aggressively.
He was a nobody now, mostly except for those who remembered or had an interest in sports journalism.
But now with this footage, he would act and call in the experts.
His first job was to keep Ella safe, and Club Bandit secure.If he couldn’t do that for his members, then he didn’t deserve their loyalty or their patronage.“Yeah, that’s interesting.”
“Thought you needed to see it.I’m going to do one last check upstairs.”
“Thanks, Jefferson.”
Zee glanced up at the empty club, spotting members laughing and talking on their way out.
He couldn’t wait to get home to Ella.
Running through his closing list of duties, he made his way to the front desk.
“Hey Sam, looks like everyone has cleared out.Do you have a ride?”
Their perky receptionist grinned at him, shaking her blue hair.
“I’m all set, Zee.I missed Ella tonight.”
“Yeah, me too,” Zee helped her close off the system.
Sam grabbed her coat from the little alcove they used as a boutique, and Zee spent a moment straightening up the hat boxes that had fallen.
“Sorry, everyone wanted some kind of feather hat tonight.The desk was too busy for me to put them back.”
“That’s okay.”Zee picked up a small black flapper hat, setting it down in the box.
