Chapter 2The Phantom Payroll Murder Plot

The 4:00 AM wind cut across my face like shattered glass.

When I pulled into the factory parking lot, a makeshift ring of yellow caution tape had already been hastily strung up around the loading dock doors. A few guys from the graveyard shift were huddled by the dumpsters, smoking furiously and whispering.

I didn't dare look toward the processing floor. I made a beeline for the metal stairs leading up to Gary's second-floor office.

I pushed the door open to a suffocating cloud of cigar smoke. Gary was pacing like a caged animal. When he saw me, he hurled his half-smoked cigar onto the linoleum at my feet.

"Did you walk here? Took you long enough!"

Sitting on the faux-leather sofa was my arch-nemesis: Monica, the Operations Manager. Monica had made it her life's mission to micromanage me out of a job, and right now, her eyes were locked onto me with predatory calculation.

"Well, Harper, considering you're the one who hired the guy, HR is definitely going to take the heat for this disaster," Monica drawled, her voice dripping with venom.

I ignored her, forcing myself to look Gary in his bloodshot eyes. "Gary, what's the status? Have the police been called?"

"Are you out of your mind?!" Gary slammed his fists onto his desk. "OSHA is scheduled for a surprise inspection next week! We have a fatality on the floor, Harper! If the feds get wind of this, they'll shut down production, hit me with criminal negligence, and bankrupt me by Friday!"

I swallowed hard, the dryness in my throat making it hurt. "So... what are you saying?"

"We settle. Off the books." He spat the words out through gritted teeth.

He marched around the desk, stopping inches from my face.

"You hired him. You have his file. Pull his emergency contact, right now! Call his family. Get them down here before the morning shift arrives. I don't care what it costs—they sign a non-disclosure, they take the payout, and we get that body bag to a crematorium today!"

Hearing the words emergency contact made the blood freeze in my veins.

Because on John Miller’s intake form, the emergency contact number I’d listed... was my own burner phone.

"What are you standing there for? Move!" Gary barked.

Monica stood up, a sickly sweet smile playing on her lips. "Yeah, Harper, chop-chop. I mean, you personally handled his onboarding. Funny, he’s been here three years and I don't think I've ever put a face to the name. You must know him pretty well, right?"

Her words were a scalpel, finding my exact weak point. She was already suspicious. John Miller never swiped a badge; I manually entered his hours every pay period.

I took a shaky breath, fighting to keep my voice steady. "Right. I'll pull the file."

I turned and walked out. The second the heavy office door clicked shut behind me, I slumped against the wall, my legs turning to jelly.

What do I do?

If I pretend the emergency number is disconnected, Gary will panic and call the cops to trace the next of kin. Once the police run John Miller’s fingerprints or run his fake SSN, they’ll realize the dead man isn't John Miller. Then they’ll look at the payroll, and I’m done.

But if I answer the burner phone... who the hell plays the grieving widow?

In that fraction of a second, a thought so deranged, so reckless, sparked in the darkest corner of my mind.

Gary was desperate to bury this. I don't care what it costs, he’d said.

For an unreported, gruesome workplace death? The hush money would have to be staggering. At least half a million dollars to keep a family from going to the press.

If the guy in the machine is a John Doe...

And John Miller is my fictional creation...

Why couldn't I hire someone to play the widow and walk away with the half-million-dollar payout?

The identity of the dead man would be erased forever. Gary gets his dirty secret buried. And I... I get the money to save Mia’s life. In cash. Immediately.

My heart began to hammer against my ribs, a violent, deafening rhythm.

It was a suicide mission. If I win, my daughter lives, and I walk away clean. If I lose, I lose everything.