Page 105 of Bling

Chapter Twenty-Four

Monday morning, Isabelle sat at her desk waiting for Garrett to arrive. Their weekend at Solitaire had been an enjoyable respite from everything going on, but now they were back in the real world and he was at the state prison visiting her sister again. This time, he was armed with at least a little bit more information, and Isabelle hoped that Carmen was more cooperative.

Thankfully, there was plenty to do at the beginning of a new week. Garrett had tasked her with checking in with each of the department heads to make sure they were on track to meet all of the demands he’d made when he arrived at the facility a few weeks ago.

A knock sounded and Jake from sorting and packaging poked his head in. “I’m ready for you, Miss Alvarado,” he said, tipping his dusty ball cap.

She smiled and stood, picking up a clipboard with a checklist on it as she did.

“Let’s get started then,” she said as brightly as she could manage.

At first, she’d expressed concern about her inability to handle the assignment Garrett had given her, but he reminded her that she would have to get used to meeting with and overseeing a variety of department heads if she were going to own a hotel someday. Now she was viewing it as a learning experience, and she was happy to have the work to keep her mind busy.

She started at the top of the checklist, and worked her way down, asking various questions as they made their way downstairs.

“We think we can trim the time it takes to sort an order and pack it if we restructure the storage area based on real-time data from customer orders,” Jake was saying as he led her into the storage facility. “The problem is, there’s just too much space between here and where the boxes actually get packed.”

She made notes as he spoke. “And do you have any suggestions we can take to Mr. Oliver for how to fix that?” she asked.

“If we could reopen that middle section of the storage bay, I think we could rearrange things sufficiently.”

Isabelle had never worked in sorting, she’d only ever done the final packaging and labeling to get a box ready for shipping, so she was unfamiliar with the organization of the inventory storage bays.

“Why was the middle bay closed?” she asked.

Jake shrugged. “To be real honest, ma’am, I don’t know. But about a year and a half or so ago, Mr. Gunn asked me to restructure the bays. Said we weren’t going to have the inventory for it to be necessary anymore, so he shut it down.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And was that odd to you?”

“It was. We started getting less inventory for sure, but it always seemed like we were getting the same amount of trucks dropping things off.”

Isabelle didn’t know what any of that meant, but she wrote it down for Garrett or one of his people to look into. By the time Jake was finished giving her his tour, it was time for her to check in with the shipping manager. She asked him about the drop in inventory and the storage bay, but he seemed to not know anything.

After that, she went to the packing floor and talked to Uncle Henry who had taken over for a supervisor Garrett fired. Today was his first day back since the assault.

“You look good with the clipboard, Izzy,” he said, clapping her on the shoulder.

“Oh hush, Uncle Henry. I’m just helping Mr. Oliver out.”

Her uncle smiled.

“I’m glad you’re warming up to him,” she said, after looking around to make sure nobody could hear her.

“He’s alright. Definitely taking care of us,” he said as he leaned over and picked up a stack of papers.

“These are the reports he asked me for, and I got together with Jake in sorting and I think we’re in agreement on some of the ways he wants to rearrange things.”

She nodded and checked off boxes on her list.

They had already asked Henry if he knew anything about Darren’s activities, but he didn’t, and Isabelle believed him. He was the kind to keep his head down and do his work and not bother anyone.

“I should get back upstairs,” she said, gathering the papers he’d handed her. “I’ll see you at home.”

Upstairs, she organized the checklists and made more notes for Garrett. As she was finishing, he opened the door. She smiled at him as he set a bag of food down on her desk.

“Always trying to feed me,” she said with a grin. “Thank you. How was your visit with Carmen?”

“Less hostile. She’s worried about you and the girls. Still hesitant to say a lot, but when I told her Darren had been arrested, she opened up a little bit.” He perched on the corner of her desk. “How was your morning?”

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