Page 114 of Love Is Brewing

“Your best bet is to talk to him,” she said. “Let him try to explain why his card was swiped. Maybe ask what he was doing back there before you say what happened.”

“I’ll do that,” he said. “I was going to talk to HR first to have his paperwork done.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she said. “Just send him home on administrative paid leave while you investigate and then make a decision. If he admits it, you can terminate him right there and have HR come in at that moment or security escort him out. I know I don’t need to tell you these things. But if he’s trying to make trouble for you now, there could be more if you don’t follow things properly.”

“I didn’t know your voice got lighter, Braylon.”

She laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment. I like your brother a lot.”

“He likes you too,” he said.

He hung up with Phoebe and tried to gather his thoughts, then sent a text to Skip and asked if he could come in.

He didn’t give him a lot of time to find out what was going on and if Skip took it as he was being asked to work an extra shift, he didn’t bother to explain further.

“Is everything okay?” Skip asked when he knocked on Elias’s door at ten. “I came in to work and they told me to come see you first.”

“Have a seat,” he said. He shut the door for privacy. He probably should have a witness, but there was part of him that wanted to hear what Skip had to say.

“Okay,” Skip said. “Am I being fired or something?”

He wasn’t going to answer that.

“Is there a reason you were in the maintenance rooms by the water gauges yesterday?”

“What?” Skip asked. He truly looked confused. “I wasn’t. Why would you say that? Did someone say they saw me there?”

There didn’t seem to be an act here. Skip was one of those good old boys who loved his mama more than anything else in the world. The dude wouldn’t even kill a bug but rather trapped it to let it out.

How the hell could the guy be the one to do this?

“No,” he said. “Your key card was swiped there at four yesterday.”

Skip’s face flushed. It was almost an admission of guilt and his heart sank at what a poor judge of character he was.

“I couldn’t find my card yesterday,” he said. “I had it when I came in. That’s how I got in the building and all. But when I went to leave at five, I realized I didn’t have it on me. You can ask Marc and Scott. They were helping me look for it. I finally went back to my locker and it was there. I’m not sure why or how it got there.”

“You’re supposed to have it on you at all times,” he said. “That is a fireable offense right there.”

“I know,” Skip said nervously. “And I’m sorry. That’s why I didn’t say anything. But I came back from lunch with a bunch of the guys and someone just swiped their card first and held the door open or I would have realized I didn’t have it then. I’m not even sure when I didn’t have it.”

All he could hear in his head was Phoebe saying that Skip wasn’t on camera.

“Can others vouch for your whereabouts at the time the card was used?”

“Yes,” Skip said quickly. “I was on the floor the whole time until it was time to leave. Lots of people could.”

“We’re going to look into it,” he said. “But I need you to hand me your card right now while we do and you’ll have to be on leave.”

“Did something happen?” Skip asked. He pulled his key off the chain he kept it clipped to. It made him think anyone could easily undo it when Skip wasn’t paying attention as it hung off his waist.

“Nothing I can talk about,” he said. He was keeping it as quiet as possible for now. “I’d like no one to know what is going on.You’re not scheduled to work until Wednesday and should be fine by then.”

“I hope so,” Skip said, his eyes glassy. “I need my job. I didn’t do anything. I swear I didn’t.”

He believed the guy but couldn’t say that.

“I’ll walk out with you,” he said. “We’ll just play it off as we are talking. Got it?”

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