I kept saying I didn’t take it. I swear I didn’t.
My eyes had gone by then and I hated that, because crying looks like exactly one thing when somebody has already decided.
She threatened the police. Then she threatened the hotel, which was more effective.
She has close to a million followers. She said one video from her and they would be dealing with it for a year.
That frightened Jocelyn more than anything I said. I watched it frighten her.
And before any of the rest of it, in the middle of that lobby, with about twenty people standing there — guests checking in, two of my colleagues, a man with a suitcase who never once took his hand off the handle — she got hold of my wrist.
She said it loud enough for every single one of them:
That’s her. She was the only one in my room.
Nobody moved. Somebody put a coffee cup down on the desk.
She did not let go. She leaned in and said:
Empty her pockets. Well?
Marlon was at the back of that lobby by the staff door with his hand on the handle. He has told me since that he was eleven seconds from coming over, and that he did not, and that he has thought about those eleven seconds a great deal.
So instead of waiting for an investigation, the hotel took the easy option.
They let me go. That afternoon, in an office, in about four minutes, with a form.
Almost a year of turning up early. Almost a year of doing it properly.
They paid me for the days I had worked. After deductions it would not have covered half the rent.
I went home, and the second I opened the door both girls ran at me, and I held on to them in the hallway for longer than they wanted.
And then that night, when they were asleep, I sat in the kitchen and cried.
Not because a stranger thought I was dishonest.
Because I had no idea what came next. Nursery. Shopping. And what happens when the next employer rings the last one.
Just after seven the next morning, my phone rang.
Marlon. Hotel security. Forty-four, ex-army, one of about two people in that building I actually trusted.
He said: Imani, you need to come back.
I said: Marlon, they sacked me yesterday.
He said: I know.
I said: then what?
And he said: I went through the footage again last night. On my own. There’s something we all missed.
Then he said:
You’re not going to believe what that woman left behind for you.
