A moment later, the door from the back office swung open and Wendy marched right up to their visitor.

“Ms. Howington?” Wendy’s voice was pitched. “I’m Mr. Campbell’s office manager, Wendy. I know we’ve met before. And we’ve talked on the phone. The thing is, Ms. Howington, Brice won’t be back to the office this afternoon. If you’d called to ask about an appointment I could have saved you all the trouble of coming down here today.”

“I been calling about an appointment and getting nothing but the runaround,” Yvonne said, her own voice rising. “So I come down here today, and I brought Jazmin’s girl with me.”

She touched the child’s shoulder “Stand up, Aliyah.”

The child scrambled to her feet and ducked her head, self-conscious and shy under Wendy’s none-too-friendly gaze.

“I want you to look at this girl, Miss Wendy. You look at her and tell me her mama’s life was only worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

Wendy let out a long, martyred sigh. “Ms. Howington, we’ve been over this before. Brice and I and everybody here at the firm are deeply sorry for your loss. Truly, we are. And as Brice told you himself, he did everything he could to hold the hotel responsible for what happened to Jazmin. He had hoped to be able to prove wrongful death, which would have resulted in a much larger settlement from the hotel’s insurer. But the fact is, because the incident happened while she was on duty, it became a worker’s compensation claim. And worker’s comp claims in Florida are, by law, capped at a hundred and fifty thousand, which was the amount of your settlement, before legal fees.”

Yvonne Howington struggled to her feet. “No, ma’am,” she said, her voice hoarse with anger. “Like I told you and anybody who would listen, Jazmin got off work at eleven o’clock that night. She didn’t never work later than that, because I had to get to work, myself, in the morning.”

“That’s not what her supervisor said,” Wendy replied. “He said she got to work almost one hour late that day, and then begged him to give her an extra shift to make up the time. Our investigator saw her time card, which verifies that account. And we looked at the security videos, which showed Jazmin, in her housekeeping uniform, after her shift should have ended at eleven, entering a room on the first floor with her passkey, then leaving the room around one-thirty.”

“Those hotel people lie like rugs,” Yvonne said. “All of ’em ain’t nothing but a pack of liars. And criminals.” She started to say something further, then stopped.

“Aliyah, there’s a water fountain out there in the hallway. Why don’t you go get a drink, and then go in the bathroom. Can you do that by yourself?”