Chapter 5 - THE DEBT THAT KEPT JAMAL SILENT.
Police found Jamal alive in a nearby extended-stay property, frightened but physically safe. Brooke had not imprisoned him. She had trapped him with debt.
She forced him to sign a private loan for attorney fees the hotel never paid. Every missed installment increased the balance and threatened his family’s staff housing.
“You made poverty look like consent,” Rose said.
Brooke blamed the hotel’s legal contractor.
The contractor’s invoices carried Elena’s approval.
Elena remembered signing a bundle labeled workforce stabilization.
“I believed it funded immigration counsel.”
Jamal answered, “It funded letters telling us to stay silent.”
Elena placed her compensation and board dividends under restitution review.
Daniel found that Brooke’s scheme relied on payroll data supplied by Chief Financial Officer Peter Sloan.
Peter had worked with Rose since the hotel opened.
When called, he denied involvement.
Then Rose examined the wet bill on the tray.
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A tiny blue stamp on its edge matched the accounting office’s evidence-marking system.
The money Brooke threw had come from an internal sting operation Rose never authorized.
