Chapter Five: The Creditor in Uniform

“Incomplete claims will be disputed,” Su said. “Disputed creditors cannot vote.” Lin studied the reservation chart. Servers might forget their hours, but they had to remember assigned tables, opening times, and turnovers. The restaurant's sales records were another time clock. They reconstructed two years overnight. Reservation messages proved arrival times. Kitchen tickets defined work windows. Server IDs on card receipts linked tables to staff. Ride records showed late departures. Maria's recording captured Cheng ordering overtime shifted into later weeks. Ajay had saved more than two hundred signed checks on which Cheng had crossed out service charges.