Chapter 7 - ROOM 1107
Red lights flashed across the ballroom.
Guests surged toward the exits.
Victor shouted instructions.
Martin disappeared into the crowd.
“Find him,” Ethan told security.
Then he grabbed Lupita’s arm.
“Is 1107 protected from the main alarm system?”
“I don’t know.”
Smoke did not appear.
No smell.
No heat.
Adrian checked the hotel control panel remotely.
“Alarm was manually triggered from an executive console.”
“Victor?”
“Could be.”
“Fire?”
“Nothing detected yet.”
A distraction.
Ethan knew it instantly.
Martin was going upstairs.
The elevators had automatically shut down.
Ethan, Lupita, Adrian, and two security officers took the service stairs.
Nine floors.
Ten.
By the time they reached eleven, Ethan’s chest burned.
He pushed through the stairwell door.
The hallway was dark.
Unlike the renovated guest floors, this corridor still carried older carpet and brass fixtures.
At the far end, where Ethan remembered a decorative wall, Lupita pressed her hand against a panel.
It opened.
A short hidden corridor appeared.
“Sarah found this during the renovation,” Lupita said.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“I thought you knew.”
He didn’t.
That sentence was becoming the story of his marriage after death.
At the end of the corridor stood a door.
1107.
No electronic lock.
An old brass keyhole.
Lupita removed a key from beneath her name badge.
“You’ve carried that for three years?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Mrs. Vance asked me to.”
Ethan stared at her.
Sarah had trusted a housekeeper with something she had not trusted executives to know existed.
And Lupita had protected it for three years while being denied $8,000 from a fund Sarah created to help her.
Ethan would remember that for the rest of his life.
Lupita unlocked the door.
The room beyond was not a guest suite.
It was an office.
Small.
Windowless.
Shelves filled with binders.
A desk.
An old laptop.
A safe built into the wall.
Photographs covered one corkboard.
Staff.
Guests.
Invoices.
Copies of complaints.
Sarah had created her own investigation.
Ethan stepped inside slowly.
On the desk sat a framed photograph of Lily as a toddler.
Beside it, Ethan and Sarah on the hotel roof during opening week.
His throat tightened.
Adrian began photographing everything.
“Don’t touch documents until we log them.”
Lupita pointed toward the safe.
“I don’t know the combination.”
Ethan did.
Or thought he might.
Sarah used the same six numbers for things she wanted Ethan to understand.
Lily’s birthday.
He entered them.
The safe opened.
Inside were three black binders.
Two encrypted drives.
And a sealed envelope.
ETHAN.
He reached for it.
A sound came from the hidden corridor.
Footsteps.
Security turned.
Victor appeared in the doorway.
Alone.
Out of breath.
Ethan stared at him.
“Where’s Martin?”
Victor shut the door behind him.
“You have no idea what you’re opening.”
“Apparently Sarah did.”
Victor looked at the safe.
Fear crossed his face.
“Close it.”
“No.”
“Mr. Vance, listen to me.”
“You’ve had years to speak.”
“This is bigger than me.”
“Then start naming people.”
Victor looked toward the security officers.
Then toward Lupita.
His shoulders dropped.
“Martin didn’t start this.”
Ethan said nothing.
Victor continued.
“Your wife discovered the transfers before she got sick.”
“That’s not possible.”
“She discovered the first ones five years ago.”
Two years before Sarah died.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She was trying to find out how high it went.”
“How high?”
Victor swallowed.
“To corporate.”
“Martin?”
“Past Martin.”
Ethan stared.
“There is nobody past Martin except me and the board.”
Victor nodded.
“That’s the problem.”
Then Adrian opened the first binder.
His expression changed.
“Ethan.”
“What?”
He turned the page.
At the top was a list of payments.
Several Victor had approved.
Several Martin had approved.
And one group authorized through an account Ethan recognized instantly.
The Sarah Vance Family Trust.
Ethan stared at his dead wife’s name.
Victor whispered:
“You thought Sarah was investigating them.”
May you like
He looked directly at Ethan.
“She was part of it.”
