Chapter 6 - SOMEONE TRIED TO DESTROY DANIEL’S EVIDENCE
I knew Robert Ellison’s voice.
“Turn the lights on.”
He laughed.
“You sound like Daniel.”
That confirmed too much.
Rachel activated her phone flashlight.
Robert stood at the end of the corridor.
Not alone.
Karl was beside him.
My stomach tightened.
Patrick had been cruel.
Karl had laughed.
Robert had trained them.
Hierarchy.
Exactly as Lupita had said.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Robert looked at the cabinet.
“Cleaning up.”
“Four years late.”
His face tightened.
“So Victor told you.”
“No.”
“Then how—”
He stopped.
Mistake.
Robert knew Daniel investigated.
Maybe Victor had not told him anything today.
“How long have you been stealing?”
He looked offended.
“I built this property.”
“No. Employees built it.”
“You inherited it.”
That one landed.
Daniel and I had bought the hotel together.
But after his death, men like Robert apparently decided grief made me ornamental.
“You came in twice a year, smiled at managers, approved budgets, then disappeared.”
True.
Painful.
Still irrelevant.
“And you used that.”
Robert shrugged.
“You let us.”
Rachel quietly sent something from her phone.
Location.
Security.
Police.
I hoped.
Then Robert stepped closer.
“Victor said you’d become emotional if you found Daniel’s files.”
I stared.
“He knew you were coming down here?”
Robert realized what he had admitted.
Too late.
“Victor sent you.”
Silence.
Karl moved toward the cabinet.
Rachel stepped between them.
“No.”
Karl laughed.
“You’re legal counsel, not security.”
“No, but you’re on camera.”
He froze.
Rachel pointed toward her blazer.
Body camera.
Tiny.
Corporate investigation equipment.
Robert’s face changed.
Then he lunged for the hard drive.
I grabbed the ledger.
Karl knocked the cabinet loose.
Metal crashed.
Someone pulled the fire alarm.
Sprinklers activated.
Water everywhere.
Robert ripped cables from the hard drive and threw it onto the wet floor.
“Stop!”
He stomped on it.
Once.
Twice.
Then basement security doors opened.
Hotel security rushed in.
Robert shouted:
“She attacked me!”
For one absurd second, everybody stopped.
Then Lupita appeared behind the guards.
Of all people.
“What are you doing here?”
She held up her phone.
“I saw Mr. Ellison take the service elevator.”
She had followed.
Again.
Not staying in her lane.
Thank God.
Then she said:
“I recorded him before the lights went out.”
Robert went pale.
Police arrived six minutes later.
Karl started talking immediately.
Robert did not.
Victor disappeared from the gala preparation floor.
His office was empty.
Phone off.
Car gone.
But the damaged hard drive had a mirrored backup.
Daniel planned for destruction.
Of course he did.
When Rachel restored the files, we found four years of theft.
Almost eight million dollars.
But that was not the worst part.
One folder was labeled:
D.V. ACCIDENT.
Inside were photographs of Daniel’s car taken before his fatal crash.
Brake lines.
Cut cleanly.
May you like
My husband had not died because of wet pavement.
Someone inside my hotel had murdered him.
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