Chapter 6 - The Phone in the Locked Office.
.The old accounting office smelled of dust, printer toner, and a room that had been closed too long.
Charlotte entered with Marcus and Daniel just after one in the morning.
Vanessa stayed near the doorway.
Adrian had refused to come.
That refusal interested Charlotte more than another argument would have.
The office was small and windowless, with empty shelves and a desk stripped of almost everything useful.
Vanessa's phone had been placed in the exact center of that desk.
It looked staged because it was staged.
Marcus photographed the room before touching anything.
Charlotte scanned the shelves.
One section was cleaner than the others.
Something large had recently been removed.
"What used to be there?"
Daniel studied the gap.
"Archive binders."
"What kind?"
"Vendor originals."
Vanessa closed her eyes for a moment.
"So someone took the invoices and left my phone."
Charlotte looked at her.
"Someone wants us looking at you instead of the missing records."
Vanessa gave a bitter laugh.
"You figured that out quickly after humiliating me downstairs."
Charlotte's expression did not change.
"You humiliated yourself downstairs."
Vanessa looked away.
The answer landed because it was true.
Marcus unlocked the phone inside a signal-shielding sleeve and connected it to a forensic reader.
The security login had been performed from Vanessa's device at 6:42 p.m.
The phone location history showed something stranger.
At 6:42, the device was not in Vanessa's hand.
It was in the executive dining room on the twenty-third floor.
Vanessa stared at the screen.
"I left it on the table during dinner."
"Who was there?" Charlotte asked.
Vanessa hesitated.
"My father, me, Daniel for part of it, and two board members."
Daniel shook his head.
"I left at six twenty."
Marcus checked the access log.
Daniel's statement matched.
Charlotte turned to Vanessa.
"Who remained after you left?"
Vanessa's voice dropped.
"My father and Graham Voss."
Charlotte knew the name.
Graham was vice chairman of the hotel board and Adrian's closest ally.
He was also the man who had urged Harold Val to sell the Grand Aurelia two years earlier.
A soft mechanical click came from the wall behind the desk.
Everyone turned.
Marcus stepped closer and pressed the panel.
A hidden cabinet door opened several inches.
Daniel looked genuinely stunned.
"I didn't know that was there."
Inside were three thin binders, a portable drive, and a sealed envelope addressed to Harold Val.
Charlotte's heart started beating faster.
She opened the envelope carefully.
The note inside was handwritten by Miles Hale.
Mr. Val, if you are reading this, someone has discovered I copied the true vendor ledger.
Do not trust the board summaries.
The money is not missing.
It is being moved to make the hotel look weaker than it is.
Charlotte read the final line twice.
The planned sale depends on you believing the Grand Aurelia is failing.
Vanessa stared at her father’s name written in the margins of the copied ledger.
Then she whispered something Charlotte did not expect.
"My father has been telling everyone this hotel is almost insolvent."
Daniel looked at Charlotte.
"It isn't."
Charlotte inserted the portable drive into an isolated laptop.
A single folder appeared.
Its title contained tomorrow's date.
Inside was a draft purchase agreement for the Grand Aurelia.
The proposed buyer was a company Charlotte had never heard of.
May you like
The authorized seller was not Charlotte.
It was Adrian Mercer.
