Chapter 6 - One Night to Save the Grand Regent
By 11:26 p.m., the Grand Regent Hotel had become the most expensive locked room in Chicago.
Clara ordered security to seal the executive offices.
No files left the building.
No computers were erased.
No employee was allowed to destroy records.
Guests remained free to come and go, but executives connected to the investigation were required to leave devices with corporate counsel before departing.
Raymond Burke was nowhere to be found.
Security had searched the stairwells, basement, parking garage, loading dock, banquet kitchens, and mechanical corridors.
His car remained in the garage.
His phone had been found in his office.
Lupita approached Clara near midnight.
“There are old service tunnels.”
Clara looked up.
“What?”
“Not tunnels exactly. Maintenance corridors.”
She pointed toward the rear elevators.
“This building was renovated three times. Some of the older access corridors don’t appear on guest maps.”
Security director Ben Torres turned.
“Can someone reach the street through them?”
“There’s an old loading entrance on Wabash.”
Ben immediately radioed his team.
Clara rubbed her eyes.
She had been awake since four-thirty that morning.
Her body wanted rest.
Her mind refused.
The sale agreement was scheduled to become effective at nine.
According to the uploaded documents, Clara had approved it personally.
Her signature appeared seven times.
The signature verification software rated it ninety-eight percent authentic.
Corporate counsel believed the documents were fraudulent.
Belief was not enough.
The lender needed evidence before business opened.
Otherwise, litigation could take months while Solstice assumed temporary operating control.
Miles stood across the conference room.
His phone was sealed in an evidence bag.
“You understand how this looks,” Clara said.
“Yes.”
“You own part of Solstice.”
“Three-point-one percent through my family trust.”
“You concealed that.”
“Yes.”
“You supported the sale.”
“Yes.”
“You entered my office illegally.”
“Yes.”
Clara stared at him.
“And somehow you’re asking me to believe Raymond is the mastermind.”
“No.”
Miles looked exhausted.
“I’m asking you to believe I’m greedy, arrogant and guilty of several things.”
He leaned back.
“But not this.”
Clara almost smiled despite herself.
“Compelling defense.”
“It’s what I have.”
Evelyn entered.
“We located the law firm listed as witnessing the sale documents.”
“And?”
“They deny witnessing anything.”
“That helps.”
“Not enough. Their digital seal was stolen six months ago and never reported.”
Clara closed her eyes.
Someone had prepared this carefully.
Not days ago.
Months.
Patricia appeared at the door.
“Mrs. Vance?”
Clara looked up.
Patricia no longer looked polished.
Her hair had loosened.
Mascara had smudged beneath her eyes.
She held a small notebook.
“I think I know where Mr. Burke is.”
Ben stepped forward.
“How?”
“Carla told me.”
Everyone turned.
“Where’s Carla?”
“She left the desk about twenty minutes ago.”
Ben cursed.
Patricia hurried on.
“There’s an old storage office below ballroom level. Mr. Burke uses it sometimes because there aren’t cameras inside.”
“How do you know?”
Patricia looked ashamed.
“Because that’s where he held staff meetings he didn’t want recorded.”
Clara stood.
“Take us there.”
The storage office was hidden behind the banquet kitchen.
Ben opened it with a master key.
Empty.
But the room had recently been occupied.
A coffee cup was still warm.
A laptop charger lay on the desk.
And beside it sat a shredder.
Full.
Clara stared at the thin strips of paper.
“Can those be reconstructed?”
Ben crouched.
“Eventually.”
“We don’t have eventually.”
Lupita appeared behind them.
She looked at the shredder.
Then at Clara.
“Maybe you don’t need it.”
“What do you mean?”
Lupita entered the room.
“There used to be a camera.”
Ben looked around.
“There isn’t one.”
“Not security.”
She pointed toward a small black device mounted behind an old smoke detector.
“Maintenance camera.”
Ben stared.
Lupita smiled faintly.
“Housekeepers notice things.”
Ben removed the device.
Twenty minutes later, they were watching recorded footage.
Raymond entered the room at 11:04.
Carla followed.
They argued.
There was no audio.
Raymond handed her something.
A flash drive.
Carla shook her head.
Raymond grabbed her wrist.
Clara’s expression changed.
Then Carla pulled away and left.
Raymond remained.
He opened his laptop.
At 11:14, he removed several papers from a folder.
Fed them into the shredder.
Then disappeared through another door.
Ben looked at the blueprint.
“That leads to the old loading passage.”
His radio crackled.
“Found him.”
Everyone froze.
“Where?”
“Wabash exit.”
“Detain him.”
A pause.
Then the officer responded.
“He’s not alone.”
“Who’s with him?”
“Front desk employee. Carla Mendes.”
Clara arrived downstairs as Raymond and Carla were escorted through the loading entrance.
Carla was crying.
Raymond looked furious.
“You cannot hold me here.”
“You’re free to leave,” Ben said. “Police are waiting outside.”
Raymond stopped.
Two detectives entered.
His face changed.
Carla immediately spoke.
“He made me do it.”
Raymond turned.
“Shut up.”
Clara watched.
There it was.
Not polished hospitality.
Not executive language.
Just fear.
Carla looked at Clara.
“He told us you never came to the hotels anymore.”
Clara said nothing.
“He said Mr. Kessler would own everything after the sale and that anyone who helped would get promoted.”
Miles swore softly.
Raymond shouted.
“She’s lying.”
Carla reached into her pocket.
Ben tensed.
But she pulled out the flash drive Raymond had given her.
“He told me to destroy this.”
Clara stared.
“What’s on it?”
“I don’t know.”
Raymond lunged.
Ben intercepted him.
The detectives pushed Raymond against the wall.
For several seconds, everything became chaos.
Then Clara took the drive.
At 1:17 a.m., Daniel connected remotely while IT examined its contents.
The drive contained backups.
Emails.
Vendor invoices.
Forged signature templates.
Copies of Clara’s digital certificate.
And a spreadsheet.
A detailed ledger showing payments from the Andrew Vance Legacy Fund to Northstar Hospitality Services.
Six-point-two million dollars.
Another four million had moved through consulting firms.
Raymond had stolen millions.
But the final folder contained something unexpected.
Emails between Raymond and an executive at Solstice Capital.
The executive repeatedly referenced “M.K.”
Clara looked at Miles.
He went pale.
“I’ve never seen these.”
Daniel opened another email.
It appeared to come from Miles.
Once Clara is removed from the operational picture, we proceed.
Miles shook his head.
“Fake.”
Another.
Use the foundation money to cover interim obligations. She won’t notice.
“Fake.”
Clara watched him.
“Can we verify that?”
Daniel answered.
“Give me time.”
“We have seven hours.”
The detectives took Raymond into custody for questioning.
Carla agreed to cooperate.
At 3:04 a.m., Lily woke.
Clara found her sitting on the bed, hugging her rabbit.
“Mommy?”
Clara sat beside her.
“I’m here.”
“Are you working?”
“A little.”
“Are the mean ladies still downstairs?”
Clara smiled sadly.
“Some people made bad choices.”
Lily thought about that.
“Did Daddy ever make bad choices?”
Clara laughed softly.
“All the time.”
“Like what?”
“He once bought a motorcycle without telling me.”
“Did you get mad?”
“Very.”
“Did you still love him?”
“Very.”
Lily rested her head against Clara’s arm.
“Then people can make bad choices and still be good?”
Clara looked at her daughter.
Sometimes six-year-olds asked the questions adults spent entire lives avoiding.
“Sometimes,” she said. “But being sorry means helping fix what you broke.”
Lily nodded.
Then pointed toward the bruised roses Lupita had placed in a water pitcher.
“They look better.”
Clara smiled.
“Yes.”
At 5:42 a.m., Daniel called.
“We authenticated the emails.”
Clara stood beside the hotel window watching Chicago turn gray before sunrise.
“And?”
“Most of the messages attributed to Miles were fabricated.”
Miles closed his eyes in relief.
“Most?”
Daniel hesitated.
“One is real.”
Clara looked at him.
“Which one?”
Daniel read it.
If Clara won’t approve the sale voluntarily, we may need another path.
Clara’s heart sank.
Miles did not deny it.
“When did you send that?”
“Eight months ago.”
“To whom?”
“A Solstice partner.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted the deal.”
Clara stared at him.
“You wanted to take my company.”
“I wanted you to stop disappearing.”
“That was not your decision.”
“No.”
His voice broke slightly.
“I know that now.”
Daniel interrupted.
“There’s something else you need to see.”
A file appeared on the screen.
Original metadata from the forged sale document.
Clara leaned closer.
The document had been created three months earlier.
Not by Raymond.
Not by Miles.
By an administrative workstation registered to the Vance Hospitality corporate legal department.
Clara frowned.
“Who used that computer?”
Daniel was silent.
“Daniel?”
“The access badge belongs to Evelyn Ross.”
Everyone turned toward the board chairwoman.
Evelyn had been standing at Clara’s side all night.
May you like
She slowly lowered her coffee cup.
And for the first time since Clara arrived at the Grand Regent, fear appeared on Evelyn Ross’s face.
