Chapter 4 - The Second Key
Victor stared at Daniel.
Daniel stared back.
For several seconds, neither man spoke.
Then Victor stepped out of the elevator.
“What’s going on?”
Daniel held up the master key.
“You tell me.”
Victor’s face remained controlled.
“What is that?”
“GM-02.”
“I can see that.”
“It was outside my daughter’s room.”
Victor looked at Ethan.
“Where did you get it?”
“I found it on the carpet.”
Victor turned toward Rebecca.
“And why are you here?”
Rebecca said nothing.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Look at me.”
Victor did.
“Who tried to enter my room?”
“I have no idea.”
“This key belongs to your office.”
“One of two master keys.”
“Where’s the other?”
Victor reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a key.
GM-01.
Daniel looked at it.
“So somebody has your second key.”
“Apparently.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel handed GM-02 to Ethan.
“Put it in an envelope. Don’t touch the surface.”
Victor frowned.
“This is becoming ridiculous.”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“Someone attempted to enter a room where my seven-year-old daughter was sleeping.”
Victor stopped speaking.
Daniel continued.
“You have about ten seconds to decide whether you want to treat that as ridiculous.”
Victor looked away.
Rebecca said, “He knows about 1412.”
Victor’s head snapped toward her.
Daniel watched him carefully.
“Interesting reaction.”
Victor recovered.
“I don’t know what she showed you.”
“She showed me enough.”
“Rebecca has been unstable for months.”
Rebecca laughed once.
A bitter sound.
“There it is.”
Victor ignored her.
“She has disciplinary problems. She has copied confidential material. She’s been threatening management.”
“Why did you come to the hotel tonight?” Daniel asked.
Victor paused.
“Work.”
“At 11:41?”
“Yes.”
“Who told you I was coming?”
Nobody moved.
Victor’s expression changed by a fraction.
Daniel saw it.
“I wasn’t aware you were coming.”
“That was the wrong answer.”
“What?”
“I never said someone told you.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Daniel continued.
“Rebecca heard you say my name on the phone before I arrived.”
Victor looked at her.
His eyes were no longer neutral.
They were furious.
“You’re finished here.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“No. You are.”
Victor looked back at him.
Daniel expected fear.
Instead, for the first time, Victor smiled.
Not warmly.
“Are you sure?”
Daniel felt something shift.
“What does that mean?”
Victor buttoned his jacket.
“It means you’ve been absent from this company longer than you realize.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“I’m chairman.”
“On paper.”
Rebecca whispered, “Victor.”
He ignored her.
“You spend most of your time raising your daughter. Admirable. Truly.”
Daniel said nothing.
“But companies do not stop moving because their owners experience personal tragedy.”
The mention of Rachel hit Daniel like a blade.
Victor continued.
“Robert handles operations. Finance answers to Robert. Regional directors answer to Robert.”
“Robert Haines.”
Victor’s eyes confirmed it.
“You think this is about one hotel?”
Daniel stared at him.
Victor leaned slightly closer.
“You walked into a building you technically own and didn’t recognize how it was being run.”
Daniel’s hands curled.
Victor smiled again.
“That should tell you something.”
Daniel wanted to hit him.
He did not.
Lily was ten feet away.
And Victor wanted anger.
Anger created mistakes.
Daniel had not built seventeen hotels by giving people the reaction they wanted.
“You’re suspended.”
Victor laughed.
“You don’t have the board authority to remove me directly.”
“I don’t need board authority to suspend a property manager pending investigation.”
“You’d have to notify regional operations.”
“I just did.”
Daniel held up his phone.
A message had been sent to Naomi.
Victor’s smile faded.
Daniel continued.
“You are not permitted to access hotel systems, staff areas, guest records, or company property until further notice.”
Victor looked at Rebecca.
“This is going to destroy you too.”
Rebecca’s face went pale.
Daniel said, “Leave.”
Victor did not move.
“Now.”
He finally turned.
At the elevator, he looked back.
“You have no idea who you’re fighting.”
The doors closed.
Daniel immediately called Naomi.
“He admitted Robert is involved.”
“Not exactly admissible proof.”
“I know.”
“You also have a potential unlawful room-entry attempt.”
“Yes.”
“Local police?”
“Not yet.”
“Daniel.”
“I want to know who used the key first.”
Naomi exhaled sharply.
“You are too close to this.”
“My daughter was behind that door.”
“That is exactly why you’re too close.”
Daniel looked toward the suite.
“I know.”
Naomi softened.
“I’ve arranged an independent security team. They’ll arrive in forty minutes.”
“Good.”
“And Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“Robert is calling me.”
“Don’t answer.”
“Already didn’t.”
Daniel gave the phone to Rebecca.
“Tell Naomi everything.”
For the next half hour, the eighteenth-floor hallway became an improvised command center.
Ethan remained with Lily.
Marissa joined them after Daniel asked her to retrieve front-desk logs.
Rebecca described the discriminatory instructions.
Naomi documented names.
Daniel requested the hotel’s physical key register.
At 1:13 a.m., Marissa returned carrying a binder.
She placed it on the table.
“There’s a problem.”
Daniel opened it.
Every master key had to be signed in and out.
GM-02 showed one checkout.
11:50 p.m.
Signed by:
M. CROSS.
“Who is M. Cross?” Daniel asked.
Marissa shook her head.
“No employee by that name.”
Rebecca looked over his shoulder.
“Wait.”
She pointed.
“The handwriting.”
“What?”
“I’ve seen it.”
“Where?”
“Guest refund authorizations.”
They searched digital records.
A minute later, Rebecca found one.
The signature was similar.
The approving manager:
ROBERT HAINES.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“Robert is in Chicago.”
Marissa shook her head.
“Not tonight.”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“I saw him.”
“When?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“Here?”
“No. Across the street.”
“At the restaurant?”
“I thought it was him, but I wasn’t sure.”
Daniel called Naomi.
“Where is Robert?”
“I’m checking.”
Thirty seconds passed.
Then Naomi said, “His corporate calendar says Chicago.”
“Check his company car.”
Another pause.
“Vehicle telematics show the car in Chicago.”
“So no.”
“Wait.”
Daniel heard typing.
“His expense card was used tonight.”
“Where?”
Naomi became quiet.
“Bellmont City.”
Daniel stared at the others.
“What time?”
“10:48 p.m.”
“Location?”
“A restaurant three blocks from the hotel.”
Rebecca whispered, “He’s here.”
Daniel walked toward the window.
He looked down at the street.
Cars moved beneath the hotel awning.
One black sedan sat across from the entrance with its lights off.
Daniel’s phone rang.
Private number.
He answered.
“Daniel.”
Robert Haines’s voice.
Calm.
Familiar.
Almost friendly.
“You should have stayed upstairs with your daughter.”
Daniel’s eyes remained on the black sedan.
“Where are you?”
Robert ignored him.
“You are opening doors that were closed for a reason.”
Daniel gripped the phone.
“You tried to enter Lily’s room?”
Robert laughed softly.
“Is that what they told you?”
“Answer me.”
“Go home, Daniel.”
“This is my hotel.”
“That’s what your father used to say.”
Daniel went still.
Robert had worked for Daniel’s father.
Twenty-four years.
He had stood beside Daniel at Rachel’s funeral.
He had carried Lily when she was a baby.
“Do not mention my father.”
“Then stop acting like him.”
The line went dead.
Daniel stared at the phone.
A new message arrived immediately.
An image.
A photograph of Lily.
Taken that evening.
May you like
Through the windshield of Daniel’s SUV.
Before they had entered the hotel.
