Chapter 3 - The Woman They Came to Arrest
Khloe stared at Vincent.
“For me?”
Footsteps thundered down the basement stairs.
Evan backed toward the computers.
Vincent held out his hand.
“The drive.”
Khloe hesitated.
“You told him to give it to me.”
“Circumstances changed.”
She handed it over.
Vincent slipped it into his waistcoat just as two uniformed officers entered.
Behind them came Chad.
His tie was loosened.
His confidence had returned.
“There she is.”
One officer approached Khloe.
“Khloe Harrison?”
“Yes.”
“We need to speak with you regarding stolen property reported by Mr. Wilkins.”
Khloe looked at Chad.
He smiled.
Not much.
Just enough.
“Am I under arrest?”
“Not at this moment.”
“Then I want an attorney.”
Vincent stepped beside her.
“She has one.”
Chad’s smile disappeared.
Vincent made a phone call.
“Rebecca. Obsidian Lounge. Now.”
He hung up.
One officer looked around Room 17.
“What is this?”
Chad answered immediately.
“Company records. She illegally accessed a restricted area.”
Evan stepped forward.
“That’s not true.”
Chad saw him.
For the first time all night, genuine panic crossed his face.
“You.”
Evan smiled grimly.
“Surprised?”
Chad recovered quickly.
“This man was terminated for misconduct.”
“You told everyone I resigned.”
“You abandoned your position.”
“After I discovered your accounts.”
The officers exchanged glances.
Chad pointed toward Khloe.
“She stole a diamond bracelet worth eighty thousand dollars.”
“Where is your evidence?” Khloe asked.
“Security footage.”
Vincent looked at him.
“Show us.”
Chad pulled out his phone.
A video showed Khloe entering his private office earlier that evening.
She carried nothing going in.
When she left, she carried a black folder.
“That’s the guest contract binder,” Khloe said.
Chad swiped to another image.
A photograph showed the missing diamond bracelet inside Khloe’s apartment.
Khloe stopped breathing.
“That’s impossible.”
Chad smiled.
“Police recovered it thirty minutes ago.”
She turned toward the officers.
“You searched my apartment?”
“Your roommate provided access after Mr. Wilkins reported stolen property.”
“I don’t have a roommate.”
Silence.
The officer frowned.
Chad’s expression shifted.
Khloe saw it.
“So who let them in?”
The officers looked at each other.
One stepped away to make a call.
Vincent watched Chad.
“You made a mistake.”
Chad scoffed.
“You think your reputation frightens me?”
“No.”
Vincent’s gaze stayed steady.
“I think stupid men eventually frighten themselves.”
Rebecca Sloan arrived fifteen minutes later.
She was small, impeccably dressed, and spoke with the calm efficiency of someone accustomed to making powerful people uncomfortable.
Within ten minutes, she established that no lawful search of Khloe’s apartment had occurred.
The photograph had been submitted by Chad as evidence but had not been taken by police.
Chad had lied.
The officers’ attitude changed immediately.
The bracelet had not been recovered.
No warrant existed.
Someone had reported that a warrant was being prepared, and the message had been distorted in the confusion.
Rebecca turned toward Chad.
“You falsely represented evidence to law enforcement.”
“I received that photograph anonymously.”
“Convenient.”
Khloe stared at the picture.
Then she noticed something.
“My curtains.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“What?”
“My apartment has blue curtains.”
The photograph showed cream curtains.
“That isn’t my apartment.”
Evan leaned closer.
“I know that room.”
Everyone looked at him.
“It’s one of Chad’s corporate apartments.”
Chad stepped backward.
Rebecca smiled.
“That was fast.”
The police requested copies of the financial records.
Evan began explaining.
Chad remained silent.
Then Khloe noticed he was no longer looking frightened.
He was looking toward the ceiling.
At the camera.
Vincent noticed too.
“Everyone out.”
Evan looked confused.
“Why?”
“Now.”
They moved into the corridor.
Seconds later, smoke began pouring from Room 17.
Khloe screamed.
Evan lunged toward the door.
“The servers!”
Vincent grabbed him.
Flames climbed the back wall.
A hidden electrical device had ignited beneath the desk.
Sprinklers activated.
Within minutes, Room 17 was destroyed.
But Vincent still had the flash drive.
Or so Khloe thought.
When they returned upstairs, Vincent reached inside his waistcoat.
His hand stopped.
The drive was gone.
Someone had taken it.
The lounge had become chaos.
Guests moved toward exits.
Police questioned employees.
Firefighters entered.
Khloe looked around.
“Who got close enough to you?”
Vincent’s eyes moved through the crowd.
Then stopped.
One of his three bodyguards was missing.
“Derek,” Vincent said.
Khloe remembered the broad-shouldered man who had stood behind them all evening.
“Your guard?”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“He was beside me when the alarm started.”
Evan looked horrified.
“Then Chad has someone inside your organization.”
Vincent said nothing.
That silence told Khloe enough.
Chad was escorted upstairs for questioning, but the financial evidence was burning below them and the flash drive had disappeared.
Rebecca approached Khloe.
“We can still fight the theft allegation.”
Khloe shook her head.
“This isn’t about the bracelet anymore.”
“No.”
“It never was.”
Rebecca glanced toward Vincent.
“No.”
Khloe picked up her coat.
She was exhausted.
She wanted her apartment, her bed, and one night in which nobody accused her of crimes.
Vincent stopped her.
“You shouldn’t go home alone.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Chad knows where you live.”
“So do the police.”
“That didn’t stop someone from staging a photograph.”
Khloe knew he was right.
She hated that he was right.
Vincent offered to have Rebecca accompany her.
Khloe agreed.
Forty minutes later, they reached her apartment building.
Nothing looked disturbed.
Rebecca waited in the hallway while Khloe unlocked the door.
The apartment was dark.
Khloe reached for the light switch.
Then stopped.
A small black envelope lay on the floor.
Her name was written across it.
KHLOE.
Rebecca moved closer.
“Don’t touch it.”
Khloe stared.
The envelope had been pushed beneath her door.
Then they heard a sound from inside the apartment.
A floorboard creaked.
Rebecca immediately called Vincent.
Khloe backed away.
May you like
The bedroom door slowly opened.
And a man stepped out holding her missing employee badge.
