Chapter 4 - The Door That Wouldn’t Open
"Tessa?" Noah shouted down the stairwell.
The knocking came again. A voice answered, thin through the locked fire door. "Noah? Don't let them take the files!"
One guard stood by the landing, another beside a utility sink. Elena held up her phone. "I'm recording. Police are on the way. She says she wants to leave. Open the door."
The taller guard hesitated. "We were told she stole from the company."
"Then let the police handle it," Elena said. "You don't get to lock up employees."
Alma spoke the guard's name. "Daniel, I knew your mother. Would she be proud of you right now?"
He looked at the floor, then slid his key into the lock. Tessa stumbled out with a bruise at her wrist and fury in her eyes. Noah wrapped both arms around her. Elena stepped back and gave them room.
"I copied what I saw," Tessa whispered. "They were moving it tonight because the hotel foundation is under review. Marcus's name was all over the old access logs."
"What files?" Elena asked.
"An internal ledger. Payments to a shell company called Northstar Civic Partners. Scholarships that never reached students. Then there was a list of people who complained. Their jobs disappeared. Some got arrested on charges that didn't stick."
"Can you show the police?"
"I can show everyone," Tessa said. "But the copy's hidden in the ballroom."
Elena stared at her. "Where?"
"Inside the base of the ice sculpture. I was supposed to replace the lights, so nobody thought anything of me going near it." Tessa gave a shaky laugh. "I thought it was smart. Then somebody caught me photographing the ledger."
A siren sounded above the hotel's underground entrance. The guard who had opened the door stepped aside. "I'm done," he said to his partner. "I'm not going to prison for people who don't know my name."
As they climbed toward the ballroom, Elena's phone rang. The screen showed Celia Ward.
"Listen closely," Celia said, each word polished and cold. "The police you called will protect my son. Your brother learned that lesson too late."
Elena stopped on the stairs. "What did you do to Marcus?"
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Celia let a long silence answer before she spoke. "Ask your husband what happened on the bridge."
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