The Woman in Silver
Chapter 07 - The Woman in Silver
When they returned to the hotel, Vivian was gone.
A waiter remembered seeing her near the kitchen ten minutes earlier. She had changed out of the silver coat and borrowed a staff jacket, allowing her to pass through the service corridors while police focused on Grant and Julian.
Marcus locked the hidden network and began tracing her access attempts. Rebecca’s archive required two forms of authentication: the brass key inserted into a physical terminal and a voice command from a Cole family member. Vivian could steal the key or imitate a password, but she could not easily reproduce Sienna’s voice.
Unless she forced Sienna to unlock it.
Detective Ortiz increased security around the lobby. Grant was now being questioned in a conference room. Julian had requested an attorney. Thomas sat alone near the ballroom doors, surrounded by board members who no longer knew whether to trust him.
Sienna found Vivian’s borrowed staff jacket in a restroom. Inside one pocket was a small medical injector containing a sedative. The discovery clarified the plan. Vivian had not come merely to steal records. She intended to remove Sienna from the hotel long enough to access the archive and complete the merger.
A message appeared on Sienna’s phone from an unknown number.
COME TO THE EAST ELEVATOR ALONE, OR THE ARCHIVE DISAPPEARS.
Attached was a photograph of a black portable drive resting beside a lit fireplace.
Sienna showed Marcus and Detective Ortiz. Marcus wanted to track the phone before responding. Ortiz wanted officers at every elevator. Sienna agreed, but she knew Vivian had spent years studying the family’s fears. She would expect police.
Thomas approached and read the message. “You are not going.”
“She wants my voice.”
“She wants control of you.”
“Then we use that.”
Sienna recorded several harmless phrases while Marcus built a voice-response system that could delay the archive without opening it. Ortiz placed an officer inside the east elevator’s maintenance compartment. Thomas insisted on standing nearby, but Sienna refused.
“For once,” she told him, “trust my plan without taking it away from me.”
The words hurt him, yet he nodded.
At 11:42 p.m., Sienna entered the east elevator alone. The doors closed behind her. Instead of rising, the car descended to the underground parking level. The lights flickered once.
Vivian’s voice came through the emergency speaker.
“You always were Rebecca’s daughter.”
Sienna looked at the camera. “Where are you?”
“Close enough to finish what your mother started.”
The elevator stopped between floors. A side panel slid open, revealing a narrow service passage. At the far end stood Vivian in a dark dress, holding the stolen computer drive.
“You ruined Grant’s future,” Vivian said.
“No,” Sienna replied. “He did.”
Vivian lifted the sedative injector.
“Your mother said the same thing when she tried to expose us.”
May you like
Sienna’s heartbeat stopped for one terrible second.
“What did you do to my mother?”
