Under the alias Regina Hale, Evie lights a match and deliberately sets Amy Holder’s hotel bed and red coat on fire. After tossing the last of Amy’s belongings into a black duffel, Evie checks the room, then hides the bag in a housekeeping cart as smoke thickens and alarms sound.

Evie wheels the cart to a service elevator and rides to the ground floor, where Devon is waiting. She retrieves the bag and hands him the cart. They split up to avoid detection—Devon through the parking garage and Evie through the kitchens to a side alley.

From her car, Evie calls Mr. Smith on an emergency number. She feeds him a cover story: Amy was drunk in bed with a lit cigarette, a wine-soaked bed ignited, and the fire spread too fast to save anything. Mr. Smith presses about useful items and references Amy’s earlier public threat naming him, signaling deep suspicion when Evie insists she took nothing.

Mr. Smith ends the call with a curt “We’ll be in touch.” Evie drives off as fire trucks converge and, two blocks away, parks at a Wells Fargo and goes inside, keeping Amy’s recovered belongings out of Smith’s reach while his distrust clearly intensifies.