One evening, Sally was busy writing in her room, when she heard the lift door open on her floor. The housekeeping staff had already left and as she was not expecting any visitors. So, she thought that maybe Elizabeth had returned from her television shooting. She did not want to look nosy by going out and saying, “Hi". But, she was curious nonetheless and peeped out of the door eye. She was surprised when she did not see anybody on her floor. She looked hard and suddenly out of nowhere a lady's face stared back at her. Sally got afraid and she fell back in fear. She heard the person knock on her door. Sally was thinking whether to open the door when she heard the person say, “Hi! I am Lizzie's cousin. Do you mind if I have a coffee with you?”
Sally thought she was being foolish and got up to open her door. She opened the door and invited Elizabeth's cousin inside. Elizabeth's cousin was a stunner. She was tall, slim and had very beautiful blue eyes. Her black hair was cut short and she wore a knee-length black color skirt and a silver top. Sally couldn't help admiring her and said,"Wow! You are so beautiful." "Gee! Thanks! By the way, my name's Alice" the lady said smiling and shook hands with Sally. Sally prepared coffee and the two of them sat down on the sofa. Sally asked Alice if she had come to visit her cousin. Alice answered that her cousin was out of town and she had come to Manhattan on a modeling assignment. Since her cousin was away, she had asked Alice to stay in her apartment till her modeling assignment was completed. Alice said that her modeling assignment would get over in a couple of weeks. Sally was glad that she had a wonderful new neighbor like Alice.
The two of them got along very well. They would go out jogging in the morning and would have also had dinner together. Alice usually came over to Sally's place and the two of them would talk for hours together. During their conversations, Sally came to know from Alice that Elizabeth had gone to Dubai for a new movie assignment and would not be returning for another couple of months. Alice also mentioned that her modeling assignment was almost done so she would be returning back to Los Angeles the coming Sunday. So, Alice wanted to throw a party for her friends before she returned home. She invited Sally for the party.
Sally rarely went to any parties. But, she did not want to disappoint Alice. So, she agreed. The party was on a Friday evening. Sally put on a beautiful red dress and gold earrings and went to Alice's apartment. She had never been to her apartment before. The apartment was beautiful and big. Elizabeth had combined her three apartments to make one big apartment. It was beautifully furnished and Sally just could not take her eyes off the beautiful chandeliers. Alice showed her around the house and introduced Sally to her friends. Alice showed her a painting in the drawing room and told her that it was worth One Million dollars which made Sally's jaw drop in awe. Alice said that Elizabeth had received the painting as a gift from her rapper boyfriend on her last birthday. Alice told that her cousin had installed a world-class burglar alarm system to protect it. She said that only her sister's fingerprints and a secret pin code could deactivate the alarm. After the party, Sally thanked Alice for the wonderful evening and took her leave.
Once, Sally returned to her apartment she could not help thinking about that expensive painting. Sally thought if she had a million dollars she could clear all her debts and live the rest of her days enjoying on a remote Caribbean Island. She thought about the painting for the entire night. The next morning, she came up with a plan. She decided to steal the painting. Alice had informed her that she was flying back on Sunday, so she invited Alice to her place for dinner on Saturday evening. When Alice came to her place for dinner, she laced Alice's drink with a drug. After Alice fell unconscious, she took the house keys from her purse and went to her apartment. She opened the door and quietly sneaked into the drawing room. In the drawing room, she saw the painting. She took out her camera and took few pictures of the painting. She took out a tape and took measurements of the painting and its frame. She then took out soap from her purse and pressed the key for getting an imprint. She then closed the door and returned to her room.
She waited patiently for Alice to wake up. Alice woke up after a couple of hours with a heavy head. Sally told her that she had a bit too much wine and helped her to return to her apartment. The next day Alice returned back to Los Angeles and Sally once again had the second floor to herself. Sally got a duplicate key made out of the soap imprint and also got a life-size replica of the painting done with a similar frame. She bought a few microphones and spy cameras and installed them in various places in Elizabeth's house using the duplicate keys.
Now, she waited for Elizabeth to return. Elizabeth returned to her apartment after about couple of weeks. Sally could monitor her every activity from her computer. She recorded her every activity and checked if she could get some clue about the secret pin code. One evening, she finally got what she was wishing for. Elizabeth had called some people from the art gallery to curate the painting. She entered the secret six-digit pin code and pressed her index finger to deactivate the two-stage alarm system. Sally recorded the sequence using her spy camera.
A few days later, Elizabeth left for her television shooting. Sally sneaked into her apartment that night and managed to collect her index fingerprint from a wine glass. She imprinted the finger scan on a sheet of plastic and used it to deactivate the alarm. She then cleverly replaced the fake replica painting and once again reactivated the alarm. She took the original painting and hung it in her apartment. A few days later, she managed to sell the painting in the black market for about 800,000 dollars using a fake identity. She sold off her apartment to Elizabeth for 400,000 dollars who was glad that she owned the entire floor now. Sally bought a small property on the Caribbean Islands and spent the rest of her days writing peacefully and sipping red wine. As for Elizabeth, she still thinks that she owns a million dollar painting.
The End
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