Chapter 3 - Room 617
Charles Hale ordered the lobby cleared.
For the first time in decades, his order was not immediately obeyed.
Guests remained near the elevators.
Phones continued recording.
Ethan contacted local police despite Victoria’s objections.
Within minutes, Charles understood that whatever control he once possessed over the moment had disappeared.
Sophie remained near the marble table.
She never let go of the brass key.
Victoria stared at it.
Room 617 had once been part of an older section of the hotel.
After Claire disappeared, Charles had ordered the hallway sealed during renovations.
The room number vanished from floor plans.
Employees were told the east wing had suffered severe structural damage.
Most believed him.
Daniel Mercer knew better.
Victoria turned toward him.
“You kept the old blueprints.”
Daniel looked at Charles.
Charles said nothing.
That silence was enough.
Daniel exhaled.
“Yes.”
Charles’s voice became dangerously calm.
“You should consider very carefully what you say next.”
Daniel straightened.
“I’ve spent twenty-five years considering it.”
Victoria had never heard him speak to Charles that way.
Sophie lifted the key.
“Can we get to the room?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Yes.”
Charles moved between them.
“No one is going anywhere.”
Ethan folded his arms.
“Police are on their way.”
“That room is private property.”
“So is most of this building.”
Ethan looked toward Sophie.
“But if there’s evidence connected to a missing-person case, destroying or hiding it becomes a different matter.”
Charles stared at him.
Victoria suddenly realized Ethan knew far more about procedure than an ordinary hotel guard should.
“Were you a police officer?”
Ethan’s expression tightened.
“Detective.”
Charles studied him differently.
“Why aren’t you one now?”
“That isn’t relevant.”
Sophie looked at Ethan.
“My mother mentioned a detective named Cole.”
Everyone turned.
Ethan’s face lost its color.
“What?”
Sophie opened her backpack.
She removed several folded pages.
“My mother wrote things down.”
Ethan slowly approached her.
“My father was Detective Samuel Cole.”
Sophie searched the pages.
Then she pointed toward a handwritten name.
“Samuel Cole.”
Ethan stared at it.
“My father investigated Claire’s disappearance.”
Victoria remembered.
Samuel Cole had asked uncomfortable questions.
Six months later, he was removed from the case.
Less than a year after that, he resigned from the department.
Ethan’s voice dropped.
“He spent the rest of his life saying the investigation had been buried.”
Charles laughed without humor.
“Your father was obsessed.”
“My father died believing he had failed Claire Bennett.”
Ethan looked toward Sophie.
“Maybe he left something behind.”
Daniel suddenly stepped away.
“I can take you to 617.”
Charles grabbed his sleeve.
Daniel looked down at Charles’s hand.
Then slowly looked into his eyes.
“Take your hand off me.”
The two men stared at each other.
Finally, Charles released him.
Daniel led Victoria, Sophie, and Ethan toward the service elevator.
Charles followed.
“You’re not coming.”
Victoria said.
Charles almost smiled.
“You still think you’re in control of this?”
The elevator carried them to the sixth floor.
They exited into a renovated hallway.
Daniel walked to a decorative wall covered in framed photographs of old Los Angeles.
He removed one frame.
Behind it was a narrow metal panel.
Daniel entered a code.
A concealed door unlocked.
Cold air drifted through the opening.
Beyond it stretched a dark, abandoned corridor.
Sophie tightened her grip on the key.
At the far end, barely visible beneath years of dust, was a door.
They approached slowly.
Sophie inserted the key.
The lock turned.
Victoria whispered.
“It shouldn’t still work.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Somebody made sure it would.”
Sophie pushed open the door.
Inside, the room appeared frozen in time.
A broken lamp lay beside the bed.
A dried brown stain marked the carpet.
And on the wall, written in faded red lipstick, were four words.
VICTORIA KNOWS THE TRUTH.
May you like
Sophie turned toward her aunt.
Victoria could no longer run from the past.
