Chapter 4 - Room 317
The Halcyon Hotel had closed seven years earlier.
Its lower windows were covered with dark boards. The bronze letters above the entrance had turned green with age, and half of the name was missing. Rain had begun to fall, soft enough to silver the street without washing away the dust gathered along the steps.
Mallory arrived with Leonard and two security guards.
Father Adrian followed in another car.
Evelyn had been left at the ceremony hall under police supervision, but Jaime remained missing.
Mallory stood beneath the ruined hotel awning and looked up at the dark windows.
“Daniel came here the night he died?” she asked.
Adrian nodded.
“He called me shortly before midnight.”
“What did he say?”
“That he had made a terrible mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“He refused to explain by phone.”
“You met him in room 317?”
“Yes.”
“And Jaime had already left?”
“I saw someone leaving the service stairs. I did not see his face, but Daniel later identified him as Jaime.”
“Why did Daniel know him?”
“Jaime was using another name then.”
Mallory looked at the priest.
“What name?”
“James Calder.”
The name meant nothing to her.
Adrian continued.
“He worked for a consulting firm hired to examine several Vale subsidiaries. Daniel believed Calder was moving money through false vendors.”
“Why was I never told?”
“Daniel asked me to remain silent.”
“My husband died hours later.”
“He did not die that night.”
Mallory forgot the rain.
“What did you say?”
“The yacht accident occurred the following evening.”
“He left this hotel and returned home?”
“No. That was the last time I saw him.”
Mallory stepped toward Adrian.
“You let me believe you knew nothing.”
“I kept the promise he demanded.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel believed someone inside your family was involved.”
Mallory’s anger sharpened.
“My mother?”
“He would not give me a name.”
“Was my father still alive?”
“No.”
“Then who else?”
Adrian looked toward the hotel.
“That is what he intended to discover.”
Leonard tested the front doors.
The chains were old but recently cut.
“Someone entered before us,” he said.
They moved through the lobby with flashlights.
Dust covered the marble floor, except for a trail of fresh footprints leading toward the staircase. The old elevators had no power. Water stains climbed the walls. Faded paintings hung behind cracked glass.
On the third floor, room 317 stood open.
Mallory entered first.
A single battery lantern illuminated the room.
There was no furniture except a wooden chair and a small table. Audrey sat in the chair with her hands free, studying a laptop.
She looked up.
“You came.”
Mallory crossed the room and embraced her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Who called me?”
“I did.”
Mallory pulled back.
“You threatened me using another voice.”
“Software changed it.”
“You told me to bring the memory card.”
“I needed Jaime to believe you still had it.”
Leonard searched the adjoining bathroom while the guards checked the corridor.
Mallory stared at her daughter.
“You could have told me.”
“My phone had been cloned. Jaime could see my messages.”
“Then why leave it in the elevator?”
“To make him follow the location.”
“Is he here?”
“He was.”
Audrey turned the laptop toward them.
Security footage showed a man entering the hotel twenty minutes earlier through the rear doors. The image was blurred, but Mallory recognized Jaime’s posture.
“Where did he go?” Leonard asked.
“Fourth floor,” Audrey said. “He thinks the original diary is hidden there.”
“Is it?”
“No. Father Adrian has it.”
Everyone turned toward the priest.
Adrian did not deny it.
Mallory felt the betrayal before he removed the green diary from beneath his coat.
“You took it during the blackout.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Jaime was moving toward the display box.”
“You could have handed it to security.”
“I did not know which security officers he had paid.”
Leonard’s face hardened.
“My staff was screened.”
“One of your authorized badges opened the east door,” Adrian replied.
Leonard said nothing.
Mallory held out her hand.
“Give me the diary.”
Adrian hesitated.
“It contains a confession protected by my obligations.”
“My mother’s affair is already public.”
“Not Evelyn’s confession.”
“Then whose?”
The priest looked toward Audrey.
“Daniel’s.”
Mallory’s pulse quickened.
“You said he confessed here.”
“He did.”
“What did he confess?”
Adrian placed the diary in Mallory’s hands.
“The night I met Daniel, he gave me an envelope. He said I should open it only if you were ever in danger from James Calder.”
“Jaime.”
“Yes.”
“Where is the envelope?”
“Hidden inside the diary’s back cover.”
Audrey took the diary and examined the leather seam. Using the brass key, she pressed a nearly invisible lock.
A section of the cover opened.
Inside was a yellowed envelope.
Mallory recognized Daniel’s handwriting.
For Mallory, if James ever reaches her.
Her knees weakened.
She sat on the wooden chair while Audrey handed her the envelope.
Inside were three pages.
Daniel’s message began with an apology.
Mallory,
I have spent years believing that silence protected you. Tonight I learned that silence has only given James more time.
He first approached the Vale companies under the name James Calder. He was searching for records connected to Project Morrow, a confidential structure your father created before his death. I believed James wanted money. I was wrong.
He believes Project Morrow contains proof about his family, his birth, and the reason Thomas Vale selected you as his sole successor.
If James cannot obtain the records through me, he will eventually reach you.
Do not trust anyone who tells you Project Morrow was only a financial account.
It was a list of names.
Mallory stopped reading.
“What list?” Audrey asked.
Mallory continued.
Your mother knows more than she has admitted, but I do not believe she understands the full danger. James has already begun manipulating her. He knows which wounds to touch.
There is one other person who knows the truth.
The letter ended there.
The third page had been torn in half.
The name of the other person was missing.
Mallory searched the envelope.
Nothing.
“Who tore it?” she asked.
Adrian shook his head.
“It was already damaged when Daniel gave it to me.”
A sound came from the floor above.
One slow footstep.
Then another.
Leonard signaled to the guards.
They moved into the corridor.
Mallory closed the diary.
“Jaime is looking for Project Morrow.”
Audrey nodded.
“The account he accessed from my trust was marked Morrow.”
Father Adrian stared at her.
“Your father connected your trust to the project?”
“Apparently.”
Mallory looked at Daniel’s unfinished letter.
“Jaime did not marry me only for the Vale properties.”
“He wanted access to Audrey’s trust as well,” Adrian said.
A crash sounded upstairs.
The lights of the laptop flickered.
Audrey looked at the security feed.
Jaime appeared on the fourth-floor camera.
He was standing in front of a sealed hotel room.
Room 417.
He looked directly at the camera and smiled.
Then he lifted a small black device.
Leonard recognized it first.
“Move away from the windows.”
The device flashed.
Every camera feed went dark.
A second later, an automated lock engaged somewhere below them.
The hotel’s rear fire doors slammed shut.
May you like
Jaime’s voice came through an old speaker mounted near the ceiling.
“You brought the diary, Mallory. Now let us discover which one of you is willing to trade it for the truth.”
