Chapter 17 - The Woman in Room 714Security found no sign of Elise in the garden.
The black car that had brought her remained outside, but the driver had vanished. Its registration belonged to a transportation company dissolved seventeen years earlier.
Inside the vehicle, Sofia found a single hotel key.
Room 714.
“There is no Room 714,” Adrian said.
Mara looked at him.
“The code in Grandmother’s letter began with 0714.”
Adrian’s expression tightened.
He led them to the original resort building, which had been closed during renovations. Behind a temporary wall on the seventh floor, they discovered a corridor excluded from every modern blueprint.
At the end stood a door marked 714.
The founding-member card opened it.
The room had not been abandoned.
Fresh flowers stood near the window. A cream coat lay across the bed. On the table sat a cup of tea that was still warm.
Mara touched the sleeve of the coat.
It matched the one Elise had worn.
Sofia searched the bathroom while Adrian examined the windows. Patricia opened the wardrobe and found dresses in three different sizes.
“Someone has been living here,” she said.
“More than one person,” Mara replied.
Photographs covered the inside of the wardrobe door.
Mara leaving school.
Mara beginning university.
Mara entering the financial consultancy where she worked.
Some pictures had been taken from across streets or through restaurant windows.
Her entire life had been observed.
At the bottom was a photograph taken eleven days earlier.
Eleanor lay in her coffin.
A woman stood in the chapel doorway behind Mara.
Her face had been circled in blue ink.
Mara recognized the woman from the restaurant.
On the back, someone had written:
She attended her own mother’s funeral but did not speak to her daughter. Ask yourself why.
Patricia suddenly called from the bathroom.
Behind the mirror was a narrow medical cabinet filled with injectable medication, surgical adhesive, wigs, and skin-colored prosthetics.
Sofia lifted a transparent facial mold from the shelf.
It resembled Elise Sutton.
Then Adrian found a hidden door beside the bed.
The passage behind it descended into darkness.
A sound rose from below.
Someone was crying.
Mara stepped into the passage.
The voice stopped.
May you like
Then a woman said:
“Mara, please don’t let Helena see you.”
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