Chapter 6 - THE GUEST WHO WAS ALREADY DEAD
Jonah searched the hotel room twice.
No hidden person was found.
The bathroom vent was too narrow for anyone to enter, and the door had remained visible from the main room. The red writing was fresh, but the lipstick tube lay inside Evelyn’s handbag.
She had not placed it there.
Someone had touched her belongings while she traveled from her apartment to the hotel.
Julian refused police protection.
“If this reaches the police before the gala, Helena will know everything we have,” he said.
“Helena already knows,” Evelyn replied.
“No. She knows we found Father’s room. She doesn’t know about Anna.”
“Someone does.”
Adrian stood near the window.
“Anna may not be alive.”
Julian shook his head. “I spoke to her.”
“By video?”
“By telephone.”
“Then you spoke to a voice.”
Julian opened the silent footage again.
The woman in the catering uniform appeared for only four seconds.
Jonah captured the clearest frame and ran it through a private identification service.
The result arrived one hour later.
Anna Mercer had died in a boating accident seven years earlier.
Her body had never been recovered, but she had been legally declared dead after investigators found her blood inside the abandoned boat.
“Convenient,” Adrian said.
Jonah enlarged the woman’s face.
“The image could be manipulated.”
“Or Anna survived,” Evelyn replied.
Julian leaned against the desk.
“She told me Charles Vale was murdered.”
Evelyn turned toward him.
“You left that out.”
“She had no proof.”
“What exactly did she say?”
“She said Father discovered someone had been moving foundation money through shell charities. He intended to confront the trustees after your birthday.”
“My tenth birthday?”
“Yes. That was when the first transfer occurred.”
“Twenty years ago?”
“Small amounts at first. Then millions.”
Adrian looked at Julian. “Who benefited?”
“Companies connected to board members, political donors, and private contractors. Father spent years tracing it.”
“And Helena?”
“He believed she was involved, but not alone.”
Evelyn thought of Celeste’s warning again.
Helena is no longer the person giving the orders.
Jonah’s phone vibrated.
He read the message and frowned.
“The caterer preparing the gala has an employee named Anne Mercer.”
Julian moved closer.
“Photograph?”
“No employee photograph. Temporary hire. Her documents were submitted through Celeste’s office.”
Evelyn called Celeste.
She answered immediately.
“Why did you hire Anne Mercer?”
Celeste did not speak.
“Celeste?”
“Where are you?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Is Julian with you?”
Evelyn looked at her brother.
“How did you know?”
“Because Helena just received a photograph of the three of you entering the Ashford.”
Adrian closed the curtains.
Celeste continued.
“Leave through the kitchen. Do not use the elevators.”
“Who is Anne Mercer?”
“I don’t know.”
“Her documents came through your office.”
“I never approved them.”
“Then who did?”
“Someone using my credentials.”
“Can you access the application?”
“I’m looking at it now.”
Keys clicked through the phone.
Celeste’s breathing changed.
“What is it?” Evelyn asked.
“The emergency contact.”
“Whose name?”
“Charles Vale.”
The call disconnected.
Seconds later, the hotel fire alarm began ringing.
Smoke spread beneath the door.
Jonah entered from the service corridor.
“We move now.”
They followed him down a rear staircase while hotel guests evacuated through the main exits. On the second floor, Jonah stopped so abruptly that Evelyn nearly collided with him.
A woman in a catering uniform stood at the bottom of the stairs.
She looked exactly like the woman in the old birthday photograph.
“Anna?” Julian called.
The woman lifted one finger to her lips.
Then she turned and ran.
Jonah followed.
Evelyn, Adrian, and Julian reached the lobby seconds later.
The woman had disappeared into the crowd.
Jonah stood beside the revolving doors, holding a silver music box.
Evelyn recognized it instantly.
It was the box she had carried on her tenth birthday.
A note was tucked beneath the lid.
The witness will stand where she stood before.
Do not let the woman in red reach the staircase first.
The music box began playing.
Halfway through the melody, the mechanism clicked.
May you like
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a bloodstained key.
