Chapter 8 - The Camera That Went Dark.
The pounding came again.
Three hard blows.
Then silence.
Daniel stared at the door.
"Security wouldn't knock like that."
Miriam raised the revolver.
Charlotte inserted the flash drive into the black tablet.
"Then we watch now."
Daniel looked at her.
"Charlotte, if someone is outside—"
"Then I'd rather know who I'm standing beside before they come in."
The video opened.
A grainy timestamp appeared in one corner.
10:42:11 P.M.
Eleanor Vale stepped into the nineteenth-floor corridor.
She looked angry.
Alive.
Charlotte's breath caught.
Her mother stopped beneath the camera and checked her phone.
Three minutes later, Victor Hale appeared.
He followed her toward the private stairwell.
Daniel leaned closer.
"Keep going."
At 10:51, a man in a black suit crossed the corridor.
Same height as Daniel.
Same build.
Same haircut.
Charlotte paused the image.
"That's you."
"No."
Daniel pointed at the man's left hand.
"I wear my wedding ring on that hand."
The man's fingers were bare.
Miriam stared.
Daniel continued.
"And I broke my left wrist when I was twenty-seven."
"It doesn't rotate fully."
On screen, the man's wrist turned easily as he opened the stairwell door.
Charlotte felt a new kind of fear.
"Someone dressed like you."
Daniel nodded.
"Someone wanted the cameras to see me."
The pounding returned.
This time a voice followed.
"Mr. Mercer?"
Hotel security.
Daniel moved toward the door.
Miriam stopped him.
"Ask for the code."
Daniel frowned.
"What code?"
"Eleanor created a verbal challenge after she suspected internal security was compromised."
Daniel called through the door.
"Blue orchard."
There was a pause.
The voice outside answered.
"Winter glass."
Miriam exhaled.
"That's correct."
Daniel opened the door.
Two security officers stood outside.
Behind them was Vanessa.
Charlotte's anger returned immediately.
"I told you to stay downstairs."
Vanessa ignored her.
She looked at Miriam.
"You're alive."
Miriam's expression became hard.
"Disappointed?"
Vanessa stepped into the suite.
"I came because Victor is gone."
"His car left the underground garage nine minutes ago."
Charlotte folded her arms.
"Why should I believe you?"
Vanessa looked at the list on the desk.
Her own name stared back at her.
"Because I know why I'm on that paper."
Miriam watched her closely.
Vanessa reached into her white clutch and removed a keycard.
It was black with a gold edge.
"Victor gave me this after Eleanor died."
Daniel recognized it.
"That's an executive archive key."
Vanessa nodded.
"He told me never to use it unless Charlotte came back."
Charlotte's eyes narrowed.
"Use it where?"
Vanessa pointed toward the bedroom.
"There is a room behind that wall."
Miriam looked confused.
"There is no room there."
Vanessa gave Charlotte a grim smile.
"Your mother disagreed."
She slid the card along the wooden paneling.
A hidden door clicked open.
Charlotte felt the night narrowing around them.
Every hidden room produced another secret, and every secret seemed to prove that her mother had spent her final weeks building a trail for Charlotte to follow.
The thought was comforting for one second.
Then it became terrifying.
Eleanor had built the trail because she expected not to survive.
Inside, a monitor was already glowing.
On the screen was a live camera feed.
May you like
It showed Victor Hale standing inside a room labeled ARCHIVE B.
And beside him was Eli, the injured hotel employee, bound to a chair.
