Chapter 12 - The Hallway
“Don’t open it,” Lily said.
Noah’s breathing scraped against the microphone.
“He says he’s hotel security.”
“Call the front desk.”
“My mom has the other phone.”
Lily rolled into the living room.
“Dad.”
Andrew was on his feet before she reached him.
She put Noah on speaker.
Andrew called the hotel from his own phone while Beth dialed emergency services.
A man knocked three times.
“Noah?
Your mother asked us to bring you downstairs.”
Noah made a small sound.
Andrew looked at Lily.
She saw the answer in his face.
The hotel had sent no one.
“Noah,” she said.
“Remember the pantry?”
“What?”
“At my house.
When the smoke alarm went off.”
He had been ten.
He had hidden because he thought he had caused the fire.
Rosa had found him behind a shelf of paper towels.
“Small steps,” Lily said.
“One thing at a time.”
The doorknob moved.
“Put the latch on.”
“It is.”
“Get away from the door.”
Andrew was already giving the hotel manager the room number.
The man outside knocked harder.
“Noah.
We’re running out of patience.”
Lily gripped her phone.
“Go into the bathroom.
Lock that door too.”
Footsteps.
A click.
Then Noah whispered, “Okay.”
Andrew kept his voice steady.
“Real hotel security is coming.
They know your name.”
A crash sounded through the phone.
Lily flinched.
“Stay with me.”
In the background, voices rose.
Someone shouted for the man to stop.
Then running feet.
The next voice was Rosa’s.
“Noah!”
The bathroom lock scraped.
He began crying before he answered her.
At the hotel, police found a damaged room latch and a man caught near the stairwell.
He said he worked for a private investigations company.
He claimed he had only been trying to deliver a message.
Rosa had been delayed downstairs by another man asking about her employment records.
Neither had expected the hotel manager to call police.
By morning, both men had attorneys.
So did the private investigations company.
Claire arrived at Beth’s apartment carrying a fresh stack of papers.
Andrew looked at her.
“Grant?”
“The company’s invoice went to his consulting business.”
Lily felt her anger settle into something colder.
Claire set down one more page.
“There’s something else.
He called Rosa twelve minutes before this happened.”
Rosa hadn’t answered.
So Grant had left a voicemail.
Claire pressed play.
May you like
“Sign the statement tonight,” he said.
“Then you and your boy can go back to having ordinary problems.”
