Chapter 4 - THE MAN IN THE HALLWAY
Charlotte refused to stay in the penthouse.
Sebastian hated the idea.
Daniel hated it more.
“You should remain upstairs until we know who accessed the cameras.”
Charlotte pulled on her jacket.
“No.”
“Ms. Valle—”
“Charlotte.”
Daniel took a breath.
“Charlotte, whoever did this knew when you would arrive.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s why you should stay here.”
“That’s why I’m not staying here.”
Sebastian watched her.
“What are you planning?”
“To find my notebook.”
“This is a hotel, not a detective movie.”
Charlotte opened the door.
“Then tell your hotel to stop acting like one.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Almost.
He followed her downstairs.
They checked the service corridor behind the ballroom.
Laundry carts.
Catering doors.
Employee elevators.
Nothing.
Then Charlotte saw it.
A small scrap of black paper beside a fire exit.
She crouched.
“Daniel.”
He came closer.
The paper had been torn from the notebook’s inner cover.
Charlotte pushed open the fire door.
Footsteps echoed below.
Someone was running.
“Hey!”
Charlotte took off.
“Charlotte!” Daniel shouted.
She raced down two flights.
A man in a black hotel jacket turned the corner.
“Stop!”
He looked back.
Baseball cap.
Dark beard.
Employee badge turned backward.
He sprinted faster.
Charlotte followed.
They burst through a kitchen.
A cook jumped aside.
“What the hell?”
The man slammed through another door.
Charlotte grabbed a rolling cart and shoved it after him.
It hit his legs.
He crashed into the wall.
The notebook flew from his hand.
Charlotte lunged.
He kicked the notebook away.
Then shoved her backward.
She hit a steel counter.
Pain exploded through her shoulder.
The man ran.
Daniel reached the kitchen seconds later.
“Are you hurt?”
“Forget me!”
Charlotte pointed.
“He went that way!”
Two security guards chased him.
Charlotte scrambled to the notebook.
She grabbed it.
Then stopped.
The back cover had been sliced open.
Empty.
“No.”
Daniel crouched beside her.
“What?”
Charlotte turned the notebook toward him.
“The papers are gone.”
The guards returned five minutes later.
No man.
No badge.
Nothing.
“He got outside,” one guard said.
Daniel’s face turned red.
“How?”
The guard hesitated.
“Someone opened the loading gate.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
Charlotte stood.
“You have a lot of things you don’t know.”
The guard looked offended.
Daniel didn’t.
He looked worried.
Charlotte flipped through the damaged notebook.
Most pages were still there.
Old grocery lists.
Phone numbers.
Her mother’s handwriting.
Then something fell out.
A photograph.
Charlotte had never seen it.
Olivia stood beside a younger Margaret Wren.
Both women were smiling.
Behind them was Sebastian.
On the back, Olivia had written:
If anything happens to me, ask her about St. Claire.
Daniel stared at it.
“St. Claire?”
Charlotte shook her head.
“No idea.”
A voice came from the kitchen doorway.
“I do.”
They turned.
May you like
Margaret was standing there.
And for the first time that night, she wasn’t smiling.
