Chapter 4 - Room 617
“Get under it!” Daniel shouted as the steel door dropped.
Howard threw a cardboard box beneath the track.
The door crushed it halfway.
I crawled through first with my mother’s USB drive in my hand.
A shadow moved at the end of the corridor.
Then the lights went out again.
Someone had been inside the building with us.
Daniel pulled Howard through just before the box collapsed.
The metal door slammed behind us.
We ran.
Not elegantly.
Not heroically.
We ran like three people who had finally understood that paperwork and affairs were no longer the most dangerous part of the night.
By the time we reached the parking lot, the shadow was gone.
Howard called the police.
This time I didn’t stop him.
Two officers arrived twelve minutes later.
We told them about the safe.
The messages.
The surveillance.
The money.
Not everything.
I kept my mother’s USB drive.
Maybe that was foolish.
But the anonymous warning had been specific.
Do not call the police yet.
I no longer trusted instructions from strangers, but I trusted my instincts even less when fear was controlling them.
We gave police enough to secure Unit 214.
At 5:06 a.m., Daniel and I drove to the Bellmore Hotel.
Howard went back to St. Vincent.
Kenneth was still there.
Maya too.
Daniel said almost nothing during the drive.
Finally I asked, “Are you okay?”
He laughed without humor.
“My wife slept with your husband, helped move stolen money through our mortgage, and hid a storage-unit key with your name on it.”
“Fair.”
“I’ll schedule being okay for Thursday.”
That sounded like my brother.
Barely.
We reached the hotel before sunrise.
The night manager initially refused to discuss Room 617.
Then Daniel showed him a photograph of Maya and Kenneth entering the hotel.
“I’m not asking you to violate their privacy,” he said. “I’m asking whether something belonging to my sister was left there.”
The manager frowned.
“Your sister?”
I showed my ID.
He looked at the name.
Claire Rollins.
Something changed.
“Wait here.”
He disappeared into the office.
When he returned, he carried a sealed envelope.
My name was written on it.
“Where did that come from?”
He looked uncomfortable.
“A standing instruction.”
“From whom?”
“Mr. Rollins.”
“Kenneth?”
“I assumed so.”
“When was it left?”
He checked a log.
“About four months ago.”
That made no sense.
Kenneth had left an envelope for me at the hotel where he was cheating?
I opened it.
Inside was a key card.
And a note.
IF CLAIRE ROLLINS ASKS, GIVE HER THIS.
Nothing else.
Daniel stared at it.
“Maybe he wanted you to find it.”
“Then why hide it?”
“He’s a coward?”
“That part tracks.”
The manager let us upstairs.
Room 617 was vacant.
The key card worked.
The room looked ordinary.
King bed.
Desk.
Television.
Window overlooking downtown.
Daniel began searching.
“What are we looking for?”
“The missing name.”
“That narrows it down.”
I checked drawers.
Nothing.
Bathroom.
Nothing.
Closet.
Nothing.
Then I remembered the message.
Where Kenneth first betrayed Claire.
Not necessarily the room.
The betrayal.
I stood beside the bed.
“What if the affair wasn’t the first betrayal?”
Daniel looked at me.
“What do you mean?”
“The first stolen transfer happened nine months ago.”
“One month before the affair started.”
He understood.
“So Northstar was first.”
I opened the desk drawer again.
There was a hotel notepad.
Nothing unusual.
Then Daniel examined the desk lamp.
“Claire.”
On the underside of the base were six scratched numbers.
Again.
He twisted the lamp base.
It loosened.
Inside was a tiny memory card.
We looked at each other.
“Mom liked puzzles,” Daniel said.
“Kenneth doesn’t.”
We inserted the card into my laptop using an adapter from the hotel business center.
One audio file.
Kenneth’s voice.
“I don’t know how long I can keep doing this.”
A woman answered.
Maya.
“You said we were almost done.”
“We’re never done. That’s the point.”
“What about Claire?”
“She can’t know.”
“She’s going to notice the money.”
“I’ll replace it.”
“With what?”
“Voss promised me another six months.”
I froze.
Elias Voss.
The man from my mother’s hospital room.
The recording continued.
Maya sounded angry.
“You told me Voss was dead.”
“I told Claire’s family that.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s what he wanted.”
Daniel paused the recording.
“Maya knew Voss.”
“Yes.”
His face tightened.
We kept listening.
Maya said, “And if you don’t cooperate?”
Kenneth replied, “He releases everything.”
“What everything?”
A long silence.
Then Kenneth said:
“My father’s signatures. Claire’s inheritance transfers. The old estate accounts. Everything he made me route.”
Maya whispered, “Then we leave.”
“He’ll find us.”
“Why?”
“Because he found Linda.”
My hand flew to the laptop.
The recording continued.
Maya:
“You told me Linda died of cancer.”
Kenneth:
“She did.”
“Then what does Voss have to do with it?”
Another silence.
Kenneth’s voice became quieter.
“She figured out what he was doing.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“Kenneth.”
“I swear. I don’t know. Dad said Linda was trying to expose him. Then she died before she could.”
Daniel stopped the recording.
He stared at the wall.
“Voss.”
“Yes.”
“At least now we have the missing name.”
“No.”
“What?”
I pointed to the audio timeline.
There were eight minutes left.
We continued.
The conversation changed.
Maya sounded softer.
“You should tell Claire.”
“She’ll leave me.”
“You’re sleeping with me.”
“That started after all this.”
Daniel flinched.
I nearly stopped the recording.
He shook his head.
“Keep going.”
Kenneth said:
“You were supposed to help me get out.”
Maya replied:
“I tried.”
“By becoming part of it?”
“By getting close enough to understand what Voss wanted.”
I stared at the screen.
Daniel did too.
Maya continued.
“I didn’t plan this.”
Kenneth laughed bitterly.
“Neither did I.”
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
Maya said:
“Daniel can never know why I married him.”
Daniel went completely still.
Kenneth answered:
“He’s going to find out.”
“No.”
“Maya, Voss picked you because of Linda’s children. First Claire through me. Then Daniel through you.”
My brother stopped breathing.
I closed the laptop.
He didn’t protest.
We sat in silence.
His marriage had just changed shape.
Maya hadn’t simply cheated on him.
She may have entered his life because someone wanted access to our family.
Daniel stood.
“I need air.”
I followed him to the window.
“You don’t have to decide anything now.”
“I married someone assigned to me.”
“We don’t know that.”
“We heard her.”
“We heard part of it.”
He stared at me.
“Don’t defend her.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
He turned away.
My phone rang.
Kenneth.
I answered.
“What?”
“Where are you?”
“Room 617.”
Silence.
Then he swore.
“How did you—”
“You left the key card.”
Another silence.
“You heard the recording.”
“Yes.”
“Claire, listen to me. Voss is alive.”
“I know.”
“He’s coming for the evidence.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother almost destroyed him.”
“You knew my mother was investigating him.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was twenty-seven when she died. My father told me to stay out of it.”
“That excuse expired seven years ago.”
“I know.”
“Why did you steal my money?”
He exhaled.
“Voss made me.”
“Try again.”
“He had documents showing Dad’s company had processed fraudulent transfers. Some signatures were real. Some weren’t. If they went public, Dad would lose everything and probably go to prison while Voss disappeared.”
“So you stole from me to protect your father.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
“The first transfer was leverage. Then Voss demanded another.”
“And Maya?”
“She found out.”
“Then slept with you.”
“I’m not asking forgiveness.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking you not to underestimate Voss.”
Daniel took the phone from me.
“Why did Maya marry me?”
Kenneth went silent.
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“Answer me.”
“I don’t know everything.”
“What do you know?”
“Voss introduced her to your firm four years ago.”
Daniel’s face collapsed for half a second.
Maya had met him through a consulting project.
He had always called it fate.
Kenneth continued.
“But I think she changed sides.”
Daniel laughed.
“She slept with you.”
“I didn’t say she became a good person.”
That was painfully fair.
“What did she do?” I asked.
“She started copying Voss’s records.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she stopped trusting me three months ago.”
Daniel leaned toward the phone.
“Where would she hide them?”
Kenneth said, “Ask her.”
“I plan to.”
Then Kenneth added, “Claire?”
“What?”
“If the safe opened, Voss knows.”
“We figured that out.”
“No. You don’t understand. The safe wasn't just monitored.”
“What was it?”
“A signal.”
Daniel and I looked at each other.
“A signal for what?”
Kenneth didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said:
“To start destroying every account connected to your mother’s estate.”
I sat down.
“How much time?”
“I don’t know.”
“Kenneth.”
“Maybe twelve hours.”
Daniel looked at the clock.
It was 6:22 a.m.
“Can we stop it?”
“Only if we find the master ledger.”
“Where?”
Kenneth exhaled.
“Maya knows.”
We left the hotel immediately.
At 6:51, we returned to St. Vincent.
Police were already there.
I thought they had come for Kenneth.
I was wrong.
Maya’s hospital bed was empty.
One officer spoke with Dr. Patel.
Daniel grabbed my arm.
“Where is she?”
The doctor turned.
“She was discharged twenty minutes ago.”
“By whom?”
“She left on her own.”
“She had no clothes.”
“A woman brought some.”
“What woman?”
Dr. Patel hesitated.
“She said she was Maya’s mother.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Maya’s mother died when she was twelve.”
The officer looked up.
I checked my phone.
A new message waited.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
MAYA HAS THE LEDGER.
A second message arrived.
SHE ALSO KNOWS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO YOUR MOTHER.
Then a third.
IF YOU WANT BOTH, COME ALONE.
An address appeared.
Daniel saw it.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Claire, absolutely not.”
Before I could answer, another message arrived.
This one included a photograph.
Maya sat in the back seat of a car.
Someone’s hand rested on her shoulder.
Beside her was a silver-haired man.
Older now.
But unmistakable.
Elias Voss.
May you like
And beneath the photograph were four words:
HE KNOWS YOU’RE COMING.
