Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Prepared the Tea
The elevator stopped at thirty-one.
Nico drew a pistol.
Marlo stared at it.
“Is that necessary?”
“Yes.”
Cassian answered from behind her.
“You should stay downstairs.”
Marlo inserted the brass key between her fingers.
“My name is on the key.”
“That's precisely why.”
The corridor was empty when the doors opened.
Room 3107 stood at the far end.
Its handle was moving.
Nico advanced first.
Cassian followed.
Marlo should have stayed inside the elevator.
She didn't.
The door flew open.
A woman in a white kitchen uniform rushed out.
Nico caught her before she made three steps.
She screamed.
“Don't!”
Marlo recognized her.
“Elise?”
Elise Warren prepared tea for executive suites.
She was sixty-two and had worked at the Black Lantern longer than Marlo.
Nico searched her.
No weapon.
Only a ring of keys.
Cassian stared at her.
“You prepared my tea.”
Elise began crying.
“I didn't know.”
“Know what?”
“They told me it was for your stomach.”
“Who?”
Elise looked terrified.
“I can't.”
Nico tightened his grip.
“Try.”
“They'll kill my grandson.”
Marlo stepped closer.
“Elise, look at me.”
The woman did.
“You didn't come up here to hurt Cassian.”
“No.”
“Why were you opening this room?”
Elise's eyes moved toward the brass key.
“Because someone called me ten minutes ago.”
“What did they say?”
“That the laundry woman had found the cup.”
Marlo's skin prickled.
“And?”
“That if I wanted my grandson alive, I had to destroy whatever Maria left behind.”
Cassian looked toward the room.
Nico opened the door fully.
Dust.
Covered furniture.
A narrow window.
A metal cabinet.
Nothing else.
Marlo entered.
Her mother's key fit the cabinet.
Inside sat a cardboard box.
MARLO was written across the top.
Her hands trembled.
She opened it.
A gray housekeeping uniform lay folded inside.
Under it was a photograph.
Her mother stood beside a much younger Cassian.
Beside Cassian stood his father.
And beside his father stood Dr. Pell.
Marlo stared at the picture.
“He knew her.”
Cassian took the photograph.
His expression darkened.
A folded note rested beneath it.
Marlo opened it.
Three words.
ASK ABOUT EIGHT.
“Eight what?” Nico asked.
Cassian looked toward the photograph.
“Doctors.”
Marlo frowned.
“You had seven doctors upstairs.”
Cassian's gaze sharpened.
“Exactly.”
A phone rang behind them.
Not one of theirs.
They turned.
The sound came from inside the wall.
Nico found a loose panel.
Behind it was an old cellphone connected to a charger.
The screen glowed.
UNKNOWN CALLER.
Cassian answered.
Nobody spoke at first.
Then a distorted voice said, “Maria's daughter should have stayed invisible.”
The call ended.
A second later, the room lights died.
In the darkness, somebody whispered from the corridor.
May you like
“Marlo.”
And the voice sounded exactly like her mother.
