Chapter 5 - THE ROOM THAT WAS NEVER EMPTY
Locker seventy-two stood in an abandoned laundry annex beneath the hotel.
Emily arrived with Gabriel and an investigator.
Roman waited outside.
He had learned that his presence could make employees reluctant to speak.
Emily inserted Margaret's key.
The lock opened.
Inside was a canvas bag.
A notebook.
A small recorder.
And a photograph.
Emily picked up the photograph.
It showed Margaret standing beside three employees.
One was a young woman Emily didn't recognize.
The date on the back was eight years earlier.
Gabriel examined it.
“That's Nora Whitfield.”
Emily frowned.
“Who?”
“A former payroll analyst.”
“What happened to her?”
Gabriel hesitated.
“She died in a car accident.”
Emily looked at the photograph.
Margaret had circled Nora's face.
On the back she had written:
SHE FOUND IT FIRST.
***
The notebook contained dozens of entries.
Dates.
Amounts.
Employee identification numbers.
Bank transfers.
Margaret had documented discrepancies for years.
The recorder contained a conversation.
A man's voice.
Thomas Keller.
“You need to stop asking questions.”
Margaret answered:
“People worked for that money.”
Keller laughed.
“You think Roman Bellini cares about dishwashers and doormen?”
“Then I'll make him care.”
A chair scraped.
Keller's voice hardened.
“You have no idea who you're dealing with.”
The recording ended.
Emily felt sick.
Gabriel preserved the device for investigators.
Then he examined the final page of Margaret's notebook.
A series of numbers.
Room numbers.
Dates.
And initials.
One entry appeared repeatedly.
1300 — V.B.
Emily stared.
“Victor Bellini.”
Gabriel nodded.
“But there is no guest room 1300.”
Emily looked toward the ceiling.
“There is a thirteenth floor.”
***
That night, Roman returned to the hidden archives.
He ordered a complete architectural survey.
Behind one filing cabinet, engineers discovered a concealed door.
It led to a small room.
No windows.
A desk.
A safe.
A private communications line.
And a security monitor showing the hotel's loading dock.
Roman stared at the room.
It had been used recently.
A coffee cup sat on the desk.
A calendar showed the current month.
Someone had been working there while Roman believed the floor was sealed.
Gabriel opened a drawer.
Inside were visitor logs.
Victor Bellini's name appeared dozens of times.
So did Thomas Keller's.
And Nora Whitfield's.
The final entry for Nora was dated the night before her fatal car accident.
Roman looked at Gabriel.
“Call the authorities.”
Then he noticed something beneath the desk.
A loose floor panel.
He lifted it.
Inside was a leather-bound ledger.
The first page contained his father's handwriting.
Roman recognized it immediately.
His hands went cold.
May you like
The past he believed he had buried had been waiting beneath his own hotel.
---
