Daniel leaned closer.
“That's him?”
“The man who was watching me.”
The security director switched cameras.
The stranger appeared near the elevators.
Then near reception.
Then beside the restaurant entrance.
Every time, his face remained turned away.
“He knows where the cameras are,” Daniel whispered.
Eleanor felt a chill.
“Follow him.”
The footage jumped between cameras.
The man crossed the lobby.
Entered the revolving door.
Reached the sidewalk—
and vanished.
The security director frowned.
“That isn't possible.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are three exterior cameras.”
He switched views.
Nothing.
No man.
No taxi.
No waiting vehicle.
Daniel stared at the screens.
“So where did he go?”
Eleanor already suspected the answer.
“He never went outside.”
She pointed at the revolving door.
“Zoom in.”
The image enlarged.
The man stepped into one compartment of the revolving door.
But instead of completing the rotation, he continued around—
and returned into the lobby on the opposite side.
Then he slipped through a staff entrance hidden behind a decorative wall.
Daniel's expression changed.
“Only employees know that passage.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“Exactly.”
They followed the service corridor beneath the hotel.
The luxury of the Grandview disappeared quickly.
Marble became concrete.
Crystal chandeliers became fluorescent lights.
The elegant silence upstairs was replaced by humming ventilation systems and distant machinery.
At the end of the corridor stood an old freight elevator.
Daniel stopped.
“That hasn't been used in years.”
“Where does it go?”
“Basement three.”
Eleanor frowned.
“There is no basement three.”
“Not on the current plans.”
That answer hung between them.
Daniel inserted his master key.
Nothing happened.
Then Eleanor noticed something.
The elevator button was clean.
Everything around it was covered in dust.
Someone had been using it.
Recently.
“Open it.”
Daniel tried again.
Still nothing.
Then Eleanor's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Silence.
“Who is this?”
A distorted voice finally spoke.
“You should have left the hotel.”
Eleanor's grip tightened.
“Who are you?”
“You're asking the wrong question.”
“Then give me the right one.”
A faint laugh.
“Ask your son what happened in Room 314.”
The call ended.
Daniel looked at her.
“What did they say?”
Eleanor didn't answer immediately.
Room 314.
She knew that number.
But she couldn't remember why.
Then it came back.
Twenty-seven years earlier.
A fire.
A dead employee.
A sealed investigation.
And one decision Eleanor had spent decades trying to forget.
“Take me to Mark.”
Mark sat alone inside the executive conference room.
The auditors had confiscated his laptop and phone.
When Eleanor entered, he looked exhausted.
“Mom.”
“Room 314.”
Mark's head snapped up.
That was enough.
Eleanor closed the door.
“What happened there?”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Don't lie to me again.”
Mark stood.
“You need to leave the hotel.”
Eleanor stared at him.
Those were almost exactly the stranger's words.
“Why?”
“Because this isn't about money.”
“Then what is it about?”
Mark looked toward the glass walls.
“Turn off the cameras.”
“There are no cameras in here.”
“Yes, there are.”
Eleanor followed his gaze toward the smoke detector.
Daniel climbed onto a chair and removed its plastic cover.
Inside was a tiny black lens.
A microphone.
Someone had been listening.
Mark whispered, “Now do you believe me?”
Eleanor's confidence faltered for the first time.