Chapter 21 - Someone Was Living Upstairs
Everyone stared at the blinking location.
Daniel enlarged the digital map.
The signal wasn't coming from the underground complex.
It was several floors above them.
Specifically...
The hotel's long-abandoned west wing.
Richard frowned.
"That section was closed after the fire."
Edward nodded.
"Officially."
The map zoomed in automatically.
Room numbers appeared.
Most had been sealed for nearly twenty-five years.
Only one room flashed repeatedly.
Suite 1707
Maria looked confused.
"I clean the seventeenth floor every week."
"There is no Room 1707."
Edward answered quietly.
"There isn't."
Richard looked sharply toward him.
"You mean there isn't anymore."
Edward slowly exhaled.
"The hallway ends at 1706."
"But behind that wall..."
He didn't finish.
Richard already understood.
A hidden suite.
Concealed during renovations.
Daniel quickly checked the hotel's architectural database.
The seventeenth-floor blueprint had been altered seven separate times over the past two decades.
Each revision removed a small section of corridor.
Each version appeared legitimate.
Only when the plans were layered together did the missing space become obvious.
Richard folded his arms.
"Someone erased an entire room."
Edward corrected him.
"Someone hid it."
A sudden crackling sound filled the speakers.
Then a woman's voice.
Soft.
Calm.
Almost whispering.
"If you're hearing this..."
Richard froze.
His breathing stopped.
The voice continued.
"...Dad..."
Maria's eyes widened.
Daniel slowly turned toward Richard.
"It can't be..."
The recording was brief.
Only four seconds.
But Richard recognized it instantly.
Emily.
Not as an eight-year-old child.
As a grown woman.
The message ended abruptly.
The speakers fell silent.
Richard closed his eyes.
"My daughter..."
Edward placed a hand on his shoulder.
"We have one hour."
Richard looked toward the staircase leading upward.
"No."
His voice was calm.
"We've already lost twenty-eight years."
May you like
He picked up the silver compass.
"We're going upstairs."
