Chapter 12 - The Room Behind the Ballroom
Cole's challenge delayed the hearing, but it couldn't erase what Ellie had seen. To make the girl's account useful, we needed independent proof. I called the hotel's general manager, April Sutton, who had worked for us long before Cole appeared.
"I kept my own backup of the security cameras," she said. "After the first clip vanished, I assumed someone was covering up a liability."
April let Detective Brooks collect the backup from a secure server. The video showed Vanessa entering a bridal preparation suite at 7:42 p.m., one hand on a dress bag. Twelve minutes later, she emerged with a rounded stomach under her gown. Before that, her figure had been noticeably different. A grainy reflection in a mirror showed her fastening something beneath the fabric.
"I went in there looking for Rosa," Ellie told Brooks during a gentle, recorded interview with Nora beside her. "The woman had a zipper and a squishy belly on the table. She told me it was a pillow. Then she put it under her dress."
"What made you tell Daniel?" Brooks asked.
"Mommy said if a bad person tells a big lie, the truth still counts when a little person says it."
No one in the room spoke for a moment.
Inside a torn garment bag were flesh-colored fastening strips and a molded foam insert. It wasn't enough by itself to prove every crime, but combined with the footage and Dr. Larkin's statement, the fraud was impossible to shrug away.
April then produced a printed cleaning log. One attendant had signed out the suite thirty minutes after Vanessa left. The name was Paul Keene, Blake's personal driver.
"Paul was never assigned to this hotel," April said. "He shouldn't have been on staff lists."
Brooks called for a trace on Paul's work badge and vehicle.
Meanwhile, I went to my father's old office, untouched since the funeral. The desk held a little brass compass, a family photograph, and a stack of unsent letters. Under the blotter I found a note in Dad's precise handwriting:
IF DANIEL FINDS THE NAME HARBOR SEVEN, TELL HIM I WAS WRONG TO TRUST BLAKE.
May you like
On the back was a six-digit number.
As I read it, my office door clicked shut behind me.
