Chapter 2 - The Empty Room

Adrian drove his shoulder into the door. Once. Twice. A brass hinge groaned, but the lock held. Guests backed away from the sound.

"Somebody get a key," he shouted.

The hotel manager, Emil Hart, hurried forward, speaking softly as though manners could repair the scene. "Mr. Ward, this is a private service suite. We can resolve this without alarming everyone."

"My daughter's mother is inside."

"There is no one inside," Emil said.

Adrian stared at him. "Then why won't you open it?"

A tall guard in a gray suit appeared near the bar. His name badge read KENT RUSK. He put one hand to an earpiece, glanced at Simone, and vanished into a side passage. Adrian started after him, but Poppy called out in terror.

"Daddy, she's stopping!"

The knocking behind the door had ceased.

A bridesmaid fetched a master key. Emil swiped it across the lock. A green light blinked. Adrian yanked open the door so hard it struck the wall.

Inside sat an unused dressing table, a rack of folded banquet linens, and two rolling trunks. No Elise. No windows large enough for escape. Yet the room was warm, and a paper cup rocked slowly on the table, as if someone had just set it down.

"See?" Simone said from the hallway. "She heard a recording. Children imagine things."

Poppy pointed at the carpet. "The floor moved."

Adrian crouched. The fitted rug ended beneath the linen rack. Beyond it, a narrow steel hatch had been left open a finger's width. A service lift. He could hear its machinery descending inside the wall.

"Who controls that lift?" he demanded.

Emil began to answer, then stopped when Adrian saw the silver cuff button caught in the hatch track. It belonged to a woman's blue coat. Elise had worn a blue coat in every photograph from the week she vanished.

Adrian slid the button into his palm.

A woman in a catering uniform approached, her face pale. "Sir," she whispered, "I heard someone crying in there before the ceremony."

"Tell me your name."

"Nina Bell. I work banquets. Please don't say I told you."

"Why?"

She looked over his shoulder toward Simone. "Because the man in gray said the next person who opened that door would lose more than a job."

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As Nina spoke, Adrian's phone vibrated. A message came from Elise's number, the number that had been silent for thirty-nine days.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE HER ALIVE, STOP THE WEDDING AND COME ALONE.