Chapter 15 - Suite 1802
The elevator doors opened onto the eighteenth floor.
Camila stepped out with two detectives, Nolan, Mateo, and Rafael.
Daniel was kept downstairs with another officer.
The hallway was quiet enough to hear the elevator chime fade behind them.
Suite 1802 stood at the far end.
The door was cracked open.
One detective raised a hand. "Stay behind me."
They entered.
The living room looked untouched.
Champagne on ice.
A red shawl over a chair.
Elena's shoes beside the couch.
Then Camila saw the bedroom.
Drawers ripped open.
Suitcases dumped.
A jewelry box upside down.
"Someone searched it," Mateo said.
Elena had told them the recipe box was hidden inside the room safe.
The safe door was open.
Empty.
Camila's chest tightened.
"Who has override access?" the detective asked.
Nolan's face was grim. "Executive security. General manager. Me."
"And Bianca?"
"No."
"Daniel?"
"No."
Camila looked around.
A faint trail of gold dust crossed the carpet.
She crouched.
Edible gold.
The same kind used on the cake.
Mateo noticed too. "That came from downstairs."
They followed the glittering specks into the bathroom.
The window was open.
No one had climbed out eighteen stories up.
But a hotel laundry cart sat beneath the service panel beside the bathroom.
Nolan stared. "There's a staff passage behind that wall."
He pressed the hidden latch.
The panel opened into a narrow service corridor.
Footsteps echoed somewhere ahead.
"Police!" the detective shouted.
The footsteps sped up.
They ran.
Camila knew she should stay back.
She didn't.
The corridor ended at a freight elevator.
Doors closing.
A hand visible between them.
Mateo lunged and jammed the emergency stop.
The doors bounced open.
Noah stood inside the elevator.
Holding Marisol's metal recipe box.
Nolan's face collapsed.
"Noah."
Noah looked terrified. "Dad, I swear - "
"Why do you have that?"
"She told me to bring it downstairs."
"Who?" Camila demanded.
Noah lifted a shaking finger toward the back of the elevator.
A woman stepped out from behind a stack of folded banquet tables.
Not Bianca.
Victoria.
She was holding Daniel's missing key card.
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