Chapter 13 - THE EMPTY HOTEL
The trace placed Scarlett’s phone near the abandoned Golden Crown Hotel.
The property had once been Vale International’s most famous Manhattan landmark.
It had closed two years earlier for renovations that never began.
The building occupied an entire block.
Hundreds of rooms stood empty above a dark marble lobby.
Victor still possessed an executive key.
Police surrounded the hotel.
Noah arrived from the harbor moments later.
Mia remained in the hospital command center, watching live camera feeds.
Noah wanted her protected.
She wanted to be where every decision was made.
A tactical team entered through the loading dock.
The lobby was empty.
Dust covered the reception desk.
Emergency lights glowed along the walls.
A child’s cry echoed faintly through the building.
Noah heard it through the officer’s body camera.
“Lily.”
The sound came from the ballroom level.
Officers climbed the stairs.
They found a portable incubator connected to a battery pack in the center of the ballroom.
A recorded baby cry played from a speaker beside it.
Lily was not there.
Scarlett appeared on the giant projection screen above the empty dance floor.
She was broadcasting from somewhere else inside the hotel.
“Noah.”
“You always loved dramatic entrances.”
“Where is my daughter?”
“Safe.”
“For the next thirty minutes.”
“What do you want?”
“The original foundation ledger.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Eleanor does.”
“She refused to tell Victor where she sent it.”
Scarlett smiled bitterly.
“But Mia knows.”
At the hospital, every face turned toward Mia.
She did know.
Eleanor had sent her a coded message weeks earlier.
The original ledger was stored inside a private vault beneath the Golden Crown Hotel.
Mia had believed it referred to a bank.
She now understood it meant this building.
She took the command microphone.
“Scarlett.”
Scarlett’s eyes widened when Mia’s voice came through the ballroom speakers.
“You’re supposed to be in bed.”
“You’re supposed to be in prison.”
Scarlett’s smile vanished.
“Tell Noah where the ledger is.”
“Put Lily in front of the camera.”
“No.”
“Then you get nothing.”
Scarlett disappeared from the screen.
A timer replaced her image.
Twenty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds.
Twenty-nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds.
Marcus studied the hotel blueprints.
“There is an old vault beneath the ballroom.”
Noah looked toward the officers.
“Find it.”
The tactical team searched behind the stage.
They discovered a hidden elevator operated by a brass key.
Noah removed the centennial lion cuff link from his sleeve.
A narrow pin extended from its back.
He inserted it into the lock.
The elevator doors opened.
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From somewhere below, Lily began crying.
This time, the sound was real.
