CHAPTER 13 — THE ROAD TO ROOM 913
Ethan refused to remain behind.
He, Claire and Vanessa drove north under assumed names. Adrian followed in another vehicle with copies of every document they had found.
Twenty miles from the hotel, Adrian stopped responding.
His car was discovered beside the highway.
The driver’s door was open.
The files were gone.
A message had been carved into the frost on the windshield:
ONE CLAIRE MUST DISAPPEAR AGAIN.
Vanessa wanted to turn back.
Claire continued driving.
At the hotel, Room 913 was registered to a man named David Carter.
The elevators had been disabled, forcing them to use the stairs.
On the ninth floor, they found the hallway empty.
A red silk dress hung from the handle of Room 913.
It was the same dress Vanessa had worn when Claire fell.
Inside one pocket was the original memory card from the hotel camera.
The missing eleven seconds had not been deleted.
The full footage showed Margaret giving Vanessa the signal.
But it also showed Claire placing something beneath the chair before Vanessa arrived.
Claire watched herself on the screen.
“I don’t remember doing that.”
The object beneath the chair was a small transmitter.
After the fall, it activated the hallway camera’s hidden backup system.
Someone had instructed Claire to ensure the footage could not be erased.
Ethan looked at her.
“Who taught you how to do that?”
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa stepped away from Claire.
“Your memory wasn’t lost. It was altered.”
Room 913 opened by itself.
Inside, Margaret sat beside a hospital bed.
Patient D stood at the window.
He turned slowly.
Ethan had seen his father’s face in hundreds of photographs.
The resemblance was perfect.
But one detail was wrong.
Daniel Blackwood had broken his right hand during a sailing accident. Two fingers never bent correctly afterward.
The man by the window moved both hands normally.
“You’re David,” Ethan said.
The man smiled.
“That is what Daniel wanted everyone to believe.”
Margaret looked exhausted.
“Stop playing with him.”
The man walked toward Claire.
“You came back.”
Claire did not recognize him, but tears filled her eyes before he touched her.
Her body remembered what her mind did not.
He placed one hand against her cheek.
“You were always the brave one.”
Vanessa asked the question everyone feared.
“Which of us is Claire?”
The man looked from one woman to the other.
“Neither of you.”
Then the bathroom door opened.
A blond woman stepped into the room.
She appeared to be the same age as Claire and Vanessa.
She held the missing brass key.
May you like
“My name is Claire Carter,” she said.
“And one of you stole my life.”
