Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN ROOM 214
The motel was forty minutes outside town.
Police had already secured the property by the time we arrived.
Room 214 was at the end of the second-floor corridor.
The door was sealed.
Morales opened it.
The room smelled like old carpet and disinfectant.
A bed.
A chair.
A small television.
Nothing unusual.
Then Claire entered.
She stopped.
“This is it.”
Her hands trembled.
I stood beside her.
“What happened here?”
“He left me on that bed.”
“Where did he go?”
“Downstairs.”
“For how long?”
“Three hours.”
“What did you do?”
“I waited.”
She looked toward the bathroom.
“Then I heard voices.”
“Whose?”
“Ethan's.”
“And?”
“A woman.”
“What did she say?”
“I couldn't hear.”
Claire walked toward the wall.
She touched it.
“Here.”
Morales looked.
A small scratch marked the wallpaper.
Underneath it was a faint letter.
L.
Then another.
I.
Then V.
Morales stared.
“Same marking.”
He photographed it.
Then he noticed something behind the bed.
A loose floorboard.
He pulled it up.
Inside was a key.
Attached to it was a motel tag.
214.
Claire stared.
“That room.”
Morales examined the key.
“There's something else.”
A tiny piece of paper.
Three words.
HE LIKES WITNESSES.
I felt a chill.
“What does that mean?”
Nobody answered.
Then someone knocked on the motel door.
Everyone froze.
Morales drew his weapon.
“Stay behind me.”
Another knock.
Then a woman's voice.
“Detective Morales?”
Morales opened the door.
A woman stood in the hallway.
Brown hair.
Blue coat.
Claire gasped.
“That's her.”
I looked at Claire.
“Liv?”
The woman nodded.
“My name is Olivia Carter.”
Nobody moved.
“You're alive.”
Olivia smiled sadly.
“Barely.”
Morales lowered his weapon.
“Where have you been?”
“Running.”
“From Ethan?”
“From the people behind him.”
“What people?”
Olivia looked at Claire.
“He never told you?”
Claire shook her head.
Olivia stepped into the room.
“Ethan isn't the mastermind.”
The room went silent.
“Then who is?”
Olivia looked directly at me.
“Your financial advisor.”
I felt the blood leave my face.
“What?”
“Martin Hale.”
I shook my head.
“That’s impossible.”
“He gave Ethan access to your accounts.”
“No.”
“He did.”
Olivia reached into her coat.
She pulled out a flash drive.
“I stole this four years ago.”
She handed it to Morales.
“It contains everything.”
“What everything?”
“Payments.”
“To Ethan?”
“To several people.”
“For what?”
Olivia looked at Claire.
“For finding women whose families had money.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Olivia continued.
“They didn't marry those women for love.”
She paused.
“They married them for access.”
I looked at my daughter.
Her face crumpled.
May you like
“And now,” Olivia said, “they're trying to get access to you.”
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