Chapter 8 - THE SECRET ELEVATOR
Nora ran through darkness.
Gavin heard her shoes striking concrete.
“Nora!”
“I’m getting my daughter.”
He followed.
Marlene stayed beside the sedan.
Marcus shouted behind them.
“The stairwell is locked.”
Gavin ignored him.
He reached the fire door.
Marcus was right.
Electronic lock.
Red indicator.
Nora struck it with both hands.
“Open!”
Gavin pulled out his building master key.
No response.
The system had been disabled remotely.
Nora turned on him.
“Do something.”
He looked around.
The private elevator.
They had avoided it earlier because the warning said people were waiting downstairs.
Now whoever had been waiting knew exactly where they were anyway.
Gavin ran toward the executive bay.
The concealed elevator door was hidden behind a concrete service panel.
He entered an emergency code manually.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Marcus walked toward them holding his phone flashlight.
“You’re wasting time.”
Gavin turned.
“Then help.”
Marcus almost laughed.
“You want my help now?”
“If Taylor is upstairs, yes.”
Marcus looked at Nora.
Something like guilt crossed his face.
For all Marcus had done, the child was not part of his calculations.
He approached the elevator panel.
“Priscilla may have your rabbit.”
“That doesn’t mean she has Taylor.”
Nora stared at him.
“You expect me to trust you?”
“No.”
“But I know this building’s systems better than Gavin.”
Gavin might have been offended under different circumstances.
Marcus removed the access plate.
He connected his phone to the maintenance port.
Thirty seconds later, the elevator light turned green.
Gavin stared at him.
“You could have done that earlier?”
“Yes.”
“And you let us walk forty floors?”
Marcus shrugged.
“I was busy kidnapping Marlene.”
Marlene yelled from the car.
“I heard that.”
Marcus winced.
“Poor phrasing.”
Nora looked at Gavin.
“Your friends are terrible.”
“They’re rapidly becoming former friends.”
The elevator opened.
Nora entered first.
Gavin followed.
Marcus attempted to join them.
Gavin blocked the door.
“You stay.”
“You’ll need me upstairs.”
“I’ll risk it.”
Marcus held up the black folder.
“You’ll need this.”
Gavin grabbed it.
Marcus didn’t resist.
That surprised him.
“Why?”
“Because somebody just changed the plan.”
“What plan?”
Marcus looked toward Charles.
The senator stood twenty feet away, arguing quietly into a phone.
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Arthur was never supposed to know Daniel made a digital copy.”
“So?”
“So if he sent Priscilla after the rabbit, he’s burning the entire operation.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Arthur has decided nobody is useful anymore.”
Gavin stared at him.
“Including Priscilla?”
“Especially Priscilla.”
The elevator doors began closing.
Marcus held them.
“Gavin.”
“What?”
“Your father didn’t die naturally.”
The world seemed to stop.
Gavin stared at him.
“What did you say?”
Marcus released the door.
“Ask Arthur.”
The elevator closed.
Nora looked at Gavin.
He did not move.
The elevator began climbing.
Floor numbers rose.
P5.
P3.
Lobby.
Fourth floor.
Eighth.
Nora touched his arm.
“Gavin.”
He looked at her.
“You don’t have to think about that right now.”
“My father had a heart attack.”
“Maybe.”
“He had heart disease.”
“Maybe.”
“Doctors confirmed it.”
“Gavin.”
He closed his eyes.
William Roberson had died at sixty-two.
Suddenly.
During a private board retreat in Palm Springs.
Arthur had been there.
Marcus had been there.
Charles Ashford had visited earlier that afternoon.
Gavin remembered none of that seeming strange at the time.
Now every memory felt contaminated.
The elevator reached floor thirty-eight.
Doors opened.
Smoke.
Nora screamed.
A thin layer hung across the hallway.
Not fire.
Smoke grenades.
Gavin covered his mouth.
They moved through it.
The ballroom was chaos.
Guests clustered near windows.
Someone had broken an emergency glass panel.
Luis was helping Raymond restrain Henry.
Evelyn stood beside a sofa.
“Taylor!”
Nora ran toward her.
Evelyn turned.
Her face fell.
“I thought she was with you.”
Nora stopped.
“What?”
“Taylor ran into the ballroom.”
“Raymond picked her up.”
“Then the lights flickered.”
“Priscilla came back upstairs.”
“She took the rabbit.”
“But Taylor?”
Evelyn looked around.
“She was right here.”
Raymond heard them.
He went pale.
“She was beside me.”
“Two minutes ago.”
Nora screamed her daughter’s name.
No answer.
Gavin’s chest tightened.
He turned toward Henry.
“Where is she?”
Henry laughed once.
“I don’t know.”
Gavin grabbed him.
Raymond stepped forward.
“Gavin.”
“Where is Taylor?”
Henry looked genuinely uncertain.
“I was unconscious for half of this.”
Priscilla was gone.
Arthur was gone.
Taylor was missing.
Gavin looked toward the hallway camera.
The indicator light had returned.
He ran to the office.
Opened security playback.
The past ten minutes appeared.
Ballroom.
Smoke.
Guests moving.
Taylor beside Raymond.
Then Arthur Vance crouched next to her.
He pointed toward the service kitchen.
Taylor followed him.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Nora whispered.
“No.”
Footage switched.
Arthur walked through the service corridor holding Taylor’s hand.
The little girl did not appear frightened.
He had known her enough through Gavin’s family events that she trusted him.
Then another figure appeared.
Priscilla.
She took the rabbit from Taylor.
Taylor reached for it.
Priscilla walked away.
Arthur continued with the child in the opposite direction.
Gavin changed cameras.
Arthur entered the private elevator vestibule.
He pressed the call button.
Doors opened.
Then the camera feed ended.
Nora turned toward Gavin.
“Where does that elevator go?”
“Garage.”
“Roof.”
“And one mechanical floor.”
“Which one?”
“Forty.”
They ran.
The main elevators had returned.
Gavin entered an override.
Floor forty.
The elevator rose.
Nora’s breathing shook.
“If he hurts her—”
“He won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
Gavin looked at her.
“But Taylor is leverage.”
“He needs something.”
“What?”
“Daniel’s evidence.”
The doors opened.
The mechanical level was dark.
Industrial equipment hummed.
Pipes.
Ventilation machines.
Electrical panels.
A narrow maintenance corridor.
“Taylor!”
Nora shouted.
A small voice answered.
“Mommy!”
Nora ran.
Gavin followed.
They found Taylor sitting on a metal chair.
Alone.
Unharmed.
Nora dropped to her knees and pulled her into her arms.
“Oh, baby.”
Taylor began crying.
“He took Bunny.”
“I know.”
“I want Bunny.”
“We’ll get him.”
Gavin searched the room.
Arthur was gone.
On the chair beside Taylor was an envelope.
His name.
Again.
GAVIN.
He opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
William Roberson lying on a hotel room floor.
Arthur kneeling beside him.
Marcus standing in the doorway.
Timestamp.
9:14 p.m.
The official medical report said William had collapsed at 10:02.
Forty-eight minutes later.
Gavin’s hands began shaking.
Behind the photograph was a handwritten note.
Not William’s handwriting.
Arthur’s.
Your father discovered Harbor Crown.
He gave me one night to confess.
I gave him forty-eight minutes instead.
Gavin stared at the words.
Nora looked over his shoulder.
Her face went pale.
Then Taylor pulled something from her dress pocket.
“Mr. Arthur gave me this.”
A tiny silver key.
Gavin crouched.
“What did he say?”
Taylor sniffed.
“He said your daddy left you a room.”
Gavin looked at Nora.
“What room?”
Taylor pointed upward.
“The one above the clouds.”
The penthouse had only one level above the mechanical floor.
The roof.
Except Gavin remembered something his father had built years ago.
A private observatory.
Locked since William died.
Nobody had entered it in five years.
Gavin looked at the key.
And suddenly he knew where his father had hidden the rest of the evidence.
But when they reached the rooftop observatory door, they discovered something impossible.
May you like
The lock was already open.
And somebody was inside.
