Chapter 2 - Room 1508
Ethan’s father was Thomas Cole.
For twenty-eight years, Thomas had worked at the Ashbourne.
Bellman.
Doorman.
Night supervisor.
Eventually assistant hotel manager.
He died six years ago.
Ethan had never seen photograph.
But he recognized Thomas immediately.
Vanessa did too.
That mattered.
Claire closed medallion before anyone could read inscription.
“What woman died here?”
Ethan looked toward Vanessa.
She answered first.
“No one.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Fifteen years ago?”
“No one connected to us.”
Different answer.
Claire noticed.
So did Ethan.
Wedding guests were moved away while hotel security brought Claire to private lounge.
Police were contacted regarding assault.
Vanessa’s wedding stopped.
Claire explained why she came.
Her mother, Diane Bennett, died six weeks earlier.
Before death, Diane gave Claire a key to safe-deposit box.
Inside:
$900.
Several photographs.
A hotel room key card that had expired fifteen years ago.
And handwritten instruction:
Take the silver medallion to Ashbourne before Vanessa Whitmore marries there.
Claire had not found medallion in box.
Only instruction.
So she came to hotel hoping someone knew what it meant.
Then she saw Vanessa upstairs.
Vanessa immediately demanded Claire leave.
During argument, Vanessa pulled medallion from her own bridal clutch.
Claire recognized it from Diane’s sketch.
That was when everything escalated.
Ethan stared at Vanessa.
“You already had it?”
Vanessa said nothing.
“Why?”
“It belonged to my mother.”
Claire went still.
Vanessa’s mother was Eleanor Whitmore.
Alive.
Sitting in wedding suite upstairs.
So medallion wasn't necessarily hers.
Then Ethan asked:
“How did your mother get something containing a photograph of my father?”
Vanessa’s answer:
“She found it.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
“When?”
“Fifteen years ago.”
There it was again.
Claire asked what happened fifteen years earlier.
Vanessa refused.
Ethan pulled hotel incident archive.
One death appeared.
April 17.
Woman.
Thirty-three.
Found unconscious in Room 1508.
Pronounced dead at hospital.
Name:
Rebecca Shaw.
Claire felt nothing.
She had never heard it.
Ethan stared at record.
“My dad was working that night.”
Then another detail.
Thomas Cole was the employee who entered Room 1508 after receiving emergency call.
Vanessa immediately said:
“He didn't kill her.”
Nobody had accused him.
Ethan looked at her.
“How do you know?”
Vanessa realized mistake.
Then Claire opened Diane’s envelope again.
She found faded writing inside seam.
May you like
One sentence:
Rebecca Shaw never stayed in Room 1508.
