The Hotel That Never Opened
Chapter 07 - The Hotel That Never Opened
Eden Summit stood above a mountain lake, unfinished and officially abandoned. Victor had told investors that winter damage made the property unsafe. In reality, private generators, cameras, and food deliveries had continued for months.
Police planned a careful entry, but someone inside the investigation leaked the search warrant.
By the time officers arrived, several rooms had been cleared and a vehicle was burning in the rear lot. They found blood on a stair rail, Celia’s scarf in a locked suite, and a broken phone containing one unsent message to Noah.
I knew you would come.
There was no sign of Celia.
Victor disappeared from the city that morning. Helena remained under questioning and insisted she knew nothing about the hotel. Yet transaction records showed she had paid its security company.
Noah searched the original blueprints. During construction, Victor had demanded a service tunnel leading from the wine cellar to a private boathouse. It did not appear on the public plans.
At the tunnel entrance, investigators found two sets of footprints and a dropped key card from a lakeside marina.
A witness at the marina remembered Victor boarding a boat with an unconscious woman. The boat headed toward a cluster of private cabins across the lake.
A storm rolled over the mountains before rescue teams could follow. Rain erased the shoreline, and radio signals failed.
Noah refused to remain behind. He joined Arthur’s former security chief, Marcus Dale, in a small patrol boat. Marcus had resigned years earlier after questioning Rosebridge payments. He knew Victor’s habits and believed Victor would use the storm to reach a mountain road on the far side.
They found the abandoned boat tied beneath an old fishing cabin. Inside were Celia’s coat and a vial of sedative.
A cry came from the trees.
Noah ran toward it and found Margaret Sloan, Arthur’s missing attorney, bound inside a maintenance shed. She had been taken before meeting Celia and forced to reveal the courthouse box.
Margaret told them Celia was alive. Victor planned to move her across the border before dawn. Helena had ordered him to leave no documents—and no witnesses.
Then headlights appeared beyond the trees.
A black SUV raced toward the mountain road.
Noah saw a woman in the back seat strike the window with both hands.
May you like
Celia.
He ran into the storm as the vehicle disappeared around the curve, carrying the woman he had first married for money and now would have surrendered everything to save.
