Chapter 13 Saturday, 13 June 2026 #2
Hannah glanced up, taking stock of the overhead lighting.
Unlike the rest of the Lenox Club, which had barely been updated since the club’s founding in 1896, the overhead fixtures were modern, dimmable and consistent across the three downstairs rooms. Even the grand chandelier was fitted with dimmable LED bulbs.
It wouldn’t be very befitting of the Lenox Club, but it was certainly possible that the entire lighting system was programmable via an app.
If Elle had somehow managed to hold onto her phone tonight, or even to plant a phone in the club on an earlier occasion, storing it away until she needed it, might she be tech savvy enough to have taken control of the lights?
‘Hannah?’ Theo was saying. ‘Where did you go?’
They were still holding hands at the table.
She felt warm all over – the work of the vodka, but also old feelings inconveniently but unmistakably rising to the surface.
When it came to Elle, she’d gotten all she was going to get out of Theo, at least right now, in the very public dining room.
Besides, she realised with a warm jolt, information wasn’t the only thing she wanted out of Theo Fitzgerald tonight.
She slid her hand out from under his and drew her fingertips lightly across his forearm. His eyes locked with hers.
‘Ten minutes,’ he whispered. ‘Meet me upstairs. The Cabot Room.’
Hannah frowned. ‘But everyone will see us going up. And that officer hasn’t budged.’ She motioned to the woman in uniform who had been stationed at the base of the stairs all night.
‘Ah.’ With a small movement of his head, Theo drew Hannah’s focus to a dim hallway behind the reception desk. ‘Follow the hallway past the cloakroom, almost to the end. There’s a pocket door in the wall, to the left. You’ll find a handle at about hip-height.’
‘A secret door?’
‘Well, secret to most members. It’s a staff staircase to the second floor.’
She smiled. ‘How convenient.’
‘I’ll get us a room key. See you soon.’
Grinning, Theo stood and walked across the dining room and into the bar. He reached behind the reception desk and opened the door to a wall-mounted wooden cabinet. From inside, he lifted a heavy brass key from its hook. Without another word, he pocketed the key and slipped into the hallway.
As Hannah waited, Ethan Astor descended the main stairs, his interview concluded.
He must have gone in after Gemma. Hannah pushed back her chair, and the floor beneath her wobbled, then righted itself.
Oops. Maybe she was a bit tipsier than she’d thought.
But that was okay. She knew what she was doing.
She slipped into the hall behind reception and followed it to the end.
At first, the door appeared to be nothing more than a slight depression in the wall, its outline noticeable only by a minor mismatch in the wallpaper.
She ran her fingers along the edge until they found the handle, a small metal notch in the door.
She slid it to the right, and the door moved.
A hidden reading nook in the library, a staff stairwell concealed behind a pocket door.
How many secrets did the Lenox Club hold?
And had the killer used one of these hidden spaces to help carry out Madison’s murder – or even escape the club before it was put on lockdown?
Her mind travelled instantly to Henry Alcott Winslow, but he’d simply exited via the front door. If he’d snuck back in, though…
Upstairs, Hannah padded swiftly down the hall to the Cabot Room, which she imagined Theo had selected for its position across the hall and several doors down from the room where interviews were being conducted. Wordlessly, she opened the door and slipped inside.
Theo turned the lock, then drew Hannah towards him. Her breath caught.
‘I always thought there could be something between us,’ he murmured into her ear. ‘If senior year had been different than it was. If I’d been less distracted, made better choices.’
Hannah didn’t respond. She took one step back and unzipped the back of her long black gown, allowing it to slide off her shoulders and slink down around her ankles. Theo froze for a moment, taking her in. Then his mouth was crashing into hers, and they tumbled onto the bed.
As they wrestled with Theo’s tie and tux, her arm brushed the shade of the ornate blue lamp resting on the bedside table, and it wobbled.
‘Shit,’ she murmured, righting the lamp before it toppled to the floor below.
‘It’s fine,’ Theo laughed. ‘One thing the Lenox Club has going for it, the rooms are very soundproof. No one’s going to hear a lamp fall, or…’ He trailed off, gesturing between them.
She undid the last button of his crisp dress shirt, and he shrugged it off his shoulders. Then they were kissing again, and Theo’s hands were gliding across her breasts and down her stomach and around to her back, and Hannah blocked everything else out and disappeared into the moment.
‘You know, I always did have a bit of a crush on you at Prescott.’ They were lying on top of the covers of the firm queen bed, Hannah’s chin resting on Theo’s chest.
He grinned. ‘You did?’
She nodded. ‘But you were Elle’s ex. It didn’t seem possible.’
He shook his head. ‘There were so many rules. Or at least Madison and Elle made it feel that way. Back then, it was hard to imagine crossing them.’
What had changed? Absentmindedly, Hannah ran her fingertips across his smooth chest. She didn’t really want to imagine Theo as Madison’s killer, but wasn’t it possible that he was distracting her even now, expertly guiding her away from the truth…
‘If anyone could have gotten away with it, it would have been you.’
He gave her a curious look. ‘Gotten away with what?’
‘Oh my god. Not that.’ Swiftly, she sat up and began gathering her clothes. ‘I meant, gotten away with breaking the rules. You have a good heart. After PhotoGate, you could have bullied Gemma like everyone else.’
‘PhotoGate? Is that what people called it?’
‘I think just Gemma and Oliver and me.’
Theo put on his shirt, and Hannah rushed to finish dressing. Her shoes were missing; they must have fallen under the bed. But before she could crouch down to look, Theo was pulling her in the direction of the room’s far wall, opposite the door.
‘Come here. I want to show you something.’ Theo grasped a bronze door pull she hadn’t noticed before and drew what appeared to be a section of wall towards them.
‘What the…?’ Hannah started to say. Another secret door?