Chapter 33
HARRISON
Bianca is right. We can’t wait any longer to act. We finally have a solid lead, and who knows how long opportunity will linger in our doorway before it disappears into the night?
We don’t park in the Caterpillar Hotel lot. My Cadillac would stick out like a sore thumb with no other cars here. We park a block away on a deserted street and walk over.
The Caterpillar Hotel looks like any other rundown motel—flickering lightbulbs, peeling paint on the exterior, brownish curtains obscuring the view into every window—except for one detail.
The doors are freshly painted, alternating in black and white.
I count the floors. There are eight of them, and eight rooms on every floor.
Sixty-four rooms in total. Alternating black and white, just like a chessboard.
Pia and Mr. Night both mentioned that Rouge declared Maddox and Alissa the King and Queen of Diamonds.
I think it through.
Rouge likes playing games. This hotel is one giant game of chess.
The King and Queen are pieces in chess as well.
Diamonds are a red suit, as opposed to a black suit.
The white side of the chess board goes first, and the Queen always starts on a square of her own color, the spot called D1.
The King, on the other hand, starts on E1.
Those could be hotel room names easily. I walk up to the leftmost door of the first floor, and sure enough, it’s room 1-A. A black door. I think my theory might be correct.
I walk over three more doors and we’re at a white door marked 1-D.
“I think this room is where they might be keeping Alissa,” I say.
“How do you know?”
“Mr. Night told me that Rouge made Maddox and Alissa the King and Queen of Diamonds one of the last nights anybody saw them.” I gesture to the building.
“The rooms in this hotel are arranged like a chessboard. The white queen typically starts on D1, a square of the same color as her side. This room is the reversal of the letter and number.”
“I had no idea you were such a nerd,” Dinah says.
“I played a lot of chess with my brothers growing up. And Rouge loves a theme.”
“Should we knock?” Bianca asks.
“I think so. Worst case is we get a grumpy-looking waitress in her pajamas answering the door.”
“Honestly, if it’s a member of the waitstaff, they probably wouldn’t answer at all,” Bianca says. “My sister wants to minimize their contact with the outside world as much as possible, so they’re instructed to stay inside their rooms, opening them to no one, once they get there.”
“That’s fair, at least from her twisted point of view,” I say. “Who knows? Some missionary could come knocking and take them to a church or community meeting and put ideas in their head about striking out on their own. Then Rouge would be out of her cheap labor.”
“If they’re even paid at all,” Bianca says. “Rouge has always been tightlipped when it comes to her employees’ wages.”
“That, too.”
Bianca kicks a nearby pebble. “She wants to keep them dependent on her. If there’s one thing my sister cares about in this life, it’s control.
If any of the waitstaff caught wind of the fact that they could get a job somewhere else and start paying their own bills, she’d no longer have that perfectly crafted influence over their every move. ”
“She won’t have that much longer if we’re right about Alissa and Maddox.” I approach the door and knock. “Alissa? Are you in there?”
No response.
“It is late,” Dinah says. “She might be asleep.”
“If there’s anyone in there at all,” Bianca adds.
I knock harder. “Alissa! Are you there?”
“It might be a thick door,” Bianca says. “In case she tried to get out. Maybe if all three of us knock, she’ll be able to hear.”
“Good idea.” I wave Bianca and Dinah toward me. “On the count of three. One…two…three!”
We all pound our fists on the door at once. Once, twice, three times. Four. Five… Six…
Finally, an extremely weak rasp of a voice right as we’re about to come down for a seventh knock comes from behind the door. “H-Hello?”
Dinah gasps. “Oh my God, I think it’s her.” She puts her mouth right against the door and enunciates very clearly. “Alissa, is that you?”
A few seconds pass. Then, “D-D-Dinah?”
Tears stream down Dinah’s face. “Yes, Liss. It’s me, babe. Me and Dr. O’Rourke.”
“How did you…?”
“Don’t worry about that now,” I say. “Alissa, I need you to step away from the door. We’re going to get you out of here.”
“O-Okay.”
“Give her a few seconds. She sounds weak,” Bianca says.
I nod. At first I try the door. It’s locked, of course.
I have some experience with breaking down doors. I look around. “Is there a fire extinguisher around somewhere?”
Bianca runs down the line of hotel rooms and calls back. “There’s one over here.”
“Great. Break the glass and bring it over.”
She nods, takes off her jacket to protect her hand, and rams a fist through the glass. She carries the fire extinguisher over. “But what do you need this for?”
I point to the doorknob. “Discharge it onto the doorknob. That’ll help freeze the locking mechanism.”
“How on earth do you know that, Doctor?” Dinah asks.
I swallow. “Never you mind. Just do it.”
“Got it.” Bianca points the fire extinguisher at the lock and shoots the foam at the doorknob. Once she does it, I bring my leg up and give it a good kick.
“Keep discharging the extinguisher.” I look to Dinah. “Help me kick. We’ll trade off. Aim right for above the doorknob. That’s the weakest part of the door.”
“Got it,” Dinah says.
We take turns kicking at the door while Bianca works the extinguisher. Finally, a decent-sized crack appears next to the doorknob.
“We’re getting there,” I say. “One sec. Dinah, keep kicking.”
I run back over to my Cadillac and open the trunk, using my cell phone as a flashlight.
There’s some rope, my spare tire, a few loose bottles of Gatorade, a colorful gift bag—where the hell did that come from?
—but then I find what I’m looking for. My crowbar.
Thank God I keep it in my trunk at all times.
I bring it back. Dinah’s continued kicks have widened the crack just a bit. I insert the hook of the crowbar into the crack as far as I can and I pull. The wood of the door moans as it continues coming apart.
I pry the crack open as far as I can and then give one last good kick.
The door finally breaks.
Bianca drops the fire extinguisher. “We did it!”
We walk inside. A musty smell clings in the air, and the inside of the hotel looks far rattier than the outside. But none of that matters, because sitting on the side of a very stained, very thin mattress is Alissa.
Bianca and Dinah gasp as they look at her. Her skin, which was always light, is extremely pale. Her cheeks are sunken in, and she’s clad only in a dirty set of panties and bra, which hang off an emaciated frame.
I rush to her, immediately grab her wrist to check her pulse. “Alissa. Have you been eating?”
She slowly shakes her head. “Not since we got here.”
“We? Is Maddox here too?” Dinah asks.
Alissa nods, slowly points to the wall. “Next room over.”
“We’ll get him out in a minute.” I take her pulse, turn to Dinah. “Her heartbeat is pretty weak.”
“Sounds like malnutrition to me.” Dinah takes Alissa’s face in her hands gently. “How long have you been here?”
Alissa bites her lip. “I…lost track. At least a month.”
“You couldn’t have lived that long without water, though.”
Alissa eyes the hotel room’s bathroom, her nose wrinkling slightly. “Got that…from the loo.”
Dinah bursts into tears. “My God, Liss.”
Alissa’s face twists, but I don’t think her body has enough moisture remaining to actually produce any tears. “Maddox… He… He stopped talking to me a few days ago.”
“Shit. He did?”
My heart races, and I strain to keep a steady face.
Could my best friend be dead? He’s bigger than Alissa and his body requires more calories to function, so he’d succumb to the effects of malnutrition faster than she would.
A rush of emotions threatens to burst out of me, but I swallow them down.
Right now, Alissa needs someone who is calm and rational. Stable.
“Dinah. Do you have any snacks in your bag? Something that will be easy for her to digest?”
She nods. “I have a pack of applesauce.”
“Excellent. Make sure she eats that.” I toss her my car keys.
“There are a few bottles of Gatorade in the trunk of my car. Once you get the applesauce in her, have her drink a whole bottle. That should stabilize her at least until we can get her proper medical attention. Bianca and I will work on Maddox’s door and then we’ll get them both to the hospital. ”
Alissa grips my hand. “Be quick. I don’t know…if he has much time left.”
I give her hand a squeeze—God, it’s bony—and then lead Bianca out. We cross over to the next room, this one painted black and marked as 1-E.
We make decently quick progress on Maddox’s door, even though it’s just me kicking this time. Now that we know our process will work, we’re doing it with a lot more confidence.
Finally I pry the door open with the crowbar and we rush in.
There he is, lying on the bed in his underwear. Paler than Alissa, and the muscles in his chest and arms have begun to atrophy.
My heart sinks. He’s not moving.
I run over to him. “Maddox! Are you okay?” I grip his shoulders, shake them gently. Lightly slap his cheek. No response. I lower an ear over his mouth and nose.
He’s breathing, thank God. But barely.
I place my ear against his bare chest. A faint pulse. A very faint pulse. Much weaker than Alissa’s.
He’s alive, but he’s hanging on by a thread.
If we had waited until morning like I originally suggested, he wouldn’t have made it.
I’m not convinced he’s going to make it anyway.
“We’re going to have to carry him to my car,” I tell Bianca. “Luckily, I don’t think anyone will see us in the cover of night. We can get them into a wing of the hospital that has a little less traffic, have Dinah keep an eye on them the next few days.”
“We need to get them something to eat, don’t we?”
I shake my head. “They’re completely starved, but we can’t start feeding them solid foods.
That will be a major shock to their digestive systems and they’d probably vomit it right back up.
The applesauce Dinah is giving Alissa might even be too much, honestly.
We’ll get them on IV’s until they have their strength back. ”
She presses her lips together. “But what if Rouge finds out they’re gone?”
“We’ll have to act fast. You said she only checks in once a week, right? And she just checked in a few days ago?”
“Right. The night we met. At least, that’s what she said she was going to do.”
I swallow. “Great. Then we have a few days to get all our ducks in a row. At the very least, Rouge will have no way of knowing that we were the ones who got them out. By then, we might be able to move them to a more secure location. We’ll figure it out.
But right now, we’ve got to get them to the hospital. Maddox especially.”
“Okay.” Bianca squeezes my hand. “Let’s do it.”