Chapter 62
The first thing Sean did before leaving the basement was to ensure the speakeasy’s entrance was blocked and locked. Marco Donvoan was still on the loose, and Sean wasn’t sure if the mobster would return to the hotel or not.
If he did, Sean wanted to make sure the only way in was through the front door, and hopefully, by then, he would have Sheriff Johnson and company here to help him out.
But until then, Sean wanted to minimize surprises, and once he secured all the hotel's entrances, including the roof, he went back to his notes and focused only on the elements related to the kidnappers’ motivation.
The closer Sean looked at those notes, the more he realized just how little he had really considered the kidnappers’ motivation.
It was something to hunt down, something new for him to sink his teeth into during a case that had done everything it could to water down the truth.
And the only truth that probably mattered right now was the answer to this question: what did the kidnapper really want?
Was it the money? Was it the girl? Was it to cause pain?
In Sean’s experience in law enforcement, most every case was about money in some regard. But it was also what that money represented, the root of the desire for it, that outed the criminals for who they were.
The fact that this abduction had happened at this hotel, during this weekend, suggested that it was premeditated. That wasn’t a new revelation, but Sean focused on it a bit more. Sean had always assumed it was most likely a staff member, but now he was thinking a guest was the likely culprit.
Sean looked back at the guest list, trying to make sense of any connections the others had with the Grayson family.
There was the journalist, Jonathan Travis, of course, who was working on the story, but so far, there was no direct evidence tying him to the case.
Then, there was Frank Maynard, the abusive father, now deceased.
Then there were Mr. and Mrs. Grayson themselves. Roman, who was under investigation by the FBI, and Judy, who was the secret informant who had ousted her husband to the FBI.
Sean needed to think. He left the dining room and headed toward his room, where there was some peace and solitude. But restless guests and staff blocked his path, approaching with an onslaught of questions.
“When is help coming?”
“How much longer is this going to take?”
“Are we even safe?”
“Are we still in danger?”
“I’m going stir crazy in here!”
The questions were thrown at Sean with increasing speed and anxiety. The group circled him, and Sean was trapped. There was no way he was going to make it out of here without addressing their concerns. But he was done placating them.
“Two people are dead,” Sean said, silencing the groans. “And a little girl is still missing.”
The group fell silent, and Sean let them linger in their own embarrassment for a moment before he continued.
“This was not the weekend any of us planned, but I will find out what happened,” Sean said.
“Now, there have been a lot of people here who have held back information. If they hadn’t done that, maybe things would have turned out differently, but I want you to remember something.
” He stopped to look each of them in the eye.
“The person, or persons, responsible for the deaths and the abduction is still at large.”
The accusation caused everyone in the circle that had formed around him to look each other in the eye.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” Sean didn’t wait for an opening and pushed his way through the group.
No one followed him into the hallway, and the discussion died after he was gone.
Sean was still thinking about the case as he neared his room when he noticed wet boot prints along the rug leading into his room. He paused when he noticed them, more out of curiosity than alarm.
They were nearly dry, and whoever had made them probably didn’t even realize they were trailing prints. But then he saw his door cracked open. Sean remembered shutting it, and he had just seen Jennie in the dining room.
Someone else was in that room. Sean pocketed his notebook and removed his pistol.