Chapter 12: The Corridor Tape

They watched it in the study with the door locked.

Odette sat in the green armchair.

Dane stood behind Iris's chair, the full three feet away, and neither of them mentioned the night.

Iris pushed the thumb drive into her laptop and opened the only file.

The picture was gray and grainy.

It showed the fourteenth floor corridor from above, with the door to room 1412 at the far end.

The time in the corner read 11:40 p.m.

"There," Dane said.

A man walked unsteadily along the carpet, one hand trailing the wall.

He stopped at 1412 and leaned his forehead against the door.

The door opened from inside before he knocked.

Iris pressed her lips together.

Nobody could be seen in the doorway, only a hand on the edge of the frame.

Dane went in, and the door shut.

"Whoever opened it was waiting," Iris whispered.

"Yes."

She pushed the slider forward.

The clock ran to 12:30, and then past one.

At 1:02 a.m. a woman in a long dark coat stepped out of the elevator.

She walked straight to the door.

She took a key card from her pocket.

Odette made a small sound in her throat.

The woman lifted her face to the camera for half a second, to check the corner of the ceiling.

It was Sylvia.

Iris stopped breathing.

On the screen, Sylvia opened the door and went in.

The door stayed ajar.

She stood in the doorway for what the clock said was six minutes, looking down at something Iris could not see.

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