Not Quite Mine
Page 66
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“No. I’m sorry, Miss Morrison. We’ve not had anyone call on you yet. We’ll be sure to let you know when he’s on his way up.”
Katie frowned. “OK. Thank you.” She hung up the phone. “I don’t understand.”
Patrick sat in one of the chairs and encouraged her to sit as well. “They don’t know I’m here. I’ve already checked into the hotel under an alias.”
“So you came up without them knowing.”
“Obviously. Which is exactly what Savannah’s mother did.”
Katie sat and leaned forward. “I’m listening.”
Patrick rubbed his hands together with a smile. “The first day I visited your suite in Houston, I walked in like I owned the place. No one stopped or questioned me until I made it to your room. Through normal routes, your security was stellar. Nice to see they weren’t flunkies who couldn’t make it into the local police detail.”
“Good to know.”
Patrick turned on his digital device and played a video clip of him walking through the hotel in Houston. He entered and exited an elevator and let himself into Katie’s suite without incident. Within seconds, security was at the door. One man had a gun in his hand.
“The clip is spliced together to show how I walked into your room. But notice here…” He paused the clip, showing an empty hall. “And here.” He paused it again. “I’m not in range of the camera. The angle I came out of the elevator gave a clear picture of me. Easily identifiable.”
“When I looked at the clips of the night Savannah was left, I didn’t see anyone come out of an elevator,” Katie told him.
“I know. I’ll get to that in a minute. Here is another day I went to your suite. This was when I ran into your brother. I went ahead and ran the tape of him coming up and into the room. It’s all seamless. Yeah, he pushes in and out of view, but for the most part he’s undeniably there.”
She mumbled an acknowledgment of his words.
“Now…keep watching.”
He fast-forwarded the clip. “I haven’t spliced any footage together,” he told her. Once he hit a twenty-minute marker, he slowed the clip down to normal speed.
The door to her suite opened and out walked Patrick and Jack…together.
“Were you in there the whole time?”
“No. I surprised your brother after he arrived.”
“But I didn’t see you go in.”
“Exactly.”
Katie sat back in her chair. “So how did you get in?”
“Apparently rich people love their privacy nearly as much as they do their security.”
Katie nodded. “I can agree with that.”
“The angle of the cameras aren’t directly on the door to the suite. You’ve lived in hotels most of your life. I’m sure you’ve snuck in late at night before.”
“Yeah, when I was a kid. We’d hug the wall and slip inside.” A friend of hers who was sleeping with a would-be rock star had told her about the hotel cameras. There were nights when she was a teenager that she snuck in, or had someone else sneak in. Katie had stopped hiding from the cameras years ago.
“I snuck into your suite by staying out of direct line with the cameras. The motion detectors inside the room would have triggered, notifying security that someone was in your room, but that didn’t happen because Jack was already inside.”
“I think there are motion detectors in the halls, too,” she told him.
“Yeah, but the only thing security will do once the motion detectors are tripped is look at the video feed. If they don’t see anything, or the inside of the room isn’t tripped, they’ll most likely ignore it. The night the mom left Savannah, you and Monica were home. Security would ignore the motion detectors entirely with the two of you walking in and out.
“OK…so how did the mom get into the foyer? She didn’t use the elevator.”
“There are usually two penthouse suites in your bigger hotels. The one in Houston across from yours was vacant the night of the wedding. So we know that the mom wasn’t in there. There was no footage of a woman with a baby walking the halls of the hotel late at night. But there isn’t a multitude of cameras in the staff areas. My first thought was the mom used a fire escape. A stairwell. But they are all locked on the main floors. You can come down a stairwell, in case of a fire, but you can’t go up. Chances are there is some kind of trigger on the doors, something electronic, that opens the locks if the fire alarm is screaming.”
“There weren’t any alarms going off that night. Besides, taking the stairs up twenty-plus floors with an infant is a long hike.”
“Right. But if the mother was staying in the hotel…say a few floors below yours…not such a chore, if she could gain entry to the upper floors.”
Katie murmured her agreement. She hadn’t considered that.
“I don’t think she hiked up the stairs at all,” Patrick said.
“She didn’t?”
“No. She used the staff elevators. A trick you might know something about.”
Katie’s eyes widened. Yeah. She knew how to get around the hotel without detection. She’d grown up in them. “How would she know where the staff elevators even are? They aren’t on a guest map of the hotel and they’re not accessible from the inside of the guest halls.”
“How she knew about the staff routes I can only assume. Someone told her about them is my guess. Who knows, maybe the mom worked in a hotel at one point. I considered that angle for a while. Thought maybe mom was a maid, someone who knew who you were…left her baby for you to raise.”
Katie frowned. “OK. Thank you.” She hung up the phone. “I don’t understand.”
Patrick sat in one of the chairs and encouraged her to sit as well. “They don’t know I’m here. I’ve already checked into the hotel under an alias.”
“So you came up without them knowing.”
“Obviously. Which is exactly what Savannah’s mother did.”
Katie sat and leaned forward. “I’m listening.”
Patrick rubbed his hands together with a smile. “The first day I visited your suite in Houston, I walked in like I owned the place. No one stopped or questioned me until I made it to your room. Through normal routes, your security was stellar. Nice to see they weren’t flunkies who couldn’t make it into the local police detail.”
“Good to know.”
Patrick turned on his digital device and played a video clip of him walking through the hotel in Houston. He entered and exited an elevator and let himself into Katie’s suite without incident. Within seconds, security was at the door. One man had a gun in his hand.
“The clip is spliced together to show how I walked into your room. But notice here…” He paused the clip, showing an empty hall. “And here.” He paused it again. “I’m not in range of the camera. The angle I came out of the elevator gave a clear picture of me. Easily identifiable.”
“When I looked at the clips of the night Savannah was left, I didn’t see anyone come out of an elevator,” Katie told him.
“I know. I’ll get to that in a minute. Here is another day I went to your suite. This was when I ran into your brother. I went ahead and ran the tape of him coming up and into the room. It’s all seamless. Yeah, he pushes in and out of view, but for the most part he’s undeniably there.”
She mumbled an acknowledgment of his words.
“Now…keep watching.”
He fast-forwarded the clip. “I haven’t spliced any footage together,” he told her. Once he hit a twenty-minute marker, he slowed the clip down to normal speed.
The door to her suite opened and out walked Patrick and Jack…together.
“Were you in there the whole time?”
“No. I surprised your brother after he arrived.”
“But I didn’t see you go in.”
“Exactly.”
Katie sat back in her chair. “So how did you get in?”
“Apparently rich people love their privacy nearly as much as they do their security.”
Katie nodded. “I can agree with that.”
“The angle of the cameras aren’t directly on the door to the suite. You’ve lived in hotels most of your life. I’m sure you’ve snuck in late at night before.”
“Yeah, when I was a kid. We’d hug the wall and slip inside.” A friend of hers who was sleeping with a would-be rock star had told her about the hotel cameras. There were nights when she was a teenager that she snuck in, or had someone else sneak in. Katie had stopped hiding from the cameras years ago.
“I snuck into your suite by staying out of direct line with the cameras. The motion detectors inside the room would have triggered, notifying security that someone was in your room, but that didn’t happen because Jack was already inside.”
“I think there are motion detectors in the halls, too,” she told him.
“Yeah, but the only thing security will do once the motion detectors are tripped is look at the video feed. If they don’t see anything, or the inside of the room isn’t tripped, they’ll most likely ignore it. The night the mom left Savannah, you and Monica were home. Security would ignore the motion detectors entirely with the two of you walking in and out.
“OK…so how did the mom get into the foyer? She didn’t use the elevator.”
“There are usually two penthouse suites in your bigger hotels. The one in Houston across from yours was vacant the night of the wedding. So we know that the mom wasn’t in there. There was no footage of a woman with a baby walking the halls of the hotel late at night. But there isn’t a multitude of cameras in the staff areas. My first thought was the mom used a fire escape. A stairwell. But they are all locked on the main floors. You can come down a stairwell, in case of a fire, but you can’t go up. Chances are there is some kind of trigger on the doors, something electronic, that opens the locks if the fire alarm is screaming.”
“There weren’t any alarms going off that night. Besides, taking the stairs up twenty-plus floors with an infant is a long hike.”
“Right. But if the mother was staying in the hotel…say a few floors below yours…not such a chore, if she could gain entry to the upper floors.”
Katie murmured her agreement. She hadn’t considered that.
“I don’t think she hiked up the stairs at all,” Patrick said.
“She didn’t?”
“No. She used the staff elevators. A trick you might know something about.”
Katie’s eyes widened. Yeah. She knew how to get around the hotel without detection. She’d grown up in them. “How would she know where the staff elevators even are? They aren’t on a guest map of the hotel and they’re not accessible from the inside of the guest halls.”
“How she knew about the staff routes I can only assume. Someone told her about them is my guess. Who knows, maybe the mom worked in a hotel at one point. I considered that angle for a while. Thought maybe mom was a maid, someone who knew who you were…left her baby for you to raise.”
