Chapter 14 - THE MAN WITH THE BLUE WATCH|
Amara wanted to hang up the moment she heard Madison's voice.
Instead, she listened.
“Why should I believe anything you say?” Amara asked.
Madison was crying.
“Because whoever sent this photograph knows where your mother lives.”
Amara went completely still.
“What photograph?”
Madison forwarded the image.
A second later, Amara saw her mother's apartment building.
The entrance.
The parked cars.
The bakery across the street.
And Denise Lewis walking toward the front door.
Amara's stomach dropped.
“Where did you get this?”
“I don't know who sent it.”
“Madison, if this is another game—”
“It isn't!”
For the first time, Madison's fear sounded genuine.
Amara immediately called Rosa Delgado.
Within an hour, arrangements were made to help Denise stay somewhere secure while police assessed the threat.
Then Rosa asked Madison to come to the hotel and give a formal statement.
Madison arrived wearing jeans, a gray sweater, and oversized sunglasses.
Without her bridal gown, diamonds, and carefully styled hair, she looked younger.
And much less powerful.
Rosa placed a surveillance photograph on the table.
“Have you seen this man?”
Madison studied the image.
The baseball cap hid his face.
But the watch caught her attention.
“Yes.”
Rosa leaned forward.
“Who is he?”
“Quentin Frost.”
Amara's pulse quickened.
“Are you certain?”
Madison nodded.
“He wears that watch every day. His father gave it to him when he became a partner at his law firm.”
Rosa wrote something down.
“When did you last see him?”
“Friday afternoon. At my mother's office.”
“What were they discussing?”
Madison hesitated.
“Something about the hotel's engineering department.”
Rosa exchanged a look with Vivian.
“Did they mention a wheelchair?”
Madison shook her head.
“No. But Quentin carried a black case.”
“What kind?”
“A little tool case. I remember because it looked strange with his expensive suit.”
Amara felt a chill.
The same black pouch appeared in the surveillance footage.
Rosa took out another photograph.
“Did he go near the bridal service area that evening?”
Madison stared at the image.
Then slowly nodded.
“I saw him near the storage alcove before the reception.”
Rosa leaned back.
The pieces were beginning to fit.
Later that afternoon, investigators obtained additional access records and interviewed a maintenance contractor who had been working at the hotel before the ceremony.
The contractor remembered a man in a dark suit entering the equipment storage area.
“He said he was checking a safety complaint,” the contractor explained.
“Did he identify himself?” Rosa asked.
“He showed me a visitor badge.”
“What name?”
“Quentin Frost.”
Rosa looked at Amara.
“This could establish his presence near the chair before the incident. The detectives will need to determine exactly what he did.”
But there was another discovery.
The contractor remembered Quentin asking a strange question.
“Is the old service wing still closed?”
Rosa frowned.
“Why would he ask that?”
The contractor shrugged.
“He said he used to know someone who worked there.”
Amara felt the blood drain from her face.
“My father?”
The contractor looked confused.
“I don't know, ma'am.”
Then he remembered something else.
“He mentioned a name.”
“What name?”
“Daniel Lewis.”
That evening, Quentin Frost failed to appear for his scheduled interview.
His office was empty.
His phone was switched off.
And his assistant told detectives he had left behind his personal laptop.
But on the screen of his office computer, someone found an unsent email.
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The subject line read:
DANIEL LEWIS WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE FOUND.
