Chapter 3 – Room 914
The Last Visit Before Dawn
Chapter 3 – Room 914
By sunrise, Detective Daniel Collins was standing outside the Riverside Executive Hotel.
Three years had passed since Thomas Morales was murdered.
Three years since Room 914 had last been opened.
The hotel manager frowned as he searched the archives.
"That's impossible."
Collins looked up.
"What is?"
"There was never a guest named Thomas Morales."
"What about Room 914?"
The manager hesitated before sliding over an old ledger.
"The room was booked under another name."
Collins read it twice.
Michael Reed.
The address was fake.
The phone number no longer existed.
Someone had gone to great lengths to disappear.
Inside Room 914, dust covered every surface.
The room had remained vacant since the investigation began.
The cleaning staff had never been allowed inside because it was technically still sealed as forgotten evidence.
Collins slowly searched the room.
Nothing.
Until he looked beneath the bed.
A tiny flash drive.
Covered in dust.
Hidden against the wall.
"Forensics," he whispered.
Two hours later, technicians recovered the deleted files.
Not family photos.
Not business documents.
Videos.
Security footage.
The first clip showed Thomas entering Room 914 the night before his death.
He wasn't alone.
A woman entered thirty seconds later.
She wore sunglasses and a black coat.
Her face stayed hidden.
The timestamp stopped suddenly.
The remaining footage had been erased.
"Can we recover the rest?" Collins asked.
"Forensics shook their heads.
"Someone professionally destroyed it."
Meanwhile, Attorney Elena Vega visited Lucia.
The little girl had been placed in temporary protective custody.
Lucia sat quietly, drawing with colored pencils.
"What are you drawing?" Vega asked.
"Our house."
Vega smiled.
Then noticed something strange.
A black car.
Parked across the street.
"Whose car is that?"
Lucia froze.
"The man."
"What man?"
"The man who came before Aunt Marta."
Vega stopped breathing.
"You've never mentioned a man."
Lucia looked confused.
"I thought everyone knew."
That evening, Collins watched the recovered hotel footage again.
He paused.
Zoomed in.
Then froze.
The mysterious woman wore a bracelet.
Silver.
With a tiny blue stone.
He had seen it before.
Hours later he found it.
Court Exhibit 27.
A bracelet photographed on Marta Morales during the original trial.
But there was one problem.
Marta had sworn under oath she had never been to the hotel.
Someone was lying.
As Collins prepared an arrest warrant, his phone rang.
Officer Daniels sounded terrified.
"Detective..."
"What happened?"
"Marta's house..."
Collins grabbed his keys.
"What about it?"
"It's on fire."
Smoke consumed the entire second floor.
Firefighters battled the flames while detectives searched the ruins.
The fire marshal emerged carrying a metal box.
"It survived."
Inside...
were dozens of shredded financial documents.
And one partially burned photograph.
Thomas.
Standing beside a man no one recognized.
May you like
Written across the back in faded ink were four chilling words.
He knows everything.
