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No answer.
“’Cause now I got problems. They’re looking for Wendy Downing. Ain’t gonna find her ’cause she don’t exist. But they’re gonna find me, and I need help. They’re gonna think I kidnapped her, Mr. Menendez, and I need to know what to tell them. After this all occurred to me, all’s I could think to do was call you.”
“Where is Sloan Hastings now?”
“She went to get her friend. Said he was the sheriff. Stamos, I think she said his name was. She was gonna bring him here so I could tell him what I told her. I started thinking about it, and decided I wanted a lawyer with me before I talk to any sheriff.”
Menendez pulled the desk chair into the middle of the room and faced it toward the window.
“Here’s what we’re going to do, Margot. Sit.”
Margot stood from the edge of the bed and sat in the chair as Mr. Menendez paced back and forth in front of the window. He stopped to stare out the window. Margot figured he was looking down at the creek while he drummed his fingers on the windowsill and figured out their next move. Eventually, he reached into the breast pocket of his suit coat and walked across the room, deep in thought, Margot believed.
“I think I know how to handle this,” Mr. Menendez said as he walked past her.
“How,” Margot asked, suddenly feeling strange sitting in a chair in the middle of the room.
Mr. Menendez leaned down from behind her and whispered in her ear.
“Do you feel better having gotten our secret off your chest?”
“I don’t know. I guess.”
“Good. You’ll be able to rest in peace.”
His words barely registered before Margot felt a sharp jolt to her neck, as if a ring of fire had enclosed around her throat. She gasped but no air would enter her trachea. She reached for her neck, digging her fingers into her skin as she attempted to grab the cord cinched around her neck. She tried to twist out of the chair but the pressure from the garrote pulled her backward and firmly set her shoulders against the backrest.
For thirty seconds she clawed at her neck. After another thirty, she thought to open her eyes. She stared at the sunlight pouring through the hotel window until her vision was taken over by a black, inky ring that encroached from the periphery, slowly constricting her world until everything disappeared.
CHAPTER 46
Cedar Creek, Nevada Thursday, August 1, 2024
SINCE RYDER HAD DROPPED HER VIDEO TO HER SOCIAL CHANNELS ON Tuesday night, the rest of the media had taken notice. Speculation had spread that baby Charlotte had returned to Cedar Creek, and reporters, hoping to cash in on the story, descended in droves on the small mountain town, hoping to land an exclusive interview, or at least record the first sighting. Ryder noticed the uptick in media presence and was desperate to beat her colleagues to the story.
She sat in her SUV, which was parked in the back corner of the Cedar Creek Inn. Her cameraman dozed in the passenger seat. She rolled her window down when the inn employee exited the back door and made her way across the parking lot.
“She reserved a room earlier today,” the woman said when she reached Ryder’s open window. “She was with another woman. Older, maybe fifty.”
“You got a room number?” Ryder asked.
“Maybe.”
Ryder handed over another fifty-dollar bill. It was the third one she’d given the woman. The employee took it and stuffed it in her pocket.
“Three-oh-three. Here’s a keycard.”
She dropped the card through the window, hurried back across the lot, and disappeared through the back door.
Ryder slapped her cameraman awake.
“Kerry, let’s go.”
Kerry jolted awake.
“What’s wrong?”
“We’ve got a room number. Grab your camera.”
