Page 72 of Ruin

My hand reached for the mouse to pause the video. Before my finger could click, I saw headlights once more. I slowed the video playback, but this time the car was moving too fast to offer a clear view of the license plate.

Who was coming in through the gate at 1:16 a.m.?

I scanned the gate footage again, looking at the time that had passed after. There, at 3:01 a.m., the car sped through the gate again, a thick cloud of dust following it and obscuring the video. But something was different. When the car arrived, it came from the north, the direction of the town. This time, it left toward the south…toward the cliffs that separated the town from my villa.

I clicked back to the lobby footage, scanning through the hours that followed. No one had passed through the front door, and nothing seemed amiss. The night receptionist sat at his post, mostly scrolling through his phone unbothered.

Fuck. What else is there?

Out of the corner of my eye, my attention was pulled to the dark shadows hiding in the corner of the room. Three stacks of suitcases and handbags. Two of the stacks covered with dust, and one still fresh and clean, emitting the scent of Baccarat Rouge.

Even if Claire never believes me, I owe it to them.

I looked back at the files, absorbing every grain of information at my fingertips, before noticing the phone log folder for the evening. I scrolled through until I saw it: a call from Jennifer’s room at 8:17 p.m. and a call to Jennifer’s room at 1:16 a.m., the same local number both times.

8:17 p.m. That is shortly after Claire, and I had our encounter with Jennifer in the lobby.

My mind hit a wall as I struggled to piece the evidence together. She was talking with someone. She was planning something. She was meeting someone! Someone who obviously knew not to go through the lobby. Someone who obviously knew the drive through the front gate quickly to skew the security cameras.

It is a staff member. Only a staff member would know the blind spots in the cameras. Only a staff member would know how to leave in a way that obscured the cameras.

Quickly, I opened the portal to the staff key cards that displayed every clock-in, clock-out, and swipe of their key cards that linked to the system. The log between 1:15 a.m. and 3:01 a.m. was blank, except for one entry.

This motherfucker.

My mind raced in shock until a sharp pain filled my chest. A deep burning that pierced my heart and spread like a virus. Breath hitched in my throat as the venom in my blood began to boil.

I stood from my chair in a panic as I raced through the door and down the corridors to Claire’s room.

I cannot feel her.

“Where the fuck is Claire?!” I shouted at Sam as he turned and stood up, startled and backing away slowly. He was still sitting on the bench among the roses where we had parted ways just over two hours ago.

“She’s in her room,” he replied, his voice puzzled as his face contorted with confusion and fear.

“No, she’s not!” I screamed, anger spitting from my lips toward Sam as he approached me.

I backed up from the door before running at full speed toward its frame, my shoulder digging into the solid wood. The wood splintered against my body with a vicious crack as the door swung swiftly and crashed into the plaster of the wall.

She is gone.

And her scent is fading.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Claire

The sound of ringing pierced through the dark silence of the room. My eyes scanned the abyss that engulfed the space around me until my eyes focused on the bedside clock. The red light glowed brightly, displaying the time—9:00 p.m. on the dot.

I reached my hand for the receiver of the phone to stop the ringing that was making my head begin to pound.

“Hello?” I asked, my voice crackling.

“Miss Bailey. It is Lorenzo. Did I wake you?” Lorenzo’s warm voice cut through the silence of the line.

“Umm, no, what’s up?” I questioned.

“We’re having a small get-together, a vigil of sorts…for Miss Mora,” Lorenzo said, his voice nervous. “I believe the two of you are friends…were friends. We thought you may want to come.”