Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 271(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 271(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
“One of the front desk clerks just notified me of a phone call that came for Molly Smith last night. It must have been while you were at dinner. Seeing the block on receiving calls listed for the room, she reported that there were no guests by that name but jotted the note down when he insisted on leaving a message. Unfortunately, she didn’t take time to notify me until a second fishing call came in this morning.”
“Fuck! Why didn’t she send a message immediately?” Hawking asked, standing up to go to the reception area.
“Sadie is addressing the lapse in time as a training issue,” Magnus assured him.
“Damn right, it’s a training issue.”
“In her defense, the new receptionist has no idea Celeste is in any trouble. It’s not like we’ve announced it to the entire staff. Plus, Smith is the most common last name in New Zealand, Hawking. It’s very possible that they weren’t looking for your Little, hiding under Molly Smith. The clerk did follow the guidelines you set into place and gave the routine answer that she couldn’t access that information to confirm whether Danger Bluff had a reservation or not under that name and to suggest he contact his friend on their cell phone.”
“They’re tracking her. If they have access to facial identification from the ferry or other sources, whoever is behind this is extremely powerful,” Hawking pointed out. “And we have no idea who or what to look for.” His frustration mounted as he wondered if his Little girl was in her room right now. He hoped so. He didn’t like this development.
“I would suggest you move her up to the fifth floor. That gives her another level of security while we see what their next move is.”
Hawking nodded to himself. “Good call. Keep your eyes open, Magnus.”
“As always, Hawking. Go get your Little. I’m watching her floor, and there’s an employee with a cart, knocking on doors.”
Disconnecting, Hawking jogged to the elevator and celebrated his luck when the doors opened immediately. He rode it up to the fourth floor. As he exited the elevator, he noticed the housekeeping cart standing at Celeste’s door. He quickened his steps and saw to his horror that his Little stood at the door with a stack of fresh towels in her hand as she chatted with the employee.
“Good morning, ladies.” He scanned the employee’s name tag and noted that the picture and the woman’s appearance didn’t match.
Swearing inside his head, Hawking thought quickly to protect his Little and get the fake employee away from Celeste. “The head of housekeeping requested all employees return to speak with her. There was something about a batch of towels that received the wrong softener. Nothing dangerous but not Danger Bluff level comfort. I better take these.”
He plucked the towels from Celeste’s arms. “I’ll make sure you get a new set as soon as possible, Miss.”
Turning back to the employee, he suggested, “I’m headed down there. Let’s go check in, and you can restock the cart.”
The employee stared at him with wide eyes.
“Sorry to disturb you,” he said to Celeste when she continued to stand there, urging her to escape into her room with his warning gaze. To his relief, she nodded and stepped back into the room.
“What’s wrong with the fabric softener?” the employee said nervously as she pushed the cart toward the closest elevator.
“Who knows? We’ll take the service elevator at the rear of the hotel.” Hawking nodded that direction and watched the woman stop uncertainly as if she didn’t know where that elevator was. “It’s easy to get turned around in here. It’s that way.”
Once she was in the elevator, he sent an alert to his security team and the other five Daddies.
When the doors opened on the first floor, the “employee” looked at the three large men skidding to a stop in security polos and held up her hands. “They wired money to my bank account an hour ago. I didn’t do anything wrong. I just came and knocked on doors.”
“Hawking, this was on the cart.” Rocco held up a cell phone displaying a picture of Celeste in her lab coat. It looked like something that would appear on an ID badge.
“That’s the woman they were looking for,” the fake employee stated.
“Did you notify them she was here?” Hawking asked.
“I didn’t yet. I won’t.”
“Trespassing. Stealing company equipment. Stealing an ID,” Hawking ticked off the crimes she had committed.
“It’s public property. I didn’t trespass.”
“It’s private property accessible only by employees and guests. You are neither,” Hawking corrected her with a pointed glare that made her scramble to excuse her actions.
“I didn’t steal anything. The cart was parked in that unlocked room downstairs. I just pushed it upstairs. The ID badge was in the top drawer,” the woman said as if that excused her behavior.