I nod. “It’s where the waitstaff live when they’re not working at Aces. Rouge bought it years ago.”
“November of 1998?” Harrison asks. “That’s when they stopped using the shampoos from Temper Hair.”
I widen my eyes. “That sounds about right. Rouge’s birthday is in June, and ninety-eight is when she turned eighteen. November is about the time when she would have started learning the ropes, taking on responsibilities.”
“So she bought the hotel and refurbished it for mass housing?”
“I don’t know all the details. I was in middle school at the time. Rouge is six years older than I am.”
Harrison’s forehead wrinkles. “Is it just the waitstaff who live at the hotel?”
“I think so.” I pace the room. “Some of the other employees like DeeDee and Dudley probably hang their hats there as well. I’ve never been, but I’ve overheard Rouge talking about it on occasion. She scans the location once a week. In fact, now that I think about it, that’s what she was doing the night we met.”
Harrison sits down at Alissa’s table, runs his hands through his dark hair. “Do you think she was checking up on Maddox and Alissa?”
“If they’re alive, then it’s possible.” I cross my arms and sit down across the table from him. “But the waitstaff are bused there every morning and night. There’d be a lot of hustle and bustle every day. Surely they would have talked to someone.”
“Not if they were locked away somewhere,” Dinah says, her voice cracking.
“True,” I reply. “And the waitstaff are kept tightly under Rouge’s thumb. They’re instructed to get off the bus and go straight to their rooms. They can only speak to each other once they get to their rooms, and most of them speak different languages, so there isn’t a whole lot of communication going on.”
“Wow.” Harrison lets out a sigh. “So we’ll be checking out the Caterpillar Hotel first thing in the morning then.”
I shake my head. “Harrison, time is of the absolute essence. With each passing day, my sister makes another person disappear. Whether they’re being sent away or killed en masse, I don’t know. But what I do know is I don’t want to give her another second to hurt another person.” I draw in a deep breath, hardening my internal resolve. “We have to go there now. Right now.”
33
HARRISON
Bianca is right. We can’t wait any longer to act. We finally have a solid lead, and who knows how long opportunity will linger in our doorway before it disappears into the night?
We don’t park in the Caterpillar Hotel lot. My Cadillac would stick out like a sore thumb with no other cars here. We park a block away on a deserted street and walk over.
The Caterpillar Hotel looks like any other rundown motel—flickering lightbulbs, peeling paint on the exterior, brownish curtains obscuring the view into every window—except for one detail. The doors are freshly painted, alternating in black and white. I count the floors. There are eight of them, and eight rooms on every floor.
Sixty-four rooms in total. Alternating black and white, just like a chessboard.
Pia and Mr. Night both mentioned that Rouge declared Maddox and Alissa the King and Queen of Diamonds.
I think it through.
Rouge likes playing games. This hotel is one giant game of chess. The King and Queen are pieces in chess as well. Diamonds are a red suit, as opposed to a black suit. The white side of the chess board goes first, and the Queen always starts on a square of her own color, the spot called D1. The King, on the other hand, starts on E1.
Those could be hotel room names easily. I walk up to the leftmost door of the first floor, and sure enough, it’s room 1-A. A black door. I think my theory might be correct.
I walk over three more doors and we’re at a white door marked 1-D.
“I think this room is where they might be keeping Alissa,” I say.
“How do you know?”
“Mr. Night told me that Rouge made Maddox and Alissa the King and Queen of Diamonds one of the last nights anybody saw them.” I gesture to the building. “The rooms in this hotel are arranged like a chessboard. The white queen typically starts on D1, a square of the same color as her side. This room is the reversal of the letter and number.”
“I had no idea you were such a nerd,” Dinah says.
“I played a lot of chess with my brothers growing up. And Rouge loves a theme.”
“Should we knock?” Bianca asks.
