Chapter 2 — Room 412 Had Once Been Someone’s Home
William moved the conversation into his office.
Robert sat across from Jason.
Claire remained beside the door.
“Inside the wall?” Robert asked.
Jason nodded.
Before Seabrook became a luxury resort, the fourth floor had looked completely different.
During the 1990s, part of it contained seasonal employee accommodation.
Small rooms.
Shared bathrooms.
Basic furniture.
After a major renovation in 2002, several employee rooms were combined into larger guest suites.
Current Room 412 had once contained two staff rooms.
One of them belonged to Jason’s mother.
Melissa Cole.
“She worked here?” Robert asked.
“Three summers.”
Melissa was nineteen when she first came to Seabrook.
She worked in the restaurant during breakfast.
Then helped with beach activities in the afternoon.
Jason had heard stories about those summers his entire life.
But recently, while helping the maintenance department digitize old building plans, he discovered something unexpected.
A handwritten notation beside former Staff Room 4B:
LOOSE WINDOW TRIM — REPAIR AFTER SEASON.
Jason recognized the description.
His mother had mentioned that loose trim before.
Teenage employees used to hide notes behind it.
“Notes?” William asked.
Jason nodded.
Before everyone had mobile phones, staff working opposite shifts sometimes left messages in small hiding places.
Nothing important.
Meet at the beach after work.
Your laundry is downstairs.
Save me dessert.
But Melissa once told Jason that somebody had left her one final message behind the window trim.
She never got to read it.
“Why not?” Robert asked.
Jason hesitated.
“Because she left Seabrook unexpectedly.”
Jason recently realized the old hiding place might still exist behind the modern wall covering in Room 412.
Then he learned that section of the room would be remodeled the following month.
He panicked.
“I thought if anything was still there, construction would destroy it.”
William stared at him.
“So you used your employee key to enter an occupied guest room?”
Jason looked down.
“Yes.”
“Repeatedly.”
“Yes.”
“Without permission.”
Jason nodded.
Robert remained angry.
“Why five times?”
“Because I couldn’t find the original trim.”
The renovation had covered most of it.
Jason checked behind the dresser.
Then beneath a decorative wall panel.
Then beside the window frame.
Each attempt took only a few minutes.
But every one was unauthorized.
Robert asked again:
“And my compass?”
Jason shook his head.
“I swear I never took it.”
William looked toward Claire.
“We’re going back to the room.”