Chapter 7 - The Boiler Room
"They're holding her here," I said, showing Adrian the video.
He swore softly. "I'll call Pike."
"Don't. He's in it."
Behind Iris, a sign read OLD PUMP ROOM. I'd cleaned that corridor once during a flood. The room sat beyond Basement Two, past the locked south maintenance gate.
Adrian called the police dispatcher himself, then handed his phone to Ruth so she could give officers the service entrance. This time she didn't look at Pike for permission.
"Can you unlock the gate?" I asked.
"Not with housekeeping keys," Ruth said. "Engineering has the override."
"Then find an engineer who still remembers what a locked door is for."
She brought back Mabel Cho, the night engineer, a sixty-year-old woman with grease on her sleeves and no patience for men in expensive suits.
"That pump room was taken out of service years ago," Mabel said. "Nobody has a reason to be in there."
"Somebody has Iris."
Mabel grabbed her tool case. "Then we're going."
Owen followed with his camera. Adrian came too, though I told him he could get hurt.
"It's my hotel," he said.
"Then start acting like it belongs to the people working here."
We reached the south gate to find the chain freshly looped through the handles. Mabel used the authorized emergency release inside the adjacent electrical cabinet. A warning buzzer sounded. The lock disengaged.
"Subtle," Owen muttered.
"I'd rather be loud than late," Mabel said.
Beyond the gate, a Northline contractor stood outside the pump room. When he saw Adrian, he reached into his jacket.
I shouted, "Hands where we can see them!"
He dropped a radio and ran. Behind the door came a thud, then Iris's voice.
"Lena?"
May you like
Mabel reached for the handle.
A voice from the contractor's fallen radio said, "Pike, the witnesses found the room. Start the Ashbury shutdown now."
