Katie had considered that scenario as well. “But the letter…a staff member wouldn’t know those details about me.”
“I agree.”
“So the mom befriended a staff member? Learned the lay of the hotel from someone working in Houston?”
Patrick shook his head. “Doubtful. Look, this is what she did. She rented a room at the hotel and arrived a day early. You never saw her arriving or leaving the hotel because she didn’t do it on the day you were looking at the videos. There are five hundred thirty-three rooms at the Houston Morrison. She knew you wouldn’t look for a single woman registering without a child.”
“I didn’t even consider that she was a guest. I figured she dropped the baby and ran.”
“She obviously brought the baby in later. Somehow, she got her hands on a room service staff uniform. Not very hard to do. The laundry service is seen going in and out of the hotel daily. She could have gotten her hands on one either on site by finding the staff room or by following a truck to where the laundry is washed. Either way, she manages to get a uniform. This tells me a couple things about our girl. She’s smart, and very determined to keep her identity a secret.”
“Obviously.”
“As a guest, she then orders room service. A tray arrives and the waiter leaves the rolling cart in the room to be picked up later. Instead of asking room service to clean up her mess, or leaving the cart in the hall, she keeps the food on the plates and waits. She waits until she knows you’re back in your room. She then changes into a uniform and loads up Savannah…under the cart and hidden by the tablecloth…and wheels her down the hall to the service door. She travels the path to your suite in a service elevator and waits outside the penthouse hall door. She hears you and Monica coming home and then tucks in behind the camera angle before knocking on your door and leaving Savannah.”
Katie pictured everything Patrick was saying…easily mapping out the woman’s path. “So she was hiding behind the service door the whole time Monica and I were standing in my doorway.”
“Yep.”
“Do we have any footage of her?”
Patrick moved from his chair to the sofa and sat beside her before turning on his tablet. “I do. In one shot, she’s wearing what is clearly a wig…in another she’s not.”
Katie clenched her fists in her lap. She’d waited forever for this moment. “Do I know her”
“You have to tell me.”
Patrick played the footage. “I looked through hours of this…hallway footage of room service trays being rolled in and out of rooms. There aren’t that many single women checking into the hotel who aren’t a part of a convention. There weren’t any going on when all of this was happening. I only had to focus on a few floors. Here is the tray being rolled in.” Katie watched as guest services arrived at a room and stepped inside. The person who opened the door was out of the frame.
The tape cut and started back up again. “Here it’s after midnight.”
Sure enough, a woman with dark hair was leaving the room pushing the tray. Her head was down but that didn’t stop Katie from squinting her eyes to try and see her features. She was petite…for a new mom. About the same height as her. The woman in the video kept looking around as if she was nervous.
Patrick voiced what she saw. “She’s nervous.”
“Yeah, I can tell.”
She pushed the cart through an unlocked service door. With the exception of the penthouse level, the others weren’t locked. If a diplomat visited or a security need arose, they could be, but in Houston that wasn’t needed at the time Savannah was being delivered.
The woman hesitated at the service door and looked up.
Patrick froze the image. He zoomed in and the quality started to fade, but her features were still visible.
Katie swallowed hard and her hands started to tingle.
It can’t be.
“Do you know her?”
Katie bit her lip. “I need to see another picture. Her hair isn’t right.”
“Like I said. It’s a wig.”
Patrick moved the images forward. When the woman was seen again, she was careless about her face. The wig was gone, and she was all but running, holding her stomach, as she made her way back to her room.
Patrick stopped the film again and zoomed in.
There, with tears streaming down her face was a woman Katie had never met but knew a whole lot about.
“It’s Maggie. Dean’s ex-fiancée.”
Her entire body started to tremble.
Patrick turned off the tablet and set it down. “Dean is your boyfriend?”
She nodded wordlessly. “I just moved in with him.”
“Did he know Maggie was pregnant?”
Katie blinked a few times. Her mind went numb. “No.” He would never have allowed Maggie to have his child without him.
She stood and started to pace off the energy swarming her body.
Savannah was Dean’s daughter. His biological daughter.
More his than hers.
“Dean and I dated over a year ago,” she found herself explaining to Patrick. “He used to sneak up to my suite during the time we were together. He must have mentioned that to Maggie.”
“It did look as if Maggie knew the routine of the hotel. But unless Dean drew her a map, she had to have figured this out by herself.”
She thought of the note left with Savannah at the door. “It makes sense now. Dean knew I couldn’t have children.” It hurt to think he’d told his fiancée about her. She wanted to be angry with him but all she could feel was shock.