Chapter 7

"We're going to Matt's room," Liam said instead of answering Mason's question and headed toward the elevator bay. "Why are we going to Matt's room?" Mason was baffled. "What, do you think the woman is hiding in there?" "She got out within a five-mile radius of the hotel," Liam replied, finally giving Mason some explanation. Mason froze, then burst out laughing. "She has no idea she's been outsmarted! She probably knew you were going after her, so she got out of the car as soon as it left the parking lot. Then, Hunter drove away to distract us. "I bet she didn't expect Jasper and Aidan to catch up to Hunter so soon, and she definitely doesn't know Matt has surveillance within a five-mile radius of the hotel!" His smile widened as he continued, "Lunar Hotel is on the outskirts of town, and there are hardly any cabs at this hour. If she got out of Hunter's car and did not get into another, she must still be in the area. We can locate her through the surveillance footage and capture her!" Mason hurried into the elevator when the doors opened and pressed the button for the 33rd floor. Matthew Sullivan and Liam stayed on this floor in Rooms 3301 and 3302 respectively. Liam knew the passcode to Matthew's room. He keyed it in, and the lock gave way with a faint beep. He then pushed the door open. His brows furrowed slightly when he stepped into the room. The scent of tobacco lingered in the air. It was faint but enough for Liam to know someone had been in the room. It couldn't have been Matthew, for he had gone abroad a month ago. Liam did a quick scan of the room. At first glance, nothing seemed out of place, but a few tweaks had been made here and there. "Is Matt back?" Mason had keen observation courtesy of his job as a police captain. "No, wait. This isn't Matt." With some basic profiling and detective work, Mason found a cigarette butt under one of the armchairs in the living room. "A woman's cigarette! Liam, do you think the woman came in here? If she did, her motives will be highly suspect—" Liam was already going through the surveillance footage and did not answer Mason. It seemed the woman had destroyed the hotel's surveillance footage, but Matthew's surveillance system was external and independent of the hotel's. As such, the footage remained intact. Liam narrowed his search to the specific time and location in Aidan's report and retrieved the footage of that particular area. The footage showed Hunter's car pulling out of the hotel parking lot and stopping at the first corner. The car door opened, and a black umbrella appeared. The person who exited the car seemed to glance at the surveillance camera while remaining hidden under the black umbrella. Not even their feet showed up on the footage. "The woman's smart. Did she know there was a surveillance camera there?" Mason mused, quirking his lips. "No, if she knew there was a camera, she might not have gotten out of the car in the first place. "Maybe she's just naturally vigilant? Or is she staying hidden because she's guilty of something? Then again, she got out in an open space where she wouldn't find cover. Wasn't she worried we'd see her?" Liam's eyes narrowed. She had chosen to exit the car right after she escaped from the hotel. In all fairness, it was the safest time for her to escape; the crowd had been scared witless by the false grenade, and Liam hadn't been able to catch up to her yet. But choosing to get out in an open space left her vulnerable, and traveling at night with an umbrella over one's head was highly suspicious behavior. A smart woman like her wouldn't have made such obvious rookie mistakes! Liam stared unblinkingly at the footage and watched the black umbrella move quickly toward the middle of the road. She walked fast, her speed rivaling that of the average man. "What is she going to do?" Mason asked aloud, frowning as his eyes widened in shock. The next second, the woman in the footage leaped over the roadside barricade. With the barricade's height, it was nearly impossible for the average person to make that leap to the other side. And yet, the woman accomplished it while staying entirely hidden under the umbrella. "Quite the athlete, isn't she? I doubt she's your average costume party crasher, Liam," Mason observed gravely. "She's growing more suspicious by the second." Liam remained silent as he watched the footage. The woman continued holding the umbrella until she crossed the road to a gas station and entered the mini-mart. The surveillance camera couldn't capture the inside of the mart on account of the angle, but the gas station only had one exit. No one went by the gas station at such a late hour, and there were no cars, either. Liam fast-forwarded the footage, but it did not affect his scrutiny of it. The woman never left the mini-mart. "There's only one exit in that gas station. The same goes for that mini-mart. She must still be in there," Mason said, excitement coloring his features. "Liam, let's head there right now and corner her!" Liam's gaze darkened. He did not budge and merely fast-forwarded the footage. He then rewinded it, made several adjustments, and realized that no matter what he did, the footage remained the same. They had been watching a still frame. No one came or went in that footage, and no object moved. At first glance, it was hard to detect anything wrong with the footage, and the image flickered as it would in real-time. Anyone would have been fooled into thinking the surveillance camera was working normally. But the truth was that the woman had hacked into the surveillance system right after she entered the mini-mart. The camera had been showing only a still frame of the moment that followed her entrance. While Liam had figured that part out, he still couldn't figure out how she got the still frame to flicker. He went through the other surveillance footage, only to find that the cameras angled in that particular direction had crashed while the other cameras worked just fine. From the looks of it, Liam had met an expert escape artist. He knew the woman wouldn't be in the gas station anymore. It seemed he had underestimated the little fox and let her get away. Mason's eyes were wide with disbelief as he gaped at the footage. For a long while, he was lost in a daze. "Liam, should I have someone scope out the gas station just to be safe?" He refused to let the search end like this or believe that Liam's ambush and cornering had been for naught. Liam was confident the woman was no longer at the gas station, but he would have scoped out the place anyway. As such, he dialed Jasper's number and had him check out the mini-mart and the surrounding area. No grown woman could disappear into the night like that without leaving some tracks. "Is Ruby Harris still in the hotel?" Liam asked after hanging up on Jasper, glancing at the footage again. "Yes," Mason answered. He might have arrived late, but he had gotten ahold of the facts of the case. He knew Ruby was one of the people who had aided the mysterious woman's escape. "Have someone bring her to the reception room on the first floor," Liam ordered, finally looking away from the surveillance footage. His gaze, normally depthless and emotionless, flickered with something like annoyance. The mysterious woman would not get away. He would hunt her down and get to the bottom of her identity. Her purse, its contents, and the fingerprints she had left on the handcuffs were all vital clues that would lead him to her. Even if she had escaped him now, he would turn over every rock in Tiston until he found her.