The Hostage: BookShots (Hotel Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

going to be okay, I know you are.’
    Stanley opened his eyes.
    ‘You get him, boss. Get him for me.’
    ‘Don’t worry, I will.’ And before Roscoe could say any more the paramedics pushed Stanley through the door and out to the waiting ambulance.
    From inside the lobby, Roscoe watched them carefully load him in the emergency vehicle before repeating to himself, ‘Don’t worry, Stanley, I will. Whatever it takes.’

CHAPTER 10
    JON ROSCOE STOOD at the cathedral-like windows which poured light onto the marbled lobby of the Tribeca Luxury Hotel. He felt a physical pain as the ambulance accelerated away, lighting up its sirens as it went.
    ‘Where do I go next, Stanley?’ he asked himself.
    ‘He wanted to speak to us,’ he told himself, paging through the events of the last hour in his head. ‘He wanted to talk to whoever was in charge, wanted to taunt us, to show us he was in control. He might be crazy but he knows what he’s doing. And he’s not done yet, Stanley. But where is he? Where was he calling from? We know he must have been in the hotel.
    ‘Of course!’ he called out, causing those around him to turn and stare. He sprinted across the lobby. ‘Anna! Anna! Can you tell where he was calling from? The killer?’
    Anna picked up the phone on her desk and clicked through the calls she’d received.
    ‘An internal phone on the twenty-fifth floor.’
    ‘You’re certain?’
    ‘Absolutely. This gives me a floor-by-floor breakdown.’
    ‘Can you see what room?’
    ‘It was a hallway phone.’
    ‘So why the twenty-fifth? What’s taken him there?’ Roscoe stood beside Anna’s desk while she clicked on her computer.
    She turned to him, a look of dread on her face.
    ‘Jon, twenty-five – it’s where Jackson Harlington’s family are staying. The Royal Garden Suite.’
    ‘Damn him,’ said Roscoe, hitting out at the wall behind Anna’s desk. ‘He’s a step ahead of us. Why didn’t I bring them straight down to the lobby?’
    He handed Anna his security pass. ‘If you enter my details you’ll be able to access the cameras on twenty-five.’
    Roscoe leant across to Anna’s desk as she typed in his passcode. In a split second an image of the hallway on the twenty-fifth floor appeared on Anna’s monitor. He flicked from one camera image to the next but all they could see was silence.
    The hallway was deserted.
    Nothing was out of place.
    Roscoe took in a sharp breath. ‘I’ve got to get up there.’
    Neither Roscoe nor Anna Conquest had noticed the approach of Peter Savage as they viewed the images.
    ‘Get up where?’ demanded Savage.
    Roscoe said nothing.
    ‘Perhaps you’d like to be the one who shares, Ms Conquest?’
    Anna looked up at Jon. He knew this wasn’t her battle to fight.
    ‘The twenty-fifth floor,’ said Roscoe. ‘We think it’s where he was calling from. And we know it’s where the Harlington family are staying.’
    ‘And you thought it was smart to keep that to yourself, did you, Rambo? This is a police investigation, not an opportunity for hotel security to play detective. I’ll take an armed unit up in the elevator. Roscoe, you can stay here and answer the phones.’
    Savage called across two armed officers and quickly briefed them with a plan to access the twenty-fifth floor. The elevators would be unlocked and he would travel with them in the express elevator. On reaching the hallway, they would secure the space before accessing the three separate suites that covered the floor. They would start with the Royal Garden Suite, where Jackson Harlington had been staying with his wife and daughter.
    Savage turned to Roscoe.
    ‘Unlock the elevators.’
    Realising he had no choice, Roscoe walked across the lobby and keyed in the security code. Savage pressed the button to call the express elevator but as soon as he did the neighbouring elevator began a descent from the twenty-fifth floor.
    Roscoe was the first to react.
    Seeing the elevator drop floor by floor, he shouted