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CHAPTER 46

Cedar Creek, Nevada Thursday, August 1, 2024

SINCE RYDER HAD DROPPED HER VIDEO TO HER SOCIAL CHANNELS ON Tuesday night, the rest of the media had taken notice. Speculation had spread that baby Charlotte had returned to Cedar Creek, and reporters, hoping to cash in on the story, descended in droves on the small mountain town, hoping to land an exclusive interview, or at least record the first sighting. Ryder noticed the uptick in media presence and was desperate to beat her colleagues to the story.

She sat in her SUV, which was parked in the back corner of the Cedar Creek Inn. Her cameraman dozed in the passenger seat. She rolled her window down when the inn employee exited the back door and made her way across the parking lot.

“She reserved a room earlier today,” the woman said when she reached Ryder’s open window. “She was with another woman. Older, maybe fifty.”

“You got a room number?” Ryder asked.

“Maybe.”

Ryder handed over another fifty-dollar bill. It was the third one she’d given the woman. The employee took it and stuffed it in her pocket.

“Three-oh-three. Here’s a keycard.”

She dropped the card through the window, hurried back across the lot, and disappeared through the back door.

Ryder slapped her cameraman awake.

“Kerry, let’s go.”

Kerry jolted awake.

“What’s wrong?”

“We’ve got a room number. Grab your camera.”

A minute later, Kerry was pointing his camera at Ryder, who stood in front of the Cedar Creek Inn sign.

“I’m in Cedar Creek, Nevada, where it is rumored that baby Charlotte has come to reunite with the Margolis family. My sources tell me that she is at this hotel, the Cedar Creek Inn, and we’re about to track her down to get the first interview, or at least the first sound bites from her.”

Ryder jogged across the parking lot as Kerry followed. The footage they would later post was not controlled by a stabilizer. Instead, it was rough and raw as the video bounced while Ryder ran to the back door of the inn and pushed through it. In the stairwell, she climbed three flights of stairs while Kerry followed behind, capturing everything. On the third-floor landing, Ryder stopped and turned to the camera. She spoke in a whisper.

“I’ve got it from a good source that baby Charlotte, aka Sloan Hastings, is staying in room three-oh-three.”

Ryder slowly pushed open the door to the hallway, and Kerry moved the camera to capture the room number on the door halfway down the hall. But just as Ryder was about to exit the stairwell, the door to room 303 opened. She quickly pulled the staircase door closed while Kerry adjusted the camera and aimed it through the vertical window in the door. The mesh of the Georgian wired glass blurred the footage. A man in a suit and tie walked out of room 303 wheeling a suitcase behind him. He walked to the far end of the hallway, pressed the call button, and then entered the elevator. Kerry zoomed in on his face just as the doors were closing.

When the man was gone, Ryder hurried down the hallway to room 303. She took one last look into the camera before she inserted the key and opened the door.

“Sloan Hastings?” Ryder called out as the door swung open.

She walked in with Kerry following.

“Sloan Hastings?”

When it was clear that the room was empty, Ryder turned back to Kerry.

“Hurry!” she said as she raced back down the hallway and took the stairs two at a time, Kerry following close behind and capturing footage that was sure to be disorienting and blurred.

When they made it out the back door, they ran into the parking lot and searched for the man in the suit. He was nowhere.