Page 4 of Sleigh Bells and Snowstorms
“Are you sure she’s alone?”
“I didn’t see anyone, but…”
Footsteps sounded behind me. Multiple people. They sped up, and I chanced a glance over my shoulder. Two men in suits.
“There they are,” I said, sprinting for the stairway entrance.
The footsteps followed.
“What floor?” Maple asked.
I burst through the door to the stairs. “Eight.”
“Go up first.”
Sprinting, I took the stairs several at a time and slipped out onto the ninth floor. I doubted I’d evade my pursuers that easily, but I slowed to a walk as I made my way down the hallway past a pair of hotel guests bound for their room.
“Happy holidays!” the woman said, sounding a little tipsy.
I gave her a nod and hurried past, ducking down another hall. The woman greeted someone else—probably Delphine’s minions—and a second later, I heard footsteps and low voices.
Still after me.
I went farther down the hall, hoping for another set of stairs.
“Where are you?” Maple asked. “I have a layout of the hotel.”
“Passing room 9015.”
“Keep going. There’s a closet three doors down.”
I reached the closet and tried the door.
“Locked.”
“Stairs coming up on the right.”
I was already running for the door, holding the figurine against my chest. My pursuers must have taken a different turn, but their voices grew closer again. I slipped through the door into the stairwell and started down.
“I’m going down.”
The door above me opened, and heavy footsteps rang out. One of them said, “Lobby.”
Someone would be waiting for me downstairs. Possibly several someones.
“Can’t go to the lobby,” I told Maple as I kept racing downward.
Making a snap decision, I exited the stairwell on the third floor. The door opened onto a wide-open space with a large, brightly lit Christmas tree. Well-dressed people milled around, many with drinks in their hands.
“Third floor. People everywhere.”
“There are ballrooms on the third floor,” Maple said.
“Looks like a party.”
I slowed so I wouldn’t attract too much attention and made my way toward the ballrooms. The stairwell door opened, and a few people exclaimed in surprise as the two men rushed out.
Outside the first ballroom, I glanced down a side hallway. A man dressed in red with a thick white beard was emerging from a room a few doors down.
