390 Identity 3

Crown Hotel — Conference Room 3

Earlier, Damien Park saw Katherine get up from her seat and walk out through the double doors while they were answering questions and clarifications from the bidders. However, it had been fifteen minutes since and she hadn't come back yet, making him wonder if she left somewhere. But if she did, she would have informed him, right?

His eyes were fixed at the double doors where she disappeared a while ago, feeling uneasy by the minute that she hadn't returned. If she went to the restroom, she should have been back by now knowing that the washroom was just on the other end. Where could she be?

Damien whipped out his phone and tapped the screen quickly to send her a text message.

[Damien: Where are you?]

He waited for a minute but there was no response, so he sent another text.

[Damien: Everything ok? You've been gone for a while.]

The double doors opened and he snapped his head towards it, his eyes narrowing at the woman who just entered. He knitted his brows upon seeing Margaret enter the conference room, meeting her eyes only for a brief second before averting his eyes away, looking back at his phone screen. He waited for Katherine's response as he began to feel anxious, his knee bouncing up and down under the table. He was getting impatient.

Caleb noticed his restlessness and he raised his brow at his friend but Damien only shook his head subtly, not wanting to disturb the meeting. The latter wanted to call Katherine and he was just about to dial her phone number when a question from one of the bidders demanded his attention. So even though he was reluctant, he shifted his focus back to the meeting and placed his phone down on the table to answer.

More than twenty minutes later, the meeting had finally ended and as soon as it did, Damien called Katherine. The line was silent longer than it should have before an automated operator sounded, "The number you have dialed cannot be reached at the moment. Please try again later."

He tried two more times but the results were the same. His anxiousness grew even more.

In a hurry, he left the conference room but before he could reach the door, he saw Michael Price from his peripheral vision. "Price," he called the other's attention.

Michael turned to Damien and greeted him as he approached. "President Park. Yes?"

"Where's Katherine?" Damien didn't waste time and asked directly, not caring whoever would hear around them. His hand clutched his phone tightly to ease his nervousness. 

"Oh, I was wondering about that too. She said she was going to get some fresh air but she didn't come back… I could wait for her but I actually still have a meeting that I need to get to so I need to leave."

Damien nodded. "I see. I'll give her a ride to the office when I find her."

Walking towards Crown Resort Group's main office building which is next to Crown Hotel, Damien called Felix who picked up on the first ring. "Where's Katherine?"

"I'm not sure. Isn't she with you at the meeting?"

"Where are you? Why aren't you with her?"

"I'm down at the office, turning over some paperwork that you asked me earlier. What's wrong?"

Damien only remembered that he did ask Felix to finish some tasks at Maverick Security. Since he was with Katherine in the room, he became lenient. Now he felt like shît. "I can't find her. Do a search. I'm going down there." When the call ended, he sprinted towards the elevator and headed straight to the basement—at Maverick Security.

Using his private elevator, Damien pressed a unique code on the control panel and the car moved downwards. When the door opened, he was already inside Maverick Security's training base where several of his men greeted him as he passed and went straight to the tech room.

Opening the door, several monitors have been used to search for Katherine as per Felix's guidance. "Zero, search from forty-five to fifty minutes ago. She left conference room three on the second floor around that time," Damien ordered as he approached.

"Got it." With quick fingers, Zero maneuvered the security camera's footage and in a few seconds, he found Katherine exiting the conference room. "Found her."

Damien's eyes were glued at the screens in front of them. Zero controlled the playback of the clips where the screen showed simultaneous motions from several security cameras as though they were following wherever she was headed. The playback looked smooth but it was all Zero's doing as his fingers magically flitted across the keyboard to pull up different angles of the videos.

They watched as Katherine walked the hallway from the conference room to the other end of the hall, entering the lady's room. Damien's heart raced as he waited for Katherine to come out. 'She has to.' The clip was brought forward until they saw her leaving the restroom and heading towards the stairs but a woman came and talked to her. "Stop," he muttered. "Zoom in."

There, he saw that Katherine was talking to Margaret Hara. His jaw clenched at the sight. He didn't like where this was heading. However, he saw Margaret enter the conference room earlier. His brows furrowed in confusion as they continued to watch the security footage. He was slightly relieved when the two only talked, yet now, they were watching Katherine go up the third floor and stayed out in the balcony for a while before coming back in.

They were focusing on Katherine the entire time and only noticed that there was a suspicious man following her several meters away. "Wait, what's that?" Damien pointed at one of the monitors and Zero divided the screens showing Katherine and the man who was following her.

Watching Katherine back on the second floor, Damien barely blinked as he was afraid to miss anything. It was as if time stood still and his breath was taken away from him when he saw the hooded man approach Katherine from behind and injected something to her neck.

His heart dropped seeing a lifeless Katherine being carried out by the man. He paled at the sight and he could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ear. 

"Boss, look," one of his men called and pointed at one of the screens. 

Damien's eyes drifted towards it and watched a clip from an angle where Katherine was facing—it was before she lost consciousness. Her eyes were looking straight at the security camera as though she was sure that Damien was watching her at that moment.  

He took over the keyboard and pressed several keys until the screen was zoomed in at her face, just in time for him to see Katherine mouth the words: "Find me."