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JD settled his weight back on his legs. He allowed what he heard to settle in.

“So … you have security footage of the time in question, and there’s … nothing on the tape?”

“That’s right,” Hank said nodding. “Not a damned thing, JD. Just a couple of lines of static, and nothing.”

“Duuuuuuuude … doo-DOO-doo-doo, doo-DOO-doo-doo …” Dillon sang, intoning The Twilight Zone theme song.

JD’s jaw danced as his molars locked. “Dillon, please.”

“No, he’s right, JD,” Hank chuckled. “It was weird. Really weird. Somehow that hat made it from New York — or at least was on its way there — back here, into our room and onto our bed without anyone putting it there.”

“You can see why we’re not going back into that room,” Phoebe added.

JD nodded, blinking hard as he processed the information. “I … I think I can, yes.”

“And that’s still not the end of it,” Hank added, putting his arm around Phoebe. She nodded, laying her head against his shoulder.

“If only,” she said, her face sad.

“You poor things,” Wendy said, reaching out with one arm to touch Phoebe’s hand. “You’ve been through so much … and this was the only safe place you had.”

Phoebe’s eyes misted as she smiled at Wendy. “You’d better keep this one, JD,” she said, sniffling and daubing at the corner of her eye. “She’s a good one. Better not let her get away.”

JD blushed furiously. “She is a good one.”

Phoebe straightened. “It was hard to leave what’s been our home since the hotel was finished. We had it constructed especially for the purpose of living there. Our room — the one you saw — was everything we wanted in a suite. Well, except for a skylight,” she laughed. “That was ridiculous. The contractor laughed at us when we asked. He said it’d be covered most of the year with snow, and when it wasn’t, we’d see trees. Not much else.”

JD smiled, but his mind wasn’t on her statement.

“You said the appearance of Carl’s hat wasn’t all there is, though,” he said. “What else is there, if I may? We … well, we may as well have it all.”

“Fair enough,” Hank said. “The next thing that happened, happened in our next room. It — well, let’s just say I don’t know if I can show you. You might have to take my word for it.”

JD tipped his head, brows drawn over his eyes quizzically.

“You’ll see,” Hank said. He didn’t smile. “C’mon, follow us.”

Wendy yawned behind her fist. JD realized then they were probably all exhausted from the meetings, the information overload and the trip. Dillon was — thankfully — quiet behind them as they padded away around the corner of the corridor.

“Before we get too far away,” JD said, moving to catch up with the Kileys, “what’s the door at the end of the corridor? I noticed on the interior the … house, I guess, has a hallway that runs behind it. Where does that hall go and what’s behind the metal door in the corridor?”