Hutch spun around as the doors of the elevator closed behind him. He didn't like the feeling he had as if he were now trapped, and being as high up as he was, was not helping.
"Oh wow! Hutch, you have to come see this!" Ren called out from behind him to the sound of his shoes rapidly hitting the cement floor, moving further away.
"Be right there," Hutch muttered, too quiet for Ren to hear as he took a cautious step back, his eyes fixated on the doors and the indicator above that showed the elevator that brought them up to be unmoving, while the one next to it was stopped on the floor below.
"You are perfectly welcome to stay by the elevators, if you feel more comfortable here, but I find most people feel the safest being near the map in the center. It's something to fixate on while being equal distance away from any of the windows," Clara said stepping up beside him, as both Ren and his grandpa had gone off to admire the view. "Take it you're not a fan of heights?"
"Nope," he replied, with a harsh swallow. "Nearly died falling from a cliff once. Haven't liked them since."
"That sounds incredibly traumatic," Clara exclaimed, her expression one of shock as she looked him up and down. "How are you not permanently injured?"
Hutch turned away from her, realizing the mistake he'd made. Sometimes he still forgot that none of his scars or injures returned with him to Earth. "The safety equipment worked," he lied. "And I was rescued after a few hours." That part being the truth. "I was lucky."
"I'd say. Wow. I'm not a fan of them either, but I've never lived through anything like that. This is my second year working as a guide here. I started as a high-school co-op. Stuck around because they agreed to pay me, and I still haven't set foot out on the deck itself. At least this time of year I don't have to make up an excuse to stay inside though," she explained as they casually made their way forward towards the large, elevated world map in the center of the floor.
The entire thing was white and domed, green dashed lines made up the longitudes and latitudes, and the time zones were marked with red lines over the black outlines of the countries where small blue markers the size of the head of a pin had been glued about.
"Each marker is a rough indication of where visitors have come from since the year Evelyn Stanton first opened the tower to the public," Clare said as she ran her fingers over the cluster of markers surrounding the single purple one that indicated the location of their city.
"Stanton, is that who owns this building now?" Hutch questioned, hoping that Clara might have the answers he'd been looking for or some way to tie all of this to Salvador.
"It's a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no," Clara replied as she sat on the bench next to the map, Hutch taking a seat beside her. "Although Evelyn passed away in 1988, this building, had already been placed in a trust, along with the families remaining wealth. There's an entire page dedicated to the history of the Stanton family in there." She pointed to the folder he'd been carrying around. "In brief, Evelyn had two children, one son and one daughter. Inevitably, the son was disinherited. Too many scandals and a criminal record they couldn't make vanish. So, the daughter, named Victoria, got it all, but unlike her mother who was a brutally savvy businesswoman, Victoria didn't quite have the same head for it. Back then, before the trust, the buildings title had passed to Evelyn after her first husband passed away, and remained solely in her name until the trust was formed, most believing it was her second husbands' idea. And as it was with Evelyn, Victoria also found that it was best to let her husband run the show, although by then it was mostly for propriety's sake given that it was still difficult for women to be taken seriously, even in the real-estate market. But never-the-less the business went into decline. Mismanagement of assets and rumors of embezzlement left a stain on the reputation of the company, and mixed with poor maintenance habits, outdated architecture, and facilities and most of the building was empty going into the seventies. Then in 1980, seemingly out of nowhere, the building was rebranded as Cascel Tower, and massive renovations began. This floor and the four above were added, starting in 1981 and finishing by the end of 83, and in the spring of 84, the observation deck and the restaurant below were opened to the public for the first time. By the time of Evelyn's passing, this tower was completely occupied, and the Cascel Tower Corporation had purchased the sister buildings and renovations were underway. In 91, the covered bridges were added on the tenth floors between buildings and the initial security systems were installed, creating the first multi-building complex in the city. But the information packet does a much better job with the details of how it happened."
"Then did the trust sell the building to the Cascel Tower Corporation?"
"No, sorry, I did a bad job of explaining that. The trust remains as the current owner of all three buildings, but it's managed by a board of directors and the current CEO is Victoria's daughter. Anyways, I think your friend is still waiting on you and I have something I need to take care of," she said as she stood from the bench.
"He can keep waiting," Hutch replied as Clara stepped passed him.
"Or," she began as she turned and continued to walk backwards towards the elevators, "you could conquer those fears of yours and enjoy the view. Either way, I must go and check on something down below, but I promise, I will be back to come and fetch all three of you in about fifteen minutes."
"But wait," Hutch called out, standing, and jogging to catch up with her as she pressed the call button, the elevator doors sliding open behind her, "you never told me the name of Victoria's daughter."
Stepping back into the elevator, Clara smiled as she reached over and pressed a button. Seeing the door starting to close, Hutch grabbed the edge of the door forcing it back open.
"Everything you want to know is in that folder, Mr. Hutchinson. Once you're done looking it up, you may be ready to take that look outside," she replied, the buzzer sounding that the door was being blocked caused him to release it. "I promise, I'll quiz you when I get back," she added as the doors closed, leaving Hutch feeling both confused and flustered, as he could have sworn, he heard her call him Jules at the end.
But he knew that had to be impossible. He was just hearing what he wanted to hear within the white noise of the building, created by the elevator's machinery and the constant hum of the furnace.
"Dammit!" He grimaced, smacking the wall with his hand, before turning back and returning to the map.
Sitting back down on the bench, he picked up his information packet and opened the cover. Removing the stack of papers inside, he searched through them until he found the one detailing the history of the Stanton family.
"Hutch! You really should come see this! I think I can see the strip club's sign from up here!" Ren called out to him once more.
"Yeah, no thanks. Take a picture to show me later," Hutch replied, this time loud enough to be heard, while he continued to skim through the information contained in the article.
"You know I didn't bring a camera," Ren stated, sounding frustrated as he approached him.
"All the more reason to come back."
"Come back? I had to trick you into coming up here this time. How am I supposed to manage that again?"
"You can't. But what you can do, is come back during the summer with your grandpa and a camera and take as many photos as you want and then show them to me at ground level," Hutch explained, glancing up to see Ren standing next to him.
"Really? You're already up here, you may as well look out the windows. At least on the sides where the deck blocks any view of anything, you know, down. It's no different than looking out a window at nothing but sky."
"I already know what the sky looks like, there is no need for me to get that close to it. Besides, Clara may have inadvertently given us the answer I was looking for," Hutch replied, handing the paper he'd been reading over to Ren.
"What's this?"
"It's the history of the Stanton family. Interesting as it is, it's not as important as the information at the bottom of the last paragraph. The current CEO of Cascel Tower is none other than Celina Salvador, Casimir's wife."