CHAPTER 8 — THE HOUSE WHERE THE DEAD STILL LIVED
Every light inside the clinic went dark at once.
The underground parking garage fell silent except for the fading echo of the white medical van climbing the exit ramp.
Nathan grabbed the driver’s door.
Gabriel stopped him.
“That van is bait.”
“My wife is inside it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I heard her voice.”
“And they knew exactly when to call you.”
Nathan shoved Gabriel’s hand away.
“I’m not standing here while they take her.”
Gabriel lifted the tracking receiver.
The green signal had stopped moving.
“That van is still driving, but Claire’s tracker isn’t.”
Nathan looked at the screen.
The signal blinked beneath them.
Inside the clinic.
June stared at the device.
“They found the capsule.”
Gabriel nodded.
“They removed it and left it here to make us believe Claire was still in the building.”
Nathan’s phone vibrated.
A message arrived from an unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Rosa sat tied to a wooden chair inside a glass greenhouse. Her hands were bound behind her back. A strip of white cloth covered her mouth.
Behind her stood a woman wearing Vanessa’s black dress.
The message beneath the image contained only an address.
BLACKWOOD ESTATE
NORTH SERVICE ROAD
COME ALONE
Nathan recognized the name.
Blackwood had once belonged to his grandfather. The property had been closed for more than twenty years after a fire damaged the main residence.
At least, that was what Nathan had always been told.
Gabriel looked at the photograph.
“They’re separating us.”
“They already have Claire and Rosa.”
“They want the documents you found.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed.
“How do you know about the documents?”
“Claire told me she hid copies inside the nursery.”
“She never told me she contacted you more than once.”
“She contacted me twelve times.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“What else did she tell you?”
“That she was afraid of your mother.”
“You could have warned me.”
“Would you have believed me?”
The question silenced him.
Nathan had no right to answer.
They drove to Blackwood in Gabriel’s dark sedan. June sat in the back, holding a towel against the bruise on her face.
The city lights disappeared behind them.
Forty minutes later, the road narrowed between dense trees. No neighboring homes were visible. No streetlights marked the entrance.
A rusted iron gate stood open.
Beyond it, Blackwood Estate rose from the darkness.
The main building had not burned down.
It had been renovated.
Warm light glowed behind several windows. Two black SUVs were parked near a side entrance. Security cameras turned slowly above the stone walls.
Nathan stared at the property.
“My mother told me this place was abandoned.”
Gabriel gave a humorless laugh.
“Your family has many definitions for abandoned.”
They parked half a mile away and continued on foot.
Gabriel led them through the forest toward an old drainage tunnel he remembered from childhood.
“You’ve been here before,” Nathan said.
“Once.”
“When?”
“I was fourteen.”
“With whom?”
Gabriel kept walking.
Nathan caught his shoulder.
“With whom?”
Gabriel turned.
“Your father.”
Nathan released him.
“My father knew you were alive?”
“He found me after Evelyn’s sister sent him a letter. He brought me here because he wanted proof of what Margaret had done.”
“What happened?”
“He promised to return for me.”
“He didn’t.”
“No.”
Henry Whitmore had died in a private plane accident three months later.
Nathan had been sixteen.
The official investigation blamed mechanical failure.
Gabriel crouched beside a metal grate hidden beneath vines.
“I never believed it was an accident.”
They entered the tunnel.
The air smelled of soil, rust, and old water.
After several minutes, the narrow passage opened beneath the estate’s greenhouse.
Through the glass floor panels above them, Nathan saw Rosa tied to the chair.
A woman paced around her.
Vanessa.
Or someone who looked exactly like Vanessa.
Nathan studied her movements.
She wore Vanessa’s dress and carried Vanessa’s phone.
But she walked differently.
Vanessa moved with polished confidence, always aware of who was watching.
This woman’s shoulders were slightly curved. Her right hand twitched whenever she stopped walking.
Gabriel whispered:
“That isn’t your sister.”
Nathan looked at him.
“What are you talking about?”
“The left ear.”
Nathan stared through the glass.
Vanessa had a small diamond stud in each ear.
The woman above them had a thin scar behind her left ear.
“Who is she?”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“I don’t know her name.”
The greenhouse door opened.
Dr. Cole entered.
The woman turned toward him.
“Did Nathan follow the van?”
“No. He discovered the tracker.”
Her voice was identical to Vanessa’s.
Cole cursed quietly.
“We need to move Claire before Margaret arrives.”
The woman stopped.
“Margaret is not in charge anymore.”
“She will be when she learns what you’ve done.”
The woman smiled.
“Then make sure she doesn’t learn.”
Rosa made a muffled sound from the chair.
The woman approached her.
“You should have remained a housekeeper.”
Rosa glared at her.
“You saw too much when you were young,” the woman continued. “Just like Claire.”
Nathan looked at Gabriel.
“We take Rosa now.”
“We need to know where Claire is.”
Above them, Cole lowered his voice.
“She’s being prepared in the east wing.”
Nathan started toward the ladder.
Gabriel caught his arm.
“East wing first.”
Nathan stared at Rosa.
Then at the woman wearing his sister’s face.
He made the most painful decision of the night.
“June stays here. The moment we find Claire, she gets Rosa out.”
June nodded.
Nathan and Gabriel moved deeper through the tunnel.
At the next junction, they found two steel doors.
One was marked EAST WING.
The other bore a faded brass plaque.
EVELYN SHAW — PRIVATE RESIDENCE.
Nathan touched the handle.
May you like
From behind the door came the faint sound of a woman humming a lullaby.
The song was one his father had sung to him as a child.
