Chapter 15 - THE HOUSE FULL OF FACES
The Voss estate looked less like a mansion than a museum that had learned to hate visitors.
Stone walls. Narrow windows. Cameras tucked beneath copper gutters. The property sat above an abandoned quarry with one road in and a cliff on the east side.
Noah rode in the tactical van beside Mara.
Nobody spoke to her casually anymore.
That changed after they saw the body-camera footage from the factory.
One second a man was alive.
The next he wasn’t moving.
Even officers who believed she was trying to help kept their eyes on the floor when she adjusted her glasses.
Mara noticed.
Of course she did.
Noah leaned toward her.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good talk.”
She snorted despite herself.
He loved her for that tiny ugly sound.
Ortiz stood at the van doors.
“Ben entered the property from the south fifteen minutes ago. We lost his phone signal underground.”
Mara whispered, “He’s going to get himself killed.”
“Probably,” Ortiz said. “So let’s disappoint everyone.”
They moved at dusk.
The first team cut power. The second breached a service entrance.
Noah had no business being there. He knew it. Ortiz knew it. Mara had argued he should stay behind.
Then Noah reminded them he had seen the underground lab and knew its layout.
That made him useful enough to be stupid in an official capacity.
Inside, the estate smelled like wax and old wood.
Portraits covered the halls.
Hundreds.
Women with covered eyes.
Some painted. Some photographed.
Mara stopped in front of one.
A woman from 1873 wearing a lace veil.
Below the frame: LYSANDRA VALE, PRIVATE COLLECTION.
“My family,” Mara whispered.
Noah looked down the corridor.
Adrian had been collecting her bloodline for generations.
Not bodies.
Evidence.
Letters. Hair. photographs. medical records.
A life’s obsession inherited from someone before him.
Mara opened a glass case.
Inside was a child’s pair of dark spectacles.
Her hands shook.
“These were mine.”
Noah whispered, “He was watching you when you were a kid.”
A speaker came alive overhead.
“Watching is such an ugly word.”
Adrian.
Mara’s jaw tightened.
“Where’s June?”
“Below you.”
“And Katie?”
“Below.”
“Eli?”
“Still very annoyed, I imagine.”
Noah raised his gun toward the speaker.
Adrian chuckled.
“You’ve all brought weapons into a house full of glass. Bold.”
A panel slid open at the end of the hall.
Behind it stood Ben Bell.
His hands were empty.
His face was gray.
Noah’s first thought was stone.
Then Ben blinked.
Blood ran from his ear.
“Don’t come down,” he whispered.
A red dot appeared on his chest.
Mara shouted, “Ben!”
The shot came from somewhere behind the wall.
Ben dropped.
Noah ran toward him.
Mara followed.
The floor gave way beneath them.
---
The chapters are on the left side of your screen.
If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://metro.treeiq.biz
May you like
New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
