Chapter 33 - The Voice Marcus Recorded
Police opened House Zero forty minutes later.
By then, Dr. Cole and Olivia had vanished through the maintenance tunnels. Search teams found an exit near the river, but the storm had erased every footprint beyond it.
Marcus was transported to the hospital under guard.
Rachel refused to leave until investigators searched the archive. Without the black cartridge, most cabinets remained sealed. Only the records already activated by the flood could be examined.
Tessa recovered Marcus’s recorder from the floor.
The device had captured everything that happened before Rachel entered House Zero.
At 10:18 p.m., Marcus had arrived carrying her father’s package.
At 10:22, Dr. Cole entered.
At 10:24, a second person spoke from behind the vault.
Olivia.
Her recorded voice was quiet but clear.
“I brought Marcus like you asked. Now tell me where Evelyn is.”
Cole answered, “First, we remove the source key.”
“You promised no one would be harmed.”
“I promised you would meet the woman who gave you away.”
Rachel stopped the recording.
Miriam sat across from her in the temporary police command room beneath the school.
“He was talking about you,” Rachel said.
Miriam looked toward the rain-covered window.
“Yes.”
“You are Olivia’s mother.”
“Yes.”
“And you allowed her to believe Evelyn was?”
“I allowed her to believe many things.”
Rachel felt anger pushing aside exhaustion.
“My father called Olivia his other daughter. Why?”
“Because after I disappeared, he became responsible for her.”
“Was he her father?”
Miriam did not answer.
Tessa restarted the recording.
Near the end, another voice could be heard through Cole’s phone. It belonged to Victor Saye.
“The train leaves at six,” Victor said. “Bring the key and both daughters.”
A paper ticket had been found in Rachel’s father’s envelope.
It had been issued in Evelyn Bennett’s name for the night after her supposed funeral.
Tessa examined the destination.
The train had been scheduled to stop at an abandoned station outside the city.
Rachel looked at the clock.
It was 5:17 in the morning.
May you like
Then Marcus’s recorder played one final sentence they had missed.
Olivia whispered, “Rachel must never know she was the child left behind.”
