Chapter 10 - The House Near the Lake
The call lasted twenty-three seconds.
Police traced it to a disposable phone near the highway, but traffic cameras captured a black sedan heading north.
Noah recognized the vehicle.
“It goes to the red house.”
The house stood beside Lake Merrin, ninety miles outside the city. Property records listed it under a company connected to Richard Hale.
Police prepared a raid before dawn.
Daniel insisted on going.
Claire insisted on going with him.
The lead detective refused both requests until Noah revealed that the property contained an underground passage not shown on architectural plans. He said only he knew how to open it.
No one wanted to take a child back to a place where he had been abused. Yet without him, officers might enter a trap.
Claire rode with Noah in an armored vehicle behind the tactical team.
Daniel sat opposite them.
Theodore remained at the hospital with Emily and Adrian.
As the city disappeared, Noah leaned against Claire.
“Are you still getting married?”
Daniel looked away.
Claire answered carefully.
“The ceremony stopped.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Claire glanced at Daniel.
“We haven’t decided.”
Noah considered this.
“You should decide after nobody is bleeding.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“That is excellent advice.”
The red house appeared beyond a line of pine trees.
It was larger than Noah had described, an old lakeside mansion with weathered brick and dark windows. Fog drifted above the water.
Police surrounded the property.
The front door stood open.
Inside, the house appeared abandoned.
Furniture remained beneath white sheets. Dust covered the floor except for a narrow path leading toward the kitchen.
Noah pointed to a pantry cabinet.
“Behind there.”
Officers moved it aside.
A steel door was built into the wall.
No keypad was visible.
Noah knelt and pressed three bricks in a specific order.
The door opened.
Below was a concrete corridor lit by emergency lamps.
Claire smelled antiseptic.
The passage led to a series of rooms resembling a private school, medical clinic, and recording studio.
One room contained shelves of Daniel’s childhood photographs.
Another held recordings of his speeches, interviews, and private conversations.
A closet contained exact copies of his clothing in multiple sizes, documenting his growth from adolescence to adulthood.
Daniel stood in the center of the room, unable to speak.
Claire found a file labeled Behavioral Replication.
It described Daniel’s habits, fears, allergies, injuries, handwriting, and speech patterns. Detailed reports had been added every year.
Someone inside the Mercer household had been supplying information.
A video screen activated.
The man who resembled Daniel appeared.
In full light, the differences were visible. His eyes were slightly darker. A scar crossed his chin. His expression carried none of Daniel’s warmth.
“My name is Elias,” he said.
Daniel stepped toward the camera.
“Where are you?”
“You have asked the wrong question your entire life.”
“What question should I ask?”
“Why were you allowed to live?”
The video switched to footage of Margaret Mercer entering the red house years earlier.
She appeared frightened but determined.
A teenage Gabriel followed her.
Elias continued speaking over the recording.
“Your mother found me when I was twelve. By then, I knew your voice, your school, your friends, and the exact way Theodore said goodnight to you.”
On the screen, Margaret approached a young boy sitting behind glass.
Elias.
She pressed her palm against the barrier.
He did not respond.
“She promised to free me,” Elias said. “Then she chose you.”
Daniel watched his mother on the screen.
“What happened to her?”
“You already know.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Elias leaned toward the camera.
“The same person who ordered Vanessa to bring Noah to the hotel.”
Claire looked at Noah.
“Who gave your mother orders?”
Noah covered his ears.
The monitor changed again.
Live footage appeared.
Theodore sat in Adrian’s hospital room.
A nurse stood behind him with a syringe.
Claire recognized her.
Eleanor Ross.
The maternity nurse who had switched the infants.
She was older now, but the face matched the file.
Elias spoke.
May you like
“Come home, brother.”
The nurse raised the syringe toward Theodore’s neck.
