Chapter 8 - TWO MEN WITH ONE FACE
Police surrounded Blackwood House before sunset.
They found no one inside.
Adrian was gone. The dining room contained a broken wine glass and traces of blood on the carpet, but no body. The basement computers had been destroyed by an electrical fire that began minutes before officers entered.
The lower laboratory was empty.
Every photograph, document and recording had disappeared.
Only the tunnel remained.
Detective Lena Ortiz listened to Ethan’s account without interrupting. She had investigated corporate crimes for seventeen years and possessed an expression that made dishonesty feel physically uncomfortable.
“You’re saying Adrian Crowe was inside your house and your office at the same time.”
“My assistant saw him enter the office.”
“Did she see his face?”
“She has known him for fourteen years.”
“Did anyone else see him?”
“My building has cameras.”
“Which are controlled by your company.”
Ethan understood her suspicion.
Vale International created facial-recognition systems, electronic locks and advanced surveillance platforms. If anyone could manufacture an impossible event, it was Ethan.
Nora gave Ortiz the memory drive.
“Most of the files were deleted, but there may be recoverable data.”
Ortiz placed it inside an evidence bag.
“You should both remain somewhere secure.”
“My penthouse has independent security,” Ethan said.
Nora crossed her arms. “I’m not staying with you.”
“Nora.”
“We have ignored Mom’s warning at every step. The note said not to tell Adrian. You called him. It said not to enter the basement. We entered it. Now someone knows exactly what we found.”
“I won’t let you return to your apartment.”
“You don’t get to decide.”
Ortiz interrupted. “For tonight, he does.”
Nora looked at her.
“Someone has monitored you for years. Your father’s home is easier for my officers to protect.”
“It may also be connected to Lantern.”
Ethan had already considered that.
“We’ll disable the internal network.”
“Which means we’ll be sitting in a glass tower with no alarms.”
Ortiz nodded. “Then I have another location.”
She took them to a secure apartment maintained by the district attorney’s office. Samuel was placed under separate protection while detectives searched for records of his missing son.
At midnight, Ethan sat in the kitchen while Nora slept in the next room.
Ortiz placed two photographs on the table.
The first came from Vale International’s lobby camera. It showed Adrian entering the building at 2:14 p.m.
The second came from a traffic camera near Blackwood House. It showed Adrian’s sedan leaving the property at 2:16 p.m.
“The locations are seventy miles apart,” Ortiz said.
Ethan examined both images.
“They could have altered the time stamps.”
“We checked external systems. The times are accurate.”
“Then one image is artificial.”
“Our technicians found no evidence of manipulation.”
Nora entered the kitchen wearing an oversized sweatshirt. “Maybe there are two Adrians.”
Ortiz looked at her.
Nora placed the photograph from Claire’s studio on the table.
“In this picture, Adrian is wearing a ring with the three-line symbol.”
She enlarged the office camera image.
“The man entering Vale International is wearing the same ring.”
Then she enlarged the traffic image.
The driver’s hand rested near the window.
“No ring,” Ethan said.
Ortiz studied both photographs.
“Twins?”
“Adrian had no brother,” Ethan replied.
“That we know of,” Nora said.
Ethan remembered something from the house.
The Adrian in the dining room had poured red wine.
Adrian Crowe hated wine. Years earlier, Claire had joked that he considered grapes an unacceptable use of land.
“Someone was pretending to be him at the house,” Ethan said.
“Or at your office,” Ortiz replied.
Ethan called Vivian.
She answered after four rings.
“Mr. Vale?”
“Is Adrian still in the building?”
“He left your office but never passed through the lobby.”
“Where are you now?”
“In the records department.”
“Go to a public area and wait for the police.”
“Why?”
“Because the man you saw may not be Adrian.”
The line became silent.
“Vivian?”
A man’s voice answered.
“She should have stayed out of your office.”
The call ended.
Ortiz stood.
At the same moment, the secure apartment’s lights went dark.
The television switched on by itself.
Security footage showed Vivian sitting in Ethan’s office. Her hands were tied to the chair.
A man stood behind her.
He had Adrian Crowe’s face.
May you like
He looked directly at the camera.
“Bring me Claire’s key,” he said, “or your assistant becomes another memory you failed to save.”
