CHAPTER 21 : The Woman with Rachel’s Face
Courthouse security footage showed Marissa leaving through a private hallway.
A woman walked beside her.
She had Rachel’s height.
Rachel’s hair.
Rachel’s coat.
When she turned toward the camera, she had Rachel’s face.
“That’s impossible,” Rachel whispered.
Daniel replayed the footage.
The image was clear.
Marissa appeared frightened, but she was not resisting.
“She believed she was leaving with you,” Ethan said.
“I never spoke to her during the recess.”
Olivia checked the time stamp.
Rachel had been visible in the courtroom at the same moment.
The woman on the recording could not have been her.
Emily watched the footage twice.
Then she paused it as the woman turned.
“Zoom in on her neck.”
A thin line appeared beneath the woman’s jaw.
“A mask,” Daniel said.
Emily nodded.
“Northstar trained people to enter hospitals and courthouses. They copied voices, clothing, posture.”
“Who would know Rachel well enough to imitate her?” Sophie asked.
Everyone looked toward Addison.
Rachel’s daughter appeared terrified.
“Someone followed us last month,” Addison said quietly.
Rachel turned to her.
“What?”
“A woman. I saw her outside school. She asked me where you bought your coat.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She said she worked at the center.”
Daniel searched all vehicles leaving the courthouse.
The false Rachel and Marissa had entered a black sedan registered to a company called Wren Family Advocacy.
The sedan was found abandoned two miles away.
Marissa’s shoes were inside.
So was one of her earrings.
No blood was found.
Noah sat with Elsie in a protected interview room.
He stared at his unopened backpack.
“It’s my fault,” he said.
Ethan sat across from him.
“No.”
“They followed us because of me.”
“They followed you because they were afraid of what you know.”
“I don’t know anything.”
Emily entered and placed the recovered Northstar file on the table.
“You remember more than you think.”
Noah shook his head.
“You were shown numbers,” Emily said. “Names. Maybe pictures.”
“They made me watch videos.”
“What kind?”
“People in courtrooms.”
Judge Wren appeared in several of them.
So did Victor Vale.
Noah had been forced to memorize hearing dates and case numbers.
“They told me it was a memory test.”
Emily wrote the numbers as Noah spoke.
Olivia entered them into the federal court database.
Every number belonged to a sealed guardianship case.
Forty-three cases.
The same number beside Wren’s name on Laura’s list.
One case remained open.
LANE CHILDREN V. MARISSA LANE.
“They used Noah as a backup record,” Olivia said. “If electronic files were seized, he could reconstruct the case list.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
The abandoned sedan had contained a navigation system.
Its most recent destination was Blackwood Mountain Lodge.
“They brought her back to the center?” Rachel asked.
Daniel opened the building plans.
“Not the center.”
He pointed to the old utility station.
“There are tunnels beneath the mountain.”
Ethan remembered the message beneath the photograph.
YOU ARE WATCHING THE WRONG DOOR.
The center’s doors had been designed to keep danger outside.
But the tunnels were already beneath them.
Security teams entered the lower level.
Behind the burned nursery, they discovered another hidden passage.
Fresh footprints led into the darkness.
One set belonged to Marissa.
Another belonged to the woman wearing Rachel’s face.
A third set was much smaller.
A child had walked with them.
Noah counted the prints.
Then he looked around the room.
“Where’s Elsie?”
May you like
The interview-room chair beside him was empty.
On the floor lay her stuffed fox.
