The drive ho was a blur.
By the ti Malik pulled through the gates and parked in front of the house, Raina could barely rember the journey. The mountain remained fixed in her thoughts like a splinter lodged beneath her skin. Every ti she closed her eyes, she saw the empty grave again—the disturbed earth, the hollow pit, and the awful realization that Felix was not where he was supposed to be.
Nothing about it made sense.
The photographs had been real. Tengu had confird that much. The location was real. The burial site was real.
Yet the body was gone.
Every answer she uncovered seed determined to create three more questions.
Who was X-Reveals?
How did he know where Felix had been buried?
And if Felix was no longer in that grave...
Then where was he?
By the ti she reached her bedroom, the silence of the house felt oppressive. She sat on the edge of her bed and stared at her phone for several monts before scrolling through her contacts.
Her thumb hovered over Malcolm’s na.
Then she pressed call.
The line rang twice before connecting.
"Finally."
Malcolm sounded irritated.
Not nervous.
Not relieved.
Irritated.
"Why aren’t you answering your phone?" he demanded. "I’ve been trying to reach you all day."
Raina leaned back against the headboard.
"Oh?"
Her voice remained perfectly calm.
"And why exactly would I answer?"
A sigh crackled through the speaker.
"Can we skip the gas for once?"
"Gas?" Raina repeated. "I don’t rember us being friends, Malcolm. Friends call each other casually."
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Malcolm broke the silence.
"We have a bigger problem."
Raina rolled her eyes.
"Do we?"
"Yes."
"What makes you think that?"
His voice lowered imdiately.
"I’m being watched."
Internally, Raina nearly laughed.
Of course you are.
Frank’s n had been tracking Malcolm around the clock for weeks. After everything he had done, there was no chance she would allow him to move freely.
Still, she kept that information to herself.
"Watched?" she asked. "What exactly does that an?"
"It ans I opened my front door this morning and found a note."
That got her attention.
"What kind of note?"
Paper rustled on the other end of the line.
When Malcolm finally spoke again, his voice sounded noticeably tighter.
"It said, ’You disappoint .’"
A pause followed.
Then:
"’And I see all.’"
The words settled heavily between them.
Raina frowned.
That didn’t sound like Frank.
It certainly didn’t sound like any of Frank’s n.
"What makes you think X-Reveals sent it?"
"Because there was a giant red X drawn across the paper."
Now she sat up straighter.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Her people were watching Malcolm, but they weren’t stupid enough to make contact. Frank wouldn’t permit it.
Which ant soone else had approached him.
Soone who knew exactly how to get under Malcolm’s skin.
"Why would X-Reveals threaten you?" she asked carefully. "Aren’t the two of you practically partners?"
A bitter laugh escaped him.
"You really think that’s what we are?"
"Aren’t you?"
"No."
The answer ca imdiately.
Too imdiately.
"We worked together because we wanted the sa thing."
"Which was?"
"You gone."
"How flattering."
"I’m serious."
"So am I."
Malcolm ignored the comnt.
"Our relationship was always temporary. An enemy-of-my-enemy arrangent."
"And now?"
"And now I think I’m the enemy."
Raina turned her gaze toward the bedroom window. Thunder rumbled sowhere beyond the city skyline.
"What changed?"
"I told you about him."
Her brow furrowed.
"What?"
"I told you he existed."
His voice had beco noticeably quieter.
"Maybe that’s enough."
"Or?"
"Or maybe he’s simply cleaning house."
The words lingered.
Raina frowned slightly.
Cleaning house.
That wasn’t how Malcolm normally spoke.
"You make him sound organized."
A brief silence followed.
Too brief.
Then Malcolm said sothing that made her sit upright.
"He isn’t organized. He’s obsessive."
Raina froze.
Malcolm continued before realizing what he’d done.
"He spent months watching that house."
The silence that followed was imdiate.
Raina’s expression hardened.
What house?
She had never ntioned the abandoned property.
Not to Malcolm.
And didn’t Malcolm say they had never t before?
Apparently realizing his mistake, Malcolm quickly corrected himself.
"I an... people like him do that."
But the damage was already done.
Raina said nothing.
She simply filed the information away.
Months watching the house.
How would Malcolm know that?
The conversation continued, but her attention had sharpened considerably.
"You know what the worst part is?" Malcolm asked suddenly.
Raina remained silent.
"The note wasn’t the first thing."
That caught her attention.
"What do you an?"
A tired laugh escaped him.
"For the last few days I’ve felt like sobody was following ."
"You just said that."
"No. I an before the note."
His voice slowed.
Careful.
asured.
Like sobody reliving sothing unpleasant.
"There was a black sedan behind three days in a row."
Raina frowned.
"Did you get the plate?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because every ti I tried, it disappeared."
The answer irritated her.
Yet Malcolm sounded sincere.
"The first day I ignored it. The second day I noticed it. By the third day I was looking for it."
"And?"
"And it vanished."
Raina said nothing.
Malcolm continued.
"Then Tuesday night I got ho and found my television on."
"What?"
"I know I turned it off before I left."
His voice had grown quieter.
"There were muddy footprints in the kitchen."
A pause.
"When I checked again later, they were gone."
Raina frowned.
"You think soone entered your house?"
"I know sobody entered my house."
"You have proof?"
"No."
The answer ca imdiately.
"That’s the problem."
For the first ti, Malcolm sounded genuinely unsettled.
"Every ti I think I have proof, it disappears."
Silence followed.
Then:
"Honestly?"
"What?"
"X-Reveals scares more than you do."
That snapped her back to the present.
"I’ll pretend that wasn’t insulting."
"I’m not trying to insult you."
His voice sounded tired now.
"You calculate. You plan. You think ahead."
"And he doesn’t?"
"No."
The answer ca instantly.
"He doesn’t care how he gets results."
A pause.
"He only cares that he gets them."
For the first ti during the conversation, Raina heard genuine fear.
Not panic.
Not exaggeration.
Fear.
The controlled kind.
The kind that crept into a person’s voice when they finally realized they were standing next to sothing far more dangerous than they originally believed.
"And I’m afraid for my family."
Raina stared down at the floor.
Despite everything Malcolm had done, she believed him.
That was the uncomfortable part.
Fear like this couldn’t be faked.
Not convincingly.
Not for this long.
"I’ll call you back."
"Raina, wait—"
She ended the call.
Imdiately.
Before he could recover from his mistake.
The room fell silent once more.
But now the silence felt different.
Heavier.
More aningful.
Slowly, she replayed one sentence in her head.
He spent months watching that house.
How did Malcolm know that when he said they haven’t t before?
Her phone was already in her hand when she dialed Frank.
He answered on the second ring.
"Boss."
"Your n are still watching Malcolm?"
"Every day."
"Good, I think he saw you guys, the guy is paranoid tell your n to be careful from now on "
She stood and began pacing.
" Understood boss"
A silence then
" Frank I need to know sothing? Malcolm called and I wanna know one thing . Would any of your n be stupid enough to approach him directly?"
"No."
The answer ca without hesitation.
"Leave notes?"
"No."
"Threaten him?"
"Definitely not."
That confird what she already suspected.
She explained the note and the red X.
Frank listened quietly.
When she finished, he was silent for several seconds.
"I’ll increase surveillance."
"Good."
"If sobody else is getting close to Malcolm, we’ll find out."
"I hope so."
The call ended.
The next day Frank called back.
Raina answered imdiately.
"What is it?"
Sothing in his silence bothered her.
"Boss."
"What happened?"
"I checked the surveillance."
"And?"
Frank exhaled slowly.
"The note shouldn’t exist."
Raina stopped pacing.
"What?"
"We reviewed six hours of footage."
Paper rustled.
"No one approached the house."
She frowned.
"What do you an no one?"
"I an exactly that."
His voice sounded irritated.
As though the situation offended him.
"No one approached the mailbox."
"No one approached the front door."
"No one entered the property."
The room seed colder.
"Then how did the note get there?"
"We don’t know."
Frank hated saying those words.
She could hear it.
"I checked neighboring caras."
"Nothing."
"Delivery drivers?"
"Nothing."
"Neighbors?"
"Nothing."
Raina stared at the rain outside.
For several monts neither spoke.
Finally Frank said,
"I’ll keep digging."
"Do that."
The call ended.
Yet the unease remained.
Because Frank wasn’t the sort of man who accepted mysteries.
Everything had an explanation.
Everything could be tracked.
Everything could be found.
But this ti he had nothing.
Raina crossed to her desk and opened her laptop.
For nearly an hour she dug through public records.
Property databases.
Historical maps.
Archived tax reports.
Anything connected to the abandoned house because that was all she got from when bunny head invited her there
Most of it led nowhere.
Dead ends.
Missing files.
Contradictory ownership histories.
But eventually she found sothing.
The utility records.
Raina stared at the screen.
The property was officially abandoned.
According to city records, nobody had lived there for more than twelve years.
Yet electricity usage appeared throughout the previous six years
Not enough for a family.
Not enough for permanent residency.
Just enough.
Enough for lights.
Enough for equipnt.
Enough for sobody to use the property occasionally while making sure nobody noticed.
A chill crawled down her spine.
Soone had been using the house.
Soone who wanted everyone to believe it was empty.
Her thoughts imdiately returned to Bunny Head.
Every road led back to him.
Every answer seed connected to him.
And sohow she still knew almost nothing because Felix had died just four years ago and the house has this record for about six years ago . So it doesn’t connect not exactly
The realization irritated her.
No.
It frightened her.
For the first ti in years, she wasn’t controlling the board.
Soone else was.
Raina stared at the abandoned house’s records for several monts before another realization struck her.
She grabbed her phone and dialed Tengu.
He answered almost imdiately.
"That was fast."
"I need a favor."
A weary sigh escaped him.
"Those words are never good."
"Do you still have that contact in the housing committee?"
A brief pause.
Then:
"Yes."
Raina moved toward the window and watched rain slide down the glass.
"I need ownership records."
"For the house?"
She froze.
For a mont she forgot to breathe.
Slowly, very slowly, she lowered the phone from her ear.
Then raised it again.
"What house, Tengu?"
Silence.
A long silence.
The line remained quiet.
Then Tengu spoke.
Carefully.
Too carefully.
"Raina..."
But she was no longer listening.
Because for the second ti that night, soone had known sothing they should not know.
And suddenly she wasn’t sure which possibility was worse.
That Bunny Head had been watching everyone.
Or that soone close to her had been helping him.
To Be Continued...
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