33. The Shadow

THE SHADOW

A va, the stubborn woman, had gone to see Dr. Vale anyway. And now she wasn’t answering and I could feel it in my bones.

Ava was in trouble.

Ava’s phone echoed through the Bluetooth speaker of my car as I drove like a madman.

Pick up, Ava.

I took a corner too hard and a car beeped at me as I almost swerved into their lane. Sorry, but the love of my fucking life is in trouble.

Once again, Ava’s sweet voice came on over the voicemail. ‘Hey, it’s Ava. Can’t come to the phone right now…’

Fuck! I hung up and focused on the road. It wouldn’t help Ava if I got into an accident or was pulled over by a cop.

I skidded the car into the driveway, not even bothering to lock the doors as I raced to the side entrance, the entrance that led directly to Dr. Vale’s home office where he saw patients .

I kicked in the door without thinking twice.

The wooden frame splintered and the door banged against the drywall.

I raced inside.

But the therapist’s chair was empty.

So was the patient’s chair.

Ava wasn’t here? Where the fuck was she?

Had he taken her somewhere? Was I too late?

“Ava,” I screamed out as I ran through the dark house, my flashlight leading the way.

If I had taken a second before I stormed in, I’d have noticed that none of the lights were on.

Dr. Vale had a wife and two little girls, but it didn’t seem like they were home either.

Thank God. I had no intention of frightening innocent women, and certainly not children.

I made a mental note to pay anonymously for the door to be fixed.

The house was large and decorated expensively as I raced through the ground floor. Low glass tables in the living room, delicate statues on narrow pedestals in the hallway. A large marble kitchen that barely looked used.

It didn’t scream family friendly.

The stairs were black marble with a wrought-iron railing. I climbed them two at a time, calling out for Ava.

Upstairs, I encountered a long hallway of closed doors.

The floors were spotless: no sneaker scuff marks, no toys lying around, no laundry baskets, no fingerpaintings tacked to the walls or framed family photos.

Where was his wife? His kids?

I tested the first door. It opened to a master bedroom as sterile as an operating room, the bed tightly made with pale-gray linen.

Rifling through the closet, I saw no evidence of a woman’s clothes. I exhaled irritably through my nose.

Maybe the wife had moved out. Taken the kids. But why would Dr. Vale keep up the ruse?

Down the hallway I continued, growing less and less cautious about the noise I was making.

I found a spare bedroom with nothing hanging in the closet, a library of weighty classics, a gym with one mat and a rack of dumbbells, and a study with a dozen gin bottles clustered on a low brass bar cart.

But no sign of a family.

And more importantly, no sign of Ava.

I raced downstairs, calling Ava’s phone again. No fucking answer.

If she wasn’t here, then where was she?

I spotted the only door left that I hadn’t checked. I tapped it with my knuckle and frowned at the solid feeling. The door was made of solid metal.

I tested the handle.

It was locked.

A chill went through me. What did Dr. Vale keep in this room that he needed a solid metal door. Was Ava in there?

I pulled out a small set of lockpicks and worked the lock, my fingers trembling with frustration. I took longer than I should have.

Finally, the lock gave way under my fingers.

I pulled out a sharp blade, letting the weight of it in my palm soothe me, before I turned the handle and slowly pulled open the door .

Perhaps if I had mentally calculated the layout of the ground floor rooms, I’d have realized there wasn’t enough space for another room.

It wasn’t a room.

Instead, there were stairs leading down to a basement of some sort.

Cold air drifted up and there was a musty smell. But no sound. No voices, no sobbing, no muffled screams.

I got the distinct feeling that this basement was soundproof.

I made sure the basement door didn’t lock from the inside before I closed it behind me.

Despite the shiver that racked my spine, I made my way down the stairs, placing my feet carefully on each dusty concrete step.

What I discovered at the bottom of the stairs made me want to scream.

The basement was split up into two rooms.

In the first room, I had to pick yet another solid metal door.

Inside, there was a single bed with pink sheets on it. On a bookshelf were brand-new books, their spines uncracked, and several dolls, brand new, the plastic smell still lingering. There was also a small closet filled with frilly pastel dresses.

I fingered the material. Brand-new dresses. With price tags still on them.

It might have been a lovely little girl’s room if it not for the fact that this basement room had no windows, the walls made of thick concrete and there being a security camera positioned above the door .

I stared at this bedroom—no, this prison—my mind spinning.

What the fuck? Did Dr. Vale make his daughter sleep down here?

Or… a chillier thought crossed my mind. Did Dr. Vale plan on keeping a girl down here?

Had he kept girls down here before?

Had Liath spent time in here?

I closed the door and kept going.

The second room was locked as well. But the door wasn’t solid metal.

The second room was set up like a small study, a computer linked up to a large-screen TV and stacks of CD disks.

I scanned the disks, my blood going cold when I realized they were all girls’ names and dates.

Clients.

Dr. Vale had been taping his clients.

A name jumped out at me.

Liath Byrne.

And then I found the other names.

Sarah Hickey.

Keela Hawkins.

The two other missing Darkmoor girls.

They’d all been clients of Dr. Vale. How had no one put this together?

The next name I found made my blood run cold .

Ava McKinsey.

Dr. Vale had been treating all three of the missing girls.

And Ava was next.

I should have left then. But I couldn’t leave these tapes behind. There was something here. Evidence.

God, there were so many tapes. It’d take me forever to go through them.

I didn’t have the time to watch them all now. And I couldn’t take them all away with me.

But I had to see what was on the disks. Perhaps, the most recent one…

I grabbed the last disk, dated… the day Liath had disappeared.

Chills rushed down my back.

Then I noticed a small note added in thin pen on the label.

Insurance.

Insurance? What was Dr. Vale’s insurance? And what did it have to do with Liath?

I inserted the disk into the computer and sat in the leather rolling chair in front of the old TV set.

I could smell the lingering new leather smell and a hint of smoke.

I turned on the computer and opened the disk.

My stomach turned when the screen flashed to a video of Ava’s missing friend…

Liath slammed her fist down onto the armchair. “I’m telling you, someone is hurting me. My missing time and bruises prove it. I just need to remember who . ”

She was seated before Dr. Vale in his office, daylight streaming in through the open window.

From the position of the camera angle, I guessed it was in his bookshelf, likely hidden in a fake book or in one of his various antique objects.

Dr. Vale had his back to me, but I didn’t need to see his face to hear the patronizing tone to his voice. “Liath, you’re a college student. Don’t tell me you don’t go out to a few too many parties, have a few too many drinks—”

“This isn’t that!” Liath ran a shaky hand through her thick auburn hair.

“Are you saying you don’t go to parties?”

Liath let out an exasperated noise. “That has nothing to do with it.”

Dr. Vale uncrossed his leg from his other knee, then recrossed them. He reached for his tea and took a long sip. “Are you still taking your medication?”

“I don’t like the meds.” Liath crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the ceiling. “They make me feel weird.”

Dr. Vale placed his teacup back onto its saucer on the side table and scooted forward.

“Liath,” he spoke slowly, like he was speaking to a child, “the meds stop your paranoia from building out of control like this. It stops your imagination from going wild.”

“I’m not imagining this.” Liath slung her bag strap over her shoulder and made to stand. “Dr. Vale, if you won’t perform deep memory revival therapy on me right now , I’ll find someone who will.”

She turned to the door.

“Liath, wait. ”

Liath paused, then turned back to Dr. Vale, her face expectant.

Dr. Vale let out an audible sigh. “I will take you through a DMRT session, once .”

Liath half collapsed in her armchair. “Thank you.”

Dr. Vale pulled his glasses off his face and cleaned them with a handkerchief. “But, Liath, I caution you to reconsider. There are things that you cannot unsee. Cannot unknow.”

Dr. Vale’s warning hung thick and terse in the air.

For a moment, Dr. Vale and Liath just stared at each other. Inside, I begged Liath not to say yes, not to go through with it.

Even though I knew it was useless.

Liath nodded. “Do it.”