My heart starts to race.
I rise and head toward the bedroom, my pace quickening. The photographs on the bed blur as I gather them and return to the table, spreading them out before her.
The women Zayne Mercer killed didn’t look identical. Some had similarities, but there was no clear pattern. That is what makes him dangerous.
“Do any of these women resemble Ezra Zane’s victims?” I ask, my pulse pounding in my ears.
She studies the photos. One hand covers her mouth while the other sifts through the images. Slowly, she selects five and places them side by side.
My stomach drops.
All of them are blonde. Between twenty-five and thirty-five. Women in positions of power: teachers, nurses, lawyers.
The same asme.
If it was not real before, it is now. He is targeting me.I am next.
But something else catches my attention.
The photograph of a young boy still rests in her hand.
Rourke said that was the doctor’s son, the one who left for the UK with his mother after the divorce. If the boy raised in the institute was Zayne, then who was the child in that picture?
“Why did he name it Project Gemini, Mabel?” I ask.
She exhales. “The doctor always took two cells, in case one didn’t work.”
I try to steady my voice, but it comes out thin. “Could it be that there were twins?”
She shakes her head. “No. One boy died at birth. It drove his wife insane. That’s why they divorced in 1990.”
“Oh,” I say, nodding, forcing myself to breathe.
But I know the truth.
That boy didn’t die.
Zayne Mercer has a brother. A twin. And he is not acting alone.
I smile faintly, gathering the photos and sliding them away from her.
“Of course,” I say.
Everything fits now.
I stand and reach for a cup as I move toward the kitchen.
“I’ll get you a blanket,” I say. “You can stay the night.”
But she doesn’t respond.
The silence feels wrong.
I turn, and something slams into the side of my head. Pain explodes behind my eyes. I grab the edge of the counter as the room spins. Daisy’s barking cuts through the buzzing in my ears.
My vision blurs. Darkness creeps in at the edges.
I see her standing beside me.
