Page 27 of Black Hearts

9

Celeste

I blow-dried the wig,fixed my streaked makeup and stepped out of the bathroom, a white towel wrapped around me again. Alex was sitting on a cracked faux leather armchair in the corner, holding a hard-bristled exfoliating brush. He must’ve bought it along with all of the other stuff he got last night.

When he saw me coming, he held it up. “For your back,” he said.

I shook my head. “It’s actually not hurting right now. But thank you,” I said with a grateful smile as I sorted through the bags of new clothing, hunting for a warm outfit.

He looked at me quizzically. “Really? I thought it might be bothering you, considering what you went through over the last couple of days.”

“I think watching Dwyer die, and even wanting to do it myself, made the pain go away for a while. Just like with the others.”

Alex nodded. “I see.” He stood and came over to me, his hand ghosting over my upper back. “One day it will be gone forever. No more pain.”

“I know.” I smiled. “As soon as we get rid of the Circle.”

He nodded and went back to the chair, picking up a laptop from his bed on the way. As he typed away on its keyboard, I dressed in blue jeans and a black top. Then I flopped down on the bed closest to the armchair. “Where are we going to start?” I asked.

Alex looked up from his screen and turned it to face me. “I’m already on it. I’m using Google Maps to create a zone for us to look through. With the street view thing, we can see a lot of the places, even far out of the city. I got you a tablet to use so we can both work on it.”

“Good idea.”

He gestured towards a red circle he’d drawn around part of the map. “I think to be safe, we should concentrate on a forty mile radius from the city outskirts. So anything within this circle. I’m also looking through all the land registries that are available to the public, searching for any places that might fit the description.”

I sighed. “It’s a shame there’s so many big old houses around.”

The city and its surrounds had a lot of estates and historic mansions from back in the days when steel was king and many industrialists made their fortunes in the area. Then there were also those built from new money. We really had our work cut out for us.

“It won’t take us as long if you remember something,” Alex said softly, staring at me with his brows drawn together.

I squirmed uncomfortably, embarrassed at my lack of help. He’d told me everything that my therapist passed on to him about the mansion, but it hadn’t jogged my memory at all. I still couldn’t remember what it looked like on the outside or where it might be.

“Sorry,” I said, looking down at my lap. “I remembered the ballroom, but that’s all.”

Alex shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. Don’t feel bad. Like I told you a while ago… memories are a tricky thing. It could come back at any time. Until then, this is our backup.” He nodded to the laptop again. “We’ve got two weeks. No need to stress yet.”

“I guess.”

I wished I could just hit myself in the head to shake the memories loose. It was like the information was on the tip of my brain instead of the tip of my tongue. I knew it was all in there somewhere, could feel it lurking deep within, but every time I tried to grasp it directly, it cleverly evaded me.

I found the tablet on the other bed and worked quietly, zooming in on street view images of estates within the red circle. I found some houses that matched Dr. Fitzgibbon’s description—three stories with light red brick on vast green properties way out of the city—but none had marble fountains anywhere on the grounds, and the sight of them didn’t provoke any sort of visceral reaction in me.

I’d know when the right one came along. I’d simply see it, and the memories would flood back and fall into sequence, turning from a messy blur into something clear and manageable.

Unfortunately, for now, the mansion seemed to be evading me just like the memories of it.

“Anything?” I glanced up at Alex, hoping he’d had more luck than me.

“Nothing yet.” He rubbed his jaw. “A big chunk of the property records aren’t actually available to the public, unless you have an exact name to put in the search function. I’m trying to get past that, but they don’t make it easy. Most government sites are like this; basically un-hackable unless you’re some sort of computer genius. I’m good, but I’m not that good.”

“Damn,” I said softly. Then I perked up. “Hey, I have an idea. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.”

“What?”

I tilted my head slightly to one side, resting my chin on one hand. “What if we go to my parents’ house? There’s some old photo albums there. We could go through them. There’s a chance my father might’ve taken some pictures outside the mansion, or near it. That might jog my memory. I mean, it’s a super long shot, but still... could be something.”

Alex furrowed his brows. “That might be worth a try,” he mused. “But we can’t go there during the day. The Circle are still looking for you. I’m betting they have someone keeping an eye on all your old haunts every so often, hoping you might try and sneak back in if you get desperate enough for shelter.”

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