The Police Found Me

Julian had walked so quickly that a fine layer of sweat covered his forehead.

“I’ll buy the bracelet from you. The full price you paid.”

He sighed and lowered his voice.

“The truth is, I wanted it for Stella.”

He still had the nerve to use my name.

Lucian watched him coldly.

“She’s missing. I heard those blood-red prayer beads are especially powerful for blessings. I wanted to pray for her safe return.”

Lucian couldn’t be bothered to answer.

He turned toward the car.

Then Julian’s phone rang.

He answered at once.

“Detective? Is there news about Stella?”

Lucian paused and turned back.

Whatever Hayes said made Julian look ecstatic.

“You found her? Thank God. I’m coming right now.”

How was that possible?

I watched Julian hurry away.

After a few seconds of hesitation, I followed.

I wanted to see what performance he was putting on this time.

He drove himself, racing toward the location Hayes had given him.

A hospital in the southern district.

“Detective, you said you found Stella. Why did you ask me to come to a hospital? What happened to her?”

The moment he saw Hayes, he became a man too frightened to think straight.

“Two hours ago, we received a report of someone resembling Victor Slade near the Temple of Tranquil Grace. My team sealed off the mountain and began a search. Slade exchanged fire with us, then escaped wounded.”

Hayes continued.

“We found a woman in the cave where he’d been hiding. Her clothing, hairstyle, and build all resemble your wife’s. But we haven’t confirmed her identity yet.”

“Why not? I gave you photographs.”

Julian sounded anxious and bewildered.

Hayes had spent years investigating violent crime. He had seen every kind of bloody scene.

Even so, remembering the woman in the cave brought a look of distress to his face.

“The skin was stripped from her entire face. Her eyes were removed. Her tongue was cut out. The chains had worn through her flesh until bone was visible. The only good news is that she’s alive.”

That poor woman wasn’t me.

To confuse the investigation, those monsters had found someone who looked like me.

Then they had tortured her.

Made her endure having her face stripped and her tongue cut out.

And kept her alive.

Hayes led Julian into the room.

Bandages covered the girl’s entire face.

Her body was so badly injured that they had placed her IV line in a vein in her neck.

One hand rested beside the bed.

Every finger was broken.

Just like mine.

I could almost see what they had done to her.

Tears filled my eyes.

She must have reached the point where she could neither live nor die.

Julian approached, eyes red.

He studied her for a long time.

Then, pale-faced, he said hoarsely, “I can’t be certain either. But her hair and her build… They do look like Stella’s.”

Hayes had an officer bring in the clothing the woman had been wearing.

“Mr. Whitmore, was your wife wearing this when she disappeared?”

The dress had once been white as snow.

Now it was so stained with blood and so badly damaged that its original appearance was almost impossible to see.

I recognized it immediately.

It was mine.

A gift from Julian.

“Yes. That’s what she was wearing.”

He stroked the embroidery at the chest, his voice breaking.

“It was made for her. Her name is embroidered here.”

Now there was no doubt.

The girl lying in that bed, tortured beyond recognition, was the substitute they had chosen for me.