Chapter 3 - The Woman Titan Remembered
Rosie was already running before Dante could stop her.
“Give me the address.”
“I don't have one.”
“Then running outside accomplishes nothing.”
She spun toward him.
“My brother is with that man.”
“I know.”
“You don't know anything.”
Dante took the words without reacting.
“You're right. So help me find him.”
That stopped her.
Dante ordered Adrian to trace every vehicle that had passed Noah's school.
Rosie called Noah again.
Voicemail.
She sent one message.
NOAH, SEND ME ANYTHING. DON'T CALL IF IT ISN'T SAFE.
Three minutes later, three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
A photograph arrived.
Dark floor.
A chair leg.
Nothing useful.
Rosie enlarged it.
“Wait.”
In the corner was a yellow painted line.
Dante leaned closer.
“What?”
“Look.”
Numbers had been stenciled beside it.
B-17.
Dante's face hardened.
“I know where that is.”
A storage complex near the harbor.
They reached it twenty-two minutes later.
Noah was inside unit B-17.
Alone.
His wrists were bound loosely with plastic ties, but he was unharmed.
Rosie ran to him.
Noah tried to pretend he wasn't scared.
That lasted approximately three seconds.
Then he buried his face against his sister's shoulder.
“I thought they were going to hurt you.”
Rosie held him tighter.
“I'm here.”
Dante stood outside the unit.
He didn't intrude.
Titan remained beside him.
Noah eventually noticed the dog.
“Is that Titan?”
Rosie blinked.
“How do you know his name?”
Noah stared at her.
“Because there's a picture of him on the wall.”
Everyone turned.
Behind the door was an old photograph.
Titan.
Younger.
Standing beside six other dogs.
A woman knelt beside him.
Rosie approached.
The woman wore veterinary scrubs.
On the photograph's bottom corner was a date from four years earlier.
And a handwritten label:
SUBJECT 417 — TITAN.
Rosie's stomach tightened.
Dante stared at the woman.
“You know her?” Rosie asked.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Dante's voice changed.
“My sister.”
Her name had been Elena Castellano.
She had died four years earlier.
Officially, in a car accident.
Dante removed the photograph from the wall.
On the back was handwriting.
If something happens to me, find the dogs.
Dante read it twice.
Rosie watched the grief he tried to hide.
“You didn't know?”
“No.”
Titan approached.
He smelled the photograph.
Then something extraordinary happened.
He whined.
Dante lowered the photograph.
Titan touched his nose to Elena's face.
The powerful businessman closed his eyes.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Rosie finally understood.
Titan hadn't simply belonged to Dante.
He had known Elena.
Maybe loved her.
Maybe remembered.
Noah pointed toward the rear of the unit.
“There's another box.”
Inside were veterinary files.
Dozens.
Every file had a number.
All the way through 423.
Rosie opened 417.
Titan.
Male.
Black.
Estimated age eighteen months at intake.
The following pages contained treatment records.
Repeated injuries.
Sedation.
Behavior testing.
The language was clinical.
Too clinical.
Rosie's hands shook.
“These dogs were abused.”
Dante's jaw tightened.
“By whom?”
The facility listed was Harbor Canine Rehabilitation Center.
Rosie had heard of it.
It had closed three years earlier.
Its director?
Dr. Malcolm Voss.
The same man who signed the report claiming Titan killed Samuel Keene.
Noah pulled another envelope from the box.
“This has your name on it.”
Dante took it.
DANTE.
Elena's handwriting.
He opened it.
Inside was a flash drive.
Nothing else.
They returned to the estate.
Noah refused to leave Rosie's side.
Titan refused too.
Dante plugged the drive into an isolated laptop.
A video appeared.
Elena filled the screen.
She looked exhausted.
“If you're watching this, I didn't get the chance to tell you myself.”
Dante stopped breathing.
Elena continued.
“Voss isn't rehabilitating dogs. He's hiding evidence of systematic abuse for wealthy clients who don't want records of what happened to their animals.”
Rosie thought immediately of Gregory Vale.
Elena named him thirty seconds later.
“Vale finances Voss.”
Rosie covered her mouth.
The video continued.
“Samuel Keene found out. He wanted to expose them.”
Dante leaned closer.
“Sam?”
Samuel Keene.
The man Titan supposedly killed.
Elena looked directly into the camera.
“Titan didn't kill Samuel.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Dante sat back.
For three years, he had believed his dog had killed a man.
For four, he had believed Elena died accidentally.
Both stories were beginning to collapse.
Elena continued.
“I found something that connects Voss and Vale to people much closer to our family.”
The recording suddenly distorted.
Pixels broke across her face.
Then stabilized.
“There is someone inside Dante's household helping them.”
Dante looked toward Adrian.
Adrian looked equally stunned.
The video ended abruptly.
No name.
No explanation.
Rosie stared at the blank screen.
“We need the rest.”
“There isn't any.”
Noah had been examining the files.
“Maybe there is.”
He held up a veterinary record.
One corner contained a handwritten symbol.
A circle divided by a vertical line.
Rosie recognized it.
She had seen it at her old clinic.
“Where?”
“Medication inventory sheets.”
Dante turned toward her.
“What does it mean?”
“I don't know.”
Rosie photographed the symbol.
Then remembered something.
The night she was fired, her supervisor had taken a folder from the locked cabinet before security escorted Rosie out.
The folder bore that exact symbol.
“My old clinic.”
Dante understood immediately.
They went after closing.
Rosie's former supervisor, Dr. Helen Mercer, was still inside.
When she saw Rosie through the glass doors, she nearly dropped her coffee.
Then she saw Dante.
And Titan.
Her face went white.
She unlocked the door.
“You shouldn't be here.”
Rosie stepped inside.
“Why?”
Helen looked toward the parking lot.
“They watch this place.”
“Who?”
“You know who.”
“Vale?”
Helen flinched.
That was enough.
Rosie stepped closer.
“You destroyed my career for him.”
Helen's eyes filled with shame.
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
“I have children.”
“So do other people.”
Helen looked at Titan.
“Oh God.”
“You recognize him.”
Helen whispered, “417.”
Dante moved forward.
“What happened to my sister?”
Helen's expression broke.
“I didn't know until afterward.”
“Know what?”
“That Elena wasn't the target.”
Dante stared at her.
“Then who was?”
Helen looked directly at Rosie.
“You.”
Rosie felt the floor disappear beneath her.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Helen hurried toward a locked records room.
“I kept one thing. Insurance.”
She entered a code.
The lock clicked.
Inside sat a single red folder.
Helen reached for it.
The lights went out.
Titan growled.
Something crashed in the darkness.
Rosie heard footsteps with her right ear.
Running.
Then Helen screamed.
Emergency lights flickered on.
The records-room door stood open.
Helen was gone.
May you like
And written across the red folder in black marker were four words.
ROSALIND WHITTAKER — SUBJECT ZERO.
