Chapter 20 - House Number Zero
Rachel placed the photograph beside an old portrait of her mother.
The rings matched.
Both had a rectangular green stone held by four small silver claws. Her father had bought it during a trip to Prague, years before Rachel was born.
“My mother knew Eleanor and Celia,” Rachel said.
“Apparently,” Tessa replied.
“She never mentioned them.”
“People don’t normally mention associates connected to arson and property fraud.”
Rachel searched her mother’s old correspondence. Most letters had been organized by year, but everything from 2003 to 2005 was missing.
The absence was too precise to be accidental.
At midnight, the cybersecurity specialist unlocked another section of the flash drive.
It contained planning maps for a redevelopment project called Meridian Corridor. The project had been canceled publicly in 2005, one year after the archives fire.
Privately, Northline had continued buying properties along the proposed route.
Rachel’s house stood in the center.
Yet the maps did not show a road, apartment complex, or commercial district.
They showed a series of underground lines converging beneath her garden.
One line led to the old pump station.
Another extended toward the river.
The final line ended at a square labeled H0.
“House Zero,” Rachel said.
Tessa searched municipal databases. No property with that designation existed.
The map coordinates placed it beneath an abandoned school two streets away.
They went the next morning.
The school had been closed for fourteen years. Broken boards covered the windows, and weeds pushed through the playground.
A temporary metal fence surrounded the building.
Attached to the gate was a fresh planning notice.
OWNER: NORTHLINE PRESERVATION TRUST
PROPOSED WORK: STRUCTURAL STABILIZATION
PUBLIC ACCESS PROHIBITED
Rachel photographed the notice.
They walked around the fence until they found a section recently cut and repaired with wire.
Inside the grounds, tire tracks led to a basement loading door.
Tessa contacted the city to request lawful access. The clerk told her no structural work permit had been issued.
Someone was using the building without authorization.
That evening, Isaac gave Rachel another photograph from his collection.
It showed a neighborhood flood in 1992. Rachel’s father stood beside the school, directing water through a temporary channel.
On the back, he had written:
WHEN THE CITY FLOODS, HOUSE ZERO OPENS.
Rachel checked the weather forecast.
A major storm was expected the following night.
Marcus called at 11:43 p.m.
His voice was faint and hurried.
“You found the school.”
“Where are you?”
“Don’t enter it during the storm.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s what they want.”
“Who?”
A second voice sounded in the background.
Marcus lowered his tone.
“Rachel, Olivia didn’t introduce me to you for Northline.”
“Then who paid her?”
“I don’t know. But I saw the woman once.”
“Eleanor?”
“No.”
“Celia?”
“No.”
Marcus inhaled sharply.
May you like
“She looked exactly like your mother.”
The call ended.
