She had parked a short distance from Wallace's house and was about to get out of her car when she finally received the call from Mike. Nikki had informed her husband of her newfound knowledge even before she had called Nick and made her way from the studios to Esther Wallace's house.

"Mike, finally! Did Nick involve you in the investigation, and if so, what did you find out?" Her heart was pounding, and she was out of breath despite having just sat behind the wheel of her unmarked car for over twenty minutes.

"Yes, I'm back on your team now that Nick has spoken to me, and I've found some exciting things. Lennox is not Esther Wallace' biological son. Incidentally, Nick confirmed this to me from his recollection before the registry office got back to me. She and her husband had no children. Esther Wallace adopted Lennox as an adult eight years ago."

Nikki closed her eyes without realizing it herself. The images in her mind were more interesting than the view of a somewhat stuffy side street in a Boston suburb anyway. "Okay, that's what Ma did with Caleb a while back. An adult adoption is usually symbolic or for inheritance reasons. Sometimes, it's just to buy titles of nobility, but in our case, it's probably more about the symbolism. Wallace wanted to adopt Lennox as her son, presumably as a sign of special closeness and esteem. What else did you find out?"

"Before the adoption, his name was Lennox Kane, and now it gets interesting: his life before the adoption reads remarkably conclusively and is completely unverifiable in large parts. He spent his childhood abroad. And the family register doesn't help us either because his parents were Marianne and Michael Kane, who lived in Cambodia and are therefore completely untraceable to our authorities."

Nikki frowned a little. "So, a fictitious CV?"

Mike didn't hesitate with his answer. "I guess so! This smells a lot like witness protection, Nikki. If you ask me, Lennox Kane is a figment of the FBI's imagination."

Nikki had already suspected it. But what had seemed more than evident before could no longer be in doubt after these findings. "Lennox is either Carl or Dennis. That makes perfect sense! Esther Wallace saved the boys back then. And she made sure afterward that no one could find them. Obviously, the three of them always kept in touch with each other. Later, she even adopted one of them."

"But why would she only adopt one of them as her son?"

Nikki didn't have to think for long. "It would have been pretty conspicuous if she suddenly had identical twins. The guy who kidnapped the boys back then would only have had to put one and one together. That would have put Carl and Dennis in danger. And that's why she didn't want to help me. She's still protecting the twins today! Thanks, Mike, I'll be in touch later!" She ended the conversation.

Nikki's eyes now turned to the Esther Wallace estate. She thought she saw a light on in the hallway. Wallace seemed to be at home. But what would Nikki expect to see behind that door when she confronted the woman who had apparently spent twenty years protecting Carl and Dennis with her findings? After all, she was none other than Lady Firehand, and the fact that Lennox was behind the murders and kidnappings could not have seriously escaped Wallace's notice. Perhaps she was even involved in the case; after all, the murder victims had been unscrupulous child abusers, and Wallace had shown little mercy to such people in her time with the BPD.

Nikki pulled her service weapon from her belt holster, making sure it was fully loaded and the safety was on.

What other secrets are you hiding, Esther?

Just as the detective was leaving, her cell phone rang again. She grabbed her smartphone in anticipation of further research results from her team and was startled when she saw the caller's picture on the display. She collected herself and took a deep breath before answering the call as calmly as possible. "Marv?" She struggled not to let on.

"Well, Nikki, how's the manhunt going?"

Marvin sounded as carefree and friendly as ever. Could it really be that he was speculating that he hadn't been exposed yet? Yes, Nikki had emphatically pointed out to Paul Moore that he was not to inform Lennox of her visit or warn him in any other way. However, to underestimate the rules of solidarity in a male friendship would have been more than foolish of her.

Play along. Just play along!

"Marv, I'm under a lot of stress. Why was your cell phone switched off the whole time? Mike and I have been trying to reach you."

Marvin laughed. "Because I thought I'd charged it overnight. But it would have been good if I had plugged the charging cable into the cell phone and the socket. And what's going on with you? Have you caught your killer by now?"

How far will the game go?

"Just stop it! My team can't trace his activities on the Darknet. Unfortunately, the trail is already leading nowhere. I guess we just want to go to our garden after work tonight and drown our sorrows in alcohol. Do you want to come over? We could do with some company."

Her words gave Nikki goosebumps, and they didn't subside when Marvin replied, "I'd love to! I can drive over to your place now and get everything ready. Then you don't have to worry about anything else."

Why not? It's worth a try. Marv, you won't like the reception committee, though!

"Great idea, you're my hero! When do you want to be at our house? So that Mike and I can arrange the time."

"I just have to go shopping. I'll be at your place in about an hour and then spend at least an hour getting everything ready. So you know when you have to be home!"

The two ended the conversation. Nikki leaned back in her car seat. She inhaled deeply and then exhaled slowly from her mouth. Then she looked over at Wallace's house again. Would confronting her with her new findings still be a good idea? To spook the horses and perhaps even put herself in danger? Or would she wait and see if Marvin would really be stupid enough to fall into her trap on his own? Although his name wasn't Marvin at all, it was Lennox. And to be honest, he hadn't seemed any different on the phone. He didn't know what was going on. Either he was a terrific actor, or ...

"Holy shit!" Nikki opened her eyes and grabbed her head. Why had she only just realized it now? It was basically undeniable.

Marvin and Lennox are two different people. One is Karl, and the other is Dennis. Marvin's job was to bring Ma into the game through me, but is he also involved in the crimes? He's under no obligation to report his brother. Which of the two is the one I need if I want to find the boys?

"It doesn't matter at all! To make absolutely sure I catch the right one, I need them both --"

xxx

The boys had tried just about everything possible during their captivity. But they had not escaped the solid concrete dungeon. Now, however, Benjamin had appeared, and with him, the key to a side room that the children hadn't even known existed until then, which offered new opportunities to possibly find a way out of this dank concrete dungeon after all.

"No windows, no ventilation shaft." Benjamin had carried out a thorough inspection of the walls. "There are no bars in front of the pipes, but they're far too narrow for one of us to fit through. That only leaves the door." He took a step closer to the suspected exit and examined its workmanship.

"We already couldn't get the other door open." Justin had joined Benjamin and followed his scrutinizing gaze. "The parts are as strong as vault doors."

"That's the interesting thing." Benjamin ran his hand over the door leaf. "It's metal, and the frame is sealed. There are no ceiling lights, we're sitting on hard concrete, and oxygen only comes in through all these pipes that don't seem to make any structural sense. What's more, the ceiling height is pretty low. What kind of building is this that we're sitting in?"

Justin looked at Felix, who nodded at him. "We think this is a military site. Probably a bunker or something for testing explosives."

Benjamin turned to Justin and looked at him with a question mark in his eyes. "That's a surprisingly concrete and unexpected assumption. Especially as I can't see a single bullet hole anywhere on the walls here. What makes you think that?"

Felix crossed his arms in front of his chest. "They shoot here. Every day."

"What are you talking about? Who's shooting here?"

"We can only hear it quietly; the walls are probably thick. But at least once a day, gunfire and explosions come through the concrete."

Could it be that this was a bunker under a U.S. Army training area? It wouldn't even be a wrong hiding place, at least from the kidnapper's point of view. For example, if he was a soldier and had sole access to the bunker for whatever reason, then he could hide his victims there so that no one would look for them, right under the feet of hundreds of soldiers.

"When do you hear these shots, and how long do they last?"

Felix took the floor: "It always lasts about half an hour. Usually once a day, but actually twice."

"What the hell --" Benjamin raised his hands and closed his eyes. "It all seems to add up to a coherent picture."

Suddenly, there was a commotion. All seven boys stepped closer to Benjamin and threw their questions at him in confusion.

"Dude, what's going on?" Felix looked at Benjamin as if he was about to pounce on him. "If you know something, then say it!"

Benjamin looked at the walls and pipes again. "This door was built to withstand enormous pressure. We'll never get it open. Then shots, but only once a day. I'm sure I have all the information I need to know where we are. But it just won't show itself to me." With that, he lowered himself to the ground and hid his face under his hands. "Let me think. Please, just let me think."

xxx

"There you are! I've been trying to reach you the whole time! We had a park full of people. You have to get in touch if there's anything!"

Lennox startled and looked jerkily in the direction the words had come from. Claudia Acosta was standing in the doorway of the management office, her hands on her hips with a reproachful look.

"I'm in trouble, and I don't have time to give you any explanations."

Acosta looked Lennox up and down with a scrutinizing gaze. "What kind of trouble? The police were in the park earlier. Are you involved?"

Lennox's eyes widened. "Seriously? Who?"

Acosta stepped into the office she had to share with two other park management members and sat in her creaky desk chair. "There was a woman from BPD. O'Laighin or something. She wanted to talk to Paul."

Lennox clenched her hands into fists. "That damn car, of course!"

Acosta raised her left eyebrow and looked at Lennox as if he were her student. "What are you doing here in my office?"

Why did that stupid cow have to come into this stuffy container now of all times? Lennox felt his muscles tense up as more and more adrenaline shot into his bloodstream. Nikki's blind faith in Marv had made him a first-class accomplice, but Lennox had also realized that this charade couldn't go on forever. Marvin's cover had obviously been blown because if Nikki had picked up Dodge's trail, that could only mean one thing: she had found out who the spy in her house had been. She would have figured out the game very soon, and then there would be no reason for the BPD to solve the old case.

And that is awful news for the boys.

"I need the key to the technical room. Do you have it with you?" He stared at Acosta with a steady gaze.

"I always have all the keys with me. I have one for the technical room, and Paul has another one. But why do you need it? You're not authorized to go in there."

I'm not authorized? Sorry, but it's definitely the wrong time to annoy me with your I'm the boss here!

Lennox slowly stepped closer to Acosta. "That's important to you, isn't it? Who's authorized to do something, and who isn't. But only if you are authorized - and the others are not. How often have you given me instructions you weren't authorized to give? It's the wedding anniversary of two audience members today, so please tell the audience before the stunt show! Right, because four thousand people would love to wait even longer for the show to start so they can find out that Arthur and Tiffany from Brooklyn have something to celebrate. Lennox, you must always be on site an hour before the first stunt show. Because the client decides what the independent contractor has to do in his free time?"

He had now come very close to her. So close that Acosta tried to bury herself in the back of her chair.

"What's wrong with you?" She stuttered.

Lennox took a deep breath, straightened his back, and stood broad-shouldered before Claudia Acosta. "Today is a day of decisions. Today is a matter of life and death. A lot has gone wrong, and a lot more will go wrong. That's exactly why I need the key to the technical cellar. Now!"

"But --"

Lennox interrupted immediately. "If I were you, I wouldn't provoke myself any further. You're stupid, complex, incompetent, and the plague on the ass of the entire workforce. I don't know whether I'll survive today, and I don't really care. But if you want to stay alive, then give me the fucking key now!"

Wordlessly and shaky, Acosta reached for the considerable bundle she wore on her belt. With a glazed look, she picked out the matching key. "What are you up to?" She breathed her words only hotter.

Lennox turned to the door. He had come here at this hour because he knew the container was usually empty. Acosta was making her last big round of the premises, and her colleagues from the accounts department had already finished work just before the studios closed.

"Do you remember the group from Yerevan?" He looked at Acosta with a piercing gaze.

"I, uh, why?" Her chair creaked increasingly the deeper she leaned back on the armrest.

"I took them as contestants for the movie pet quiz. Just like you wanted, even though you're not authorized to give me instructions. And even though I told you beforehand, based on my years of professional experience, that it couldn't work because it would exclude all other viewers. And do you know what happened? The other viewers felt excluded! They got up from the stands in droves during the show and left the studio. What confused the movie animals s that they all didn't do what they were supposed to. The show you fiddled with like an idiot fiddling with clockwork was absolute shit. And I predicted it for you. Before!"

He put the key in his trouser pocket and took a small step back from Claudia Acosta. Then he pursed his lips and began to whistle a tune.

Kisses for me, save all your kisses for me.

"Lennox --" Acosta had gone pale. "What the hell happened? And why is the BPD looking for you?"

Lennox felt the adrenaline making him feel light, a feeling he didn't often experience. In those blissful minutes, freed from fear, worry, and pain, he smiled with anticipation, knowing that from now on, nothing else mattered anyway—just this one thing, just this last answer.

"You want to know why the BPD is looking for me? Yes, you're interested in that, aren't you? But before I answer that, I have something to say: we're having Tiffany and Arthur from Brooklyn over today. They're celebrating their silver wedding anniversary."

Then he grabbed the heavy hole punch from the desk and slammed it down.