The All Seeing Eyes (Discontinued)

Chapter 11- Search Day 1

Lowe stared at the photo. He could have sworn it was Avairy in the photo. The girl, Lissa Louant, looked like she could be the identical twin of her. Both had long, dark hair framing pale faces and light eyes, and even though the photo was black and white, he knew they were the same blue colour.

" What?" Greg was the first to say something.

" It's..." Lil drifted off, still not quite believing what she saw.

" No way. This picture is around 36 years old, so Avairy would have to have not aged at all." Lowe reasoned, more trying to convince himself than the others. Greg moved away from them and leant against the wall across the room.

" So this Lissa girl just so happens to look a lot like Avairy."

" Yeah. But now what can we do? We can't go tell Pauly about this." A thought struck Lowe. He looked at Lil, a smile on his face. She smiled back.

" What are you thinking?"

" You're right. We can't tell Pauly. But there is someone else we can tell. Pass me my phone."

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Cristian was just getting ready to leave for the search when his phone went. He grumbled about it, but answered.

" Hello?"

" It's Lowe."

" What? How did..."

" Your full name's on the PIO website and your number's in the phone book. Listen, I need to talk to you."

" I'm kind of in a rush right now, Lowe..."

" It won't take long. Promise."

" Alright." he sighed. "What is it?"

Lowe explained everything to him. Starting with how Lil had found the bookmarked web page on Avairy's laptop, then he read Penfourth's back story to him. Cristian listened, not saying a word. Because the truth was, he already knew. He was aware of the Louant family's story. Pauly had told him it when they first took on the case. But he listened to him anyway, interested to hear how the story was written, instead of being given a quick summary. When Lowe was finished telling the story, he paused, waiting for Cristian's reply.

" That's interesting. But why did you feel the need to immediately call me to tell me that?"

" There's more. And this is the real reason I called you. See, there's a photo attached to the article. It's a picture of the Louant family standing inside the house."

" So?"

" The daughter that went missing, Lissa Louant? She's in the picture."

" And...?"

" She looks exactly like Avairy."

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Pauly checked her watch again. He was twenty minutes late. The search team were already inside the house looking. If Cristian wasn't there soon, he'd miss the search. What could possibly be keeping him?

Finally, she saw him walk around the corner. He stared at the ground as he walked, so she walked towards him, meeting him halfway and calling his name. He looked up, an unreadable expression on his face.

" What?" she asked.

" Nothing. Doesn't matter." he shrugged. She knew it wasn't nothing. He was hiding something from her, but she decided not to pry. She wasn't going to ruin the fact he was finally talking to her again. She turned on her heel and they walked back to the house.

About eight police officers had agreed to assist with the search. They had been split into groups of two to search different places. Two were searching the attic, two on the first floor, and two outside. Because she had got Cristian to come, the ground floor had been left for them. She quickly explained this to him, and emphasised that no matter what, no one was to go off alone. He nodded. She handed him a torch, plastic gloves, and a gun. He looked at it confused, then up at her.

" Why do I get this?"

" The chief of police wasn't happy sending unarmed citizens in given the circumstances. So we have to carry a gun."

" He still doesn't regard Paranormal Investigators as officers, huh?" She shook her head. The police had been bitter about how the PIO was always getting called to cases they couldn't solve. So he refused to see them as a unit, resulting in the PIO having to work on their own. But police chief Atekin hated not being able to solve a case. She understood, it always irritated her when a case was deemed unsolveable.

They entered the house and decided to start at the back. The door at the end of the corridor led them through to a kitchen. The place was old fashioned, oak wood making up almost everything. The stone tiled floor was chipped and cracked at places, and dust lined the counters. Pauly scrunched up her nose. If Lil's uncle really had bought this place, he had some major revamping to do.

" So...Lissa Louant?" She froze at his words. The tone in his voice told her he knew, but she prayed against her logic that he didn't. How could he? Cristian never did research, that was Pauly's job, and she had purposefully left the details of the house's previous family vague, don't here was no way he could have found out unless...

Unless someone told him.

" You never told me she looked so similar to Avairy." he said, taking her silence as proof he was right. She cussed in her mind, and took a deep breath before answering.

" I didn't think it was important." she tried to stay calm, but her voice cracked a little. She waited for him to get mad at her, probably start shouting at her too. But he never.

" I'm not going to shout. I don't want to disturb the detectives in the search." He answered her in a calm tone, and that made her feel more scared than if he had just yelled at her. " But I know what you've done."

" What?"

" You planned it all, didn't you? I knew you were only using those kids as bait, but you specifically chose a girl who looked like the daughter? How did you manage it?"

" Bosch enjoys a sneaky ruse. We were just lucky she was smart so we actually had a viable reason for an offer of a placement."

" I guessed that snake Bosch was in on it. What about Lowe?"

" Bosch suggested him. He thought it would look less suspicious to the bosses if his top pupil was being offered too, instead of just skipping to his second best."

" Second?"

" Apparently, Lowe is a 99% average on tests, whereas Avairy is only 97%. " That was hard to believe considering how they were in person. Cristian turned to her.

" All this makes me think you already know what's going on in this house."

" I have a theory."

" Is it right?"

" We'll find out when we find Avairy." She signified the end of their conversation by closing the cupboard door. It worked, and she continued looking around.

They finished searching the kitchen in silence.

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A.N.

This chapter took longer than I'd hoped. I'm starting the next one now, and I've already got an idea for it, so hopefully it'll be up quicker!

Bye ^_^

T.D.