The Perfect Facade by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blake Pierce
Published: 2021-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Hannah wondered if this was what people meant by having butterflies.

She had the rideshare drop her off a block from convicted sex offender Jimmy Poston’s house in the West Adams District. As each step got her closer, she became aware of an unusual feeling. It was as if small creatures were fluttering their wings in her stomach. She relished it.

The house came into view and she forced the giddiness to settle. If Jessie or Kat was approaching the home of a dangerous felon, they wouldn’t allow nervousness or excitement to blind them to their task. She couldn’t either.

She had to keep her mind focused on the reason she was here: to determine if this man, once convicted of raping a sixth grade girl, had also abducted Mindy Stokes. The tree-lined sidewalk and manicured lawns that adorned most of the houses on the street offered a deceptive façade, a sense that nothing truly bad could happen here.

Hannah knew better. Only a year ago, she’d lived on a perfect-seeming street in a family-friendly neighborhood. But that didn’t stop her own birth father, a notorious serial killer she’d never met, from abducting her and her adoptive parents and butchering them in front of her. She’d seen her own sister tortured in a house like these. Just months earlier, she’d learned that a gorgeous seaside mansion was the headquarters for a sexual slavery ring. She’d learned not to be fooled by appearances.

She stopped briefly at the house adjacent to Jimmy Poston’s to review her plan one last time. It wasn’t complicated. Convince him to let her in to his place, look around for anything suspicious, get out, and call the authorities if need be.

She knew it might not be as simple as that, which was why she had both the can of Mace and the retractable baton Jessie had given her for protection. Armed with those and with the training from her periodic self-defense sessions with her sister, she felt equipped to handle whatever situation developed.

She walked up to his house. Like many neighborhoods in this part of town, the variations in the style of residences varied wildly. There could be impressive, hundred-year-old, three-story affairs right next to matchbook-sized dwellings that looked like they might collapse at any moment. The rental place Jimmy lived in was among the latter.

The grass out front was brown and overgrown. The exterior needed a good paint job. Some roof shingles were missing and the ones that remained were in bad shape. Many windows had been painted over in black and others had brown butcher paper taped to the insides of them. The wooden front door was rotted through in places. She imagined that a couple of well-placed kicks from someone who knew the right technique would splinter it into pieces.

She pulled a clipboard out of her backpack and looked for a doorbell. Seeing none, she knocked on the door. There was no response so she knocked again. As she waited, she noticed that there was no peephole. Poston would have to open the door to see who was there.

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