The Devil’s Gaze: Chapter 4:- Hunter Or Prey(part 7)

Dua exhaled once, studying herself, her eyes still fixed on the house.

Behind those walls, the investigation continues as if nothing had changed.

Rupen spoke again, his tone calm.

“You are not going to rush inside. Are you?”

Dua glanced sideways at him.

“Do I look like a rookie to you?”

A faint pause.

“No,” Rupen said.

She looked back at the house again, mind already moving ahead.

“If the suspect realizes we know,” she said quietly, “we lose the advantage.”

Rupen didn’t disagree.

For a moment neither of them moved.

Then Dua stepped toward the back door.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Together, they headed back towards the house.

Dua pushed the back door open and stopped inside.

The kitchen looked exactly as it had minutes earlier — evidence markers on the floor, a tech photographing the counter, quiet voices, trading numbers across the room. Nothing is the scene suggested that the entire case had just shifted direction.

Dua walked in with the same measured pace she had used before.

“Anything new?” she asked casually.

Dr. Sanya Korrin glanced up from her tablet.

“No change,” she said. “We’re finishing the last documentation before transport.”

Dua nodded, as if satisfied.

Behind her, Rupen drifted away from the kitchen without drawing attention. He moved through the hallway slowly, eyes scanning the structure of the house rather than evidence markers.

Rooms. Doorways. Angles.

He wasn’t looking for blood or weapons anymore.

He was looking for space.

He passed the living area and stepped into the garage.

The space smelled faintly of oil and damp concrete. A vehicle had been removed earlier; the tire tracks still cut faint lines across the floor. Shelves along the wall held tools and boxes, most already photographed and tagged.

Rupen’s gaze moved upward.

And stopped.

In the far upper corner of the garage ceiling was a square hatch.

An attic door. Small. Almost easy to miss. But something about it felt wrong.

He studied the surrounding walls.

No ladder. No folding stair access. No step stool. No tool marks suggesting regular use. Nothing that would allow someone to reach it.

Forensic had processed the room thoroughly — but without a way to reach, it would have been treated as inaccessible storage.

Rupen looked at it a moment longer.

Then he turned and walked back toward the kitchen.

Dua was still speaking with Dr. Korrin when he approached. He didn’t interrupt the conversation. Instead he stepped close enough for only her to hear him.

“There’s something you should see,” he said quietly.

Dua glanced at him.

His expression hadn’t changed.

That alone was enough.

She turned to Korrin. “Give me a second.”

Then she followed Rupen down the hall.

They entered the garage.

Rupen tilted his head slightly around.

Dua followed his gaze.

Her eyes landed on the hatch.

She looked around the garage once.

Then again.

“No ladder?” she murmured under her breath.

Her brow tightened.

“That’s almost impossible for a garage with attic access.”

She stepped closer, scanning the walls again as if expecting to see something hidden or folded away.

Nothing.

After a moment she turned and walked back toward the kitchen.

Dr. Korrin looked up as Dua approached.

Dua leaned slightly closer to her and lowered her voice.

“Keep your voice low,” she said. “We might have caught on to something.”

Korrin’s expression sharpened immediately.

“What is it?”

“Did your team find a ladder anywhere in the house?” Dua asked quietly.

Korrin shook her head.

“No.”

She glanced briefly toward the garage.

“We actually noted that,” she said. “There’s an attic hatch in the garage ceiling, but there was no ladder anywhere in the property. Without access we marked it inaccessible storage.”

Dua nodded slowly.

“Your team didn’t overlook it,” she said. “You just didn’t have a way to reach it.”

Her gaze flickered toward the garage again.

“And possibly someone is — ”

Korrin’s face changed instantly.

The rest didn’t need to be said.

If the exit was staged…

Then the house was never empty.

This story is being published as an ongoing serial. © 2026 Rupam Sarkar. All rights reserved.

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