Chapter 4 - The Badge Behind the Vance Family
Captain Warren walked into Daniel’s office and said:
“You wanted to see me?”
Daniel had the USB drive locked inside his desk.
On its casing, investigators had found a partial fingerprint.
It belonged to Warren.
Daniel locked the office door.
The captain smiled.
“So this is an interrogation.”
I watched through one-way glass with an internal-affairs investigator.
For twenty years, Daniel had served beneath men like Warren.
Now he had to determine whether one of his own commanders had helped cover up attempted murder.
Warren was fifty-eight.
Broad shoulders.
Silver hair.
Calm voice.
The kind of man politicians photographed beside.
Daniel placed the image from Brooke’s hidden video on the desk.
Warren stared at it.
No reaction.
“That you?”
“Looks like me.”
“Six months ago.”
“Then probably.”
“What were you doing at the Vance estate?”
“Dinner.”
“In a storage room?”
Warren smiled.
“Victoria likes showing off antiques.”
“She handed you an envelope.”
“She supports department charities.”
Daniel leaned back.
“Did the charity require you to make Brooke Mercer disappear?”
The smile vanished.
“Careful.”
Daniel pressed play.
Victoria’s voice filled the office.
If Brooke ever discovers what happened to Thomas, handle her the same way.
Warren watched the video.
When it ended, he said:
“You have no context.”
“Give me some.”
“Thomas Vance was unstable.”
“Is he alive?”
“No.”
“Did you kill him?”
Warren’s eyes shifted.
Tiny movement.
But enough.
Daniel saw it.
“So Thomas didn’t die in a boating accident.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
Warren stood.
“This conversation is over.”
“No.”
Daniel placed a photograph on the desk.
Sofia Alvarez.
The former housekeeper Claire had mentioned.
“We found her.”
Warren looked down.
“She’s prepared to testify.”
That was a bluff.
At least I hoped it was.
Daniel hadn’t told me they had found Sofia.
Warren’s jaw tightened.
“Against Trevor?”
“And anyone who helped bury previous complaints.”
“Be smart, Reyes.”
“Is that advice?”
“It’s survival.”
Daniel stood too.
“You threatened witnesses.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You wiped reports.”
“Prove it.”
“I will.”
Warren leaned toward him.
“You think Victoria Vance is the top of this?”
Daniel said nothing.
“You don’t understand what that family bought.”
“Then explain.”
Warren laughed softly.
“Ask Elena.”
My stomach dropped.
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“Ask her what?”
“Why she really left state investigations.”
Behind the glass, I froze.
Internal Affairs looked at me.
Daniel said:
“Elena retired when her daughter was born.”
“No.”
Warren looked directly at the one-way mirror.
At me.
“She left because she got too close.”
My blood went cold.
Twenty-three years earlier, I had worked a corruption investigation involving construction contracts, police payoffs, and private security companies.
One name had appeared repeatedly.
Vance Development.
The investigation had collapsed after our primary witness disappeared.
I had never connected that Vance to Trevor.
Back then, Trevor had been a teenager.
Thomas Vance ran the company.
Victoria handled foundation work.
And Warren had been a young detective assigned as liaison.
I closed my eyes.
I remembered him.
Not as captain.
As Detective Warren.
Always polite.
Always helpful.
Always asking what evidence we had.
He had been inside the investigation.
Daniel opened the door.
“Elena.”
I stepped inside.
Warren smiled.
“There she is.”
“You destroyed that case.”
“I protected people.”
“You protected yourself.”
“No.”
“Who disappeared our witness?”
Warren’s smile faded.
“That man wasn’t a witness.”
“What was he?”
“A thief.”
“What happened to him?”
“You still ask too many questions.”
Daniel stepped between us.
“Captain, sit down.”
Warren ignored him.
“Do you know what Thomas Vance discovered before he vanished?”
“No.”
“He discovered Victoria had spent fifteen years turning his company into a laundering machine.”
Claire had said Thomas sent the storage key after he disappeared.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if I knew, Victoria would know.”
Daniel said:
“You’re admitting you worked for her.”
Warren looked at him.
“I’m telling you she owns things you think cannot be owned.”
“She doesn’t own me.”
“No. Which is why you should watch your back.”
Daniel moved to arrest him.
Warren raised both hands.
“You arrest me now, you lose everything.”
“Why?”
“Because the evidence chain for Brooke’s drive runs through my division.”
Daniel went still.
Warren smiled.
“You see the problem.”
Internal Affairs entered.
“You’re suspended.”
Warren looked almost amused.
Then he noticed the second officer holding handcuffs.
“You really want to do this?”
Daniel said:
“Yes.”
They took him.
But Warren had been right about one thing.
The evidence chain was vulnerable.
By evening, Price, Trevor’s attorney, filed an emergency motion challenging the USB.
He claimed it had been planted.
He claimed I had motive.
He used the gasoline incident.
Victoria’s recording had already reached local television.
The clip showed me holding a lit match outside the mansion.
Not Brooke bleeding.
Not Trevor smiling.
Not Victoria taunting me.
Just me.
The angry mother.
The dangerous former investigator.
Exactly what they wanted.
Daniel came to the hospital that night.
“We need the original storage device.”
“The locker.”
“Yes.”
Locker 214.
The keycard Claire had brought.
We took Claire with us.
The storage facility sat twenty minutes outside the city.
Daniel brought two detectives and an evidence technician.
The manager opened the corridor.
Locker 214 had been paid in cash for four years.
Nobody had accessed it in nine months.
Claire held the keycard against the reader.
Green light.
The door opened.
Inside were boxes.
Dozens.
Company ledgers.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Bank statements.
A laptop.
And a handwritten journal.
Daniel stared.
“This could take months.”
Claire moved toward the rear.
“There.”
A steel case.
Inside was another USB.
Labeled:
SV ORIGINAL.
Daniel smiled for the first time in two days.
Then I saw something beneath it.
An envelope.
My name.
ELENA MERCER.
The handwriting made my skin prickle.
I knew it.
Thomas Vance.
I opened it.
Elena,
If you are reading this, Brooke found what I failed to expose.
Victoria knows what happened in 2003.
So does Warren.
But they are not the only ones.
I stopped.
Daniel read over my shoulder.
The next line made my hands shake.
Your former partner Daniel Reyes was there the night the witness disappeared.
I looked up.
Daniel was staring at me.
Claire stepped back.
Nobody spoke.
Then the storage-facility lights shut off.
Total darkness.
A metal door slammed somewhere in the corridor.
May you like
And from outside the locker, a man’s voice said:
“Put the letter down, Elena.”
