Chapter 7 β The Evidence That Vanished
Detective Ryan Cole was already driving before the dispatcher finished explaining.
The state forensic laboratory was in lockdown.
Police cruisers surrounded the building, flashing red and blue across the rain-soaked parking lot. Inside, shattered glass covered the hallway leading to the toxicology department.
"What happened?" Ryan demanded.
A crime scene technician pointed toward a steel evidence vault.
"They knew exactly where to go."
Nothing else had been touched.
Not the cash seized in drug cases.
Not the firearms.
Not the narcotics.
Only one evidence bag was missing.
The poisoned olive.
Ryan felt a chill crawl down his spine.
"This wasn't a burglary," he muttered.
"It was a retrieval."
Meanwhile, Emily sat inside a secure interview room under police protection. She couldn't shake the feeling that someone had planned every move hours before the attack.
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown Number.
She hesitated before answering.
A distorted male voice whispered only seven words.
"Your father was right. Stop digging. Now."
The line went dead.
Ryan immediately ordered the call traced, but it had been routed through multiple encrypted servers. Whoever was behind it knew exactly how to disappear.
Back at the Mercer penthouse, Daniel searched through old financial records Ryan had asked him to review.
One payment caught his attention.
Every month for nearly three years, hundreds of thousands of dollars had been transferred from one of Victoria's private accounts to a consulting company.
The company had no employees.
No office.
No website.
Only a name.
Argent Biotech Solutions.
Ryan looked up the company in a federal database.
The corporation had officially dissolved five years earlier.
Yet someone was still receiving millions in its name.
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For the first time, Ryan realized they weren't hunting a desperate wife.
They were hunting an organization.
