Chapter 9 – The Final Trap
Victoria confessed everything.
Five years earlier, her young daughter had been kidnapped briefly while traveling overseas. The child was returned unharmed—but not before Victoria received a chilling message:
One day, you'll repay this kindness.
She never reported it.
Years later, the same people contacted her again.
They ordered her to cooperate in Daniel Mercer's murder.
If she refused, her daughter would disappear forever.
Ryan believed parts of her story—but not all of it.
"You still chose to poison him," he said.
Victoria closed her eyes.
"I thought they'd spare him if I failed."
Instead, they had turned her into the perfect suspect.
Meanwhile, Agent Bennett traced the shell company payments to an abandoned pharmaceutical warehouse outside the city.
SWAT teams surrounded the building before dawn.
Inside, they found computers, laboratory equipment, and thousands of confidential files documenting suspicious deaths across the country.
But the leaders had already fled.
Only one person remained.
Richard Hayes.
He stood calmly in the center of the empty laboratory.
"You finally caught up."
Daniel stepped forward beside Ryan.
"Why?"
Hayes smiled.
"Because wealthy people pay fortunes for accidents."
Heart attacks.
Strokes.
Food allergies.
Poison leaves fewer questions than bullets.
As officers moved in to arrest him, Hayes suddenly reached into his jacket.
Everyone shouted.
"GUN!"
Instead...
He removed a small glass capsule.
With a smile, he crushed it between his fingers.
Within seconds he collapsed onto the concrete floor.
Dead before the paramedics could reach him.
The man who knew every secret had chosen silence forever.
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Only one mystery remained.
Who had truly ordered Daniel Mercer's death?
