PART 4
“They stopped me.”
Elena stared at her.
Victoria continued.
“They thought I was just another young woman driving alone.”
She looked at the two inspectors.
“They didn’t know I’d spent months studying their behavior.”
The first inspector suddenly shouted from across the road.
“This is ridiculous!”
Everyone turned.
“I want my lawyer!”
Victoria didn’t react.
The inspector pointed at her.
“You set this up!”
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
She walked toward him.
“You set this up.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You followed me.”
“We had a reason.”
“What reason?”
He said nothing.
Victoria waited.
Then she asked:
“Who gave you the license plate?”
The man’s face changed.
Just slightly.
But Elena noticed.
“So you already knew her vehicle?” Elena asked.
The officer looked away.
Victoria smiled sadly.
“Exactly.”
She turned to Captain Morris.
“That’s what I wanted.”
“What?”
“The first crack.”
Elena frowned.
Victoria held out her phone.
“Play this recording.”
Elena pressed the screen.
A few seconds of audio played.
The first officer’s voice came through clearly:
“That’s the one. Same car. Same plate. Follow her.”
Elena looked up sharply.
The officer’s face went white.
“You recorded that?”
Victoria nodded.
“Before you stopped me.”
“How?”
“I heard your radio.”
The inspector shook his head.
“No. That’s impossible.”
Victoria looked at him.
“Nothing is impossible when people become careless.”
Then another voice appeared in the recording.
Not one of the officers.
A man’s voice.
Deep.
Calm.
And familiar.
“Make sure she doesn’t reach the city.”
Elena’s expression changed immediately.
“Who is that?”
Victoria looked at her.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
The captain replayed the audio.
Everyone listened.
The voice came again.
“Make sure she doesn’t reach the city.”
Silence followed.
Then the first inspector whispered:
“We never heard that.”
Victoria turned toward him.
“Yes, you did.”
“No.”
“You heard it before you stopped me.”
The inspector looked terrified.
Victoria’s voice became quieter.
“And now I know something I didn’t know this morning.”
“What?”
She looked at him.
“You weren’t trying to intimidate me because I questioned you.”
She paused.
“You were trying to keep me from reaching the city.”
The officer said nothing.
Victoria turned to Captain Morris.
“Take them in.”
“On what charges?”
Victoria looked at the evidence box.
“Official misconduct. Unlawful detention. Evidence tampering pending investigation.”
Elena nodded.
But before the officers were taken away, Victoria noticed something.
The first inspector kept looking toward the road behind them.
Not toward the city.
Not toward the patrol car.
Toward the trees.
Victoria followed his gaze.
Nothing appeared to be there.
But then she noticed a small flash between the branches.
A reflection.
Metal.
Or glass.
Someone was watching them.
Victoria’s instincts immediately sharpened.
“Captain.”
Elena turned.
“Don’t move.”
Everyone froze.
Victoria reached for her phone.
The flash appeared again.
This time she saw it clearly.
A camera lens.
Someone was recording them from the trees.
Then the figure disappeared.
Victoria ran toward the tree line.
“Stop!”
Elena followed.
They pushed through the bushes.
But whoever had been there was already gone.
On the ground, however, Victoria found something.
A small black envelope.
She picked it up carefully.
There was no name on the front.
Only four words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT.
Victoria stared at it.
Elena stood beside her.
“What does that mean?”
Victoria didn’t answer.
She turned the envelope over.
There was a symbol stamped into the wax seal.
The same symbol she had seen on one of the documents in her investigation.
Her face became completely still.
Elena noticed.
“You recognize it.”
Victoria nodded.
“Yes.”
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