PART 5
“Who does it belong to?”
Victoria looked back toward the road where the two officers were being placed into separate vehicles.
Then she whispered:
“The person I’ve been trying to find for three months.”
Elena’s eyes widened.
“Who?”
Victoria closed her fingers around the envelope.
“I don’t know his name.”
“Then how do you know it’s him?”
Victoria looked at the empty trees.
“Because he just told me to leave.”
She paused.
“And people don’t threaten me unless they’re afraid of what I’ll discover next.”
Victoria stood beneath the trees, the black envelope still in her hand.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The afternoon wind pushed through the branches, making the leaves whisper above them.
Captain Elena Morris looked at the message again.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT.
Then she looked at Victoria.
“Are you afraid?”
Victoria considered the question.
“Yes.”
Elena seemed surprised.
Victoria gave a faint smile.
“Being afraid doesn’t mean you stop.”
She carefully placed the envelope inside an evidence bag.
“Take this to the lab.”
Elena nodded.
“What about the officers?”
“Keep them separated.”
“Why?”
“Because one of them knows more than he’s saying.”
Elena glanced toward the patrol cars.
“And the other?”
Victoria looked at the first inspector.
“He knows who gave the order.”
They walked back toward the road.
The two officers were sitting separately in different vehicles.
Victoria approached the first one.
He immediately looked away.
She knocked on the window.
He reluctantly lowered it.
“Where did you get my license plate?”
“I already told you. We were checking vehicles.”
“No.”
Victoria leaned slightly closer.
“You were given my plate number before you saw me.”
The inspector remained silent.
“Who gave it to you?”
“No one.”
Victoria nodded.
“All right.”
She stepped away.
The inspector looked relieved.
Then she stopped.
“Oh, one more thing.”
He looked at her.
“The woman in the blue jacket.”
His face changed.
Victoria saw it.
She knew she had hit something.
“There was a woman standing near the gas station yesterday,” Victoria continued. “You spoke to her.”
The inspector’s eyes narrowed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Her name was Sarah Bennett.”
His jaw tightened.
Victoria smiled.
“Thank you.”
She walked away.
The inspector suddenly shouted:
“Wait!”
Victoria turned.
“She has nothing to do with this.”
Victoria’s expression became serious.
“I didn’t say she did.”
The man realized his mistake.
He lowered his head.
Victoria turned to Elena.
“That’s the connection.”
“Who is Sarah Bennett?”
“A witness.”
“To what?”
Victoria looked at the evidence box.
“To the first disappearance.”
Three months earlier, a young man named Daniel Cross had disappeared after filing a complaint against several police officers.
His vehicle had been found abandoned beside a rural road.
His phone was gone.
His wallet was still inside the car.
His family had been told that Daniel had probably left voluntarily.
Victoria hadn’t believed it.
She had spent three months reviewing every report connected to his disappearance.
And she had found something strange.
Every time someone got close to the truth, the investigation suddenly changed direction.
Files disappeared.
Witnesses withdrew statements.
Evidence was mislabeled.
Officers were transferred.
And then there was Sarah Bennett.
Sarah had claimed she saw Daniel being forced into a dark vehicle the night he disappeared.
She had given investigators the license plate.
Two days later, she withdrew her statement.
Then she vanished from the area.
Victoria had been searching for her ever since.
Until yesterday.
Victoria had finally found Sarah working under a different name at a roadside gas station.
Sarah had been terrified.
She had refused to talk.
But before Victoria left, Sarah had whispered:
“The man who ordered it isn’t a police officer.”
Victoria had asked:
“Then who is he?”
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