CHAPTER 5 — The Traitor in Uniform
The room fell into complete silence.
No one spoke.
No one even breathed.
The GPS tracker found inside Sofia's backpack had come from a police evidence locker.
That meant only one thing.
Someone inside the department had secretly removed it.
Detective Ethan Carter stared at the report in disbelief.
"There has to be some mistake."
The forensic technician slowly shook his head.
"There isn't."
"The serial number matches perfectly."
Within minutes, the police chief ordered an internal investigation.
Every officer who had access to the evidence room was questioned.
Security footage was reviewed.
Access logs were examined.
But something didn't make sense.
One section of surveillance video had been erased.
Exactly eighteen minutes were missing.
Someone had deleted it professionally.
Whoever helped the stranger knew exactly how the system worked.
News of the investigation spread quickly through the station.
Officers began quietly watching one another.
Trust disappeared overnight.
Meanwhile, Sofia refused to leave her house.
Every creak outside made her jump.
Every passing car made her look through the curtains.
She kept replaying the stranger's cold eyes in her mind.
Late that evening, Detective Carter visited Sofia's family.
He promised them officers would guard the house around the clock.
Before leaving, he knelt beside Sofia.
"You were incredibly brave."
The little girl looked at him silently.
Then she asked a question that caught everyone off guard.
"What if he wasn't following me..."
"What if he already knew who I was?"
The detective forced a reassuring smile.
"We'll find him."
But as he walked toward his car...
Those words echoed inside his head.
Already knew who I was...
Back at headquarters, Carter reopened every unsolved child-abduction file connected to the suspect.
One dusty folder immediately caught his attention.
Inside was a photograph taken nearly eight years earlier.
A family picture.
His heartbeat stopped.
Standing beside the suspect...
Smiling directly at the camera...
...was another man.
A man wearing a police uniform.
The detective slowly zoomed in on the officer's face.
His blood ran cold.
It wasn't a stranger.
It was someone who still worked in the department.
May you like
Someone everyone trusted.
Someone who had helped investigate Sofia's case from the very beginning.
