Chapter 6 - THE LONG GAME"Vance?" I echoed, the name suddenly clicking in my brain like a tumblers in a bank vault. "Lieutenant Vance... you're his sister?"
"Half-sister," Rosa corrected, walking over to one of the massive monitors and tapping the screen. The image shifted to show Harold Bennett clinking champagne glasses with my ex-wife Vanessa in a penthouse suite overlooking Biscayne Boulevard.
"For thirty years, Harold and his syndicate have operated the most lucrative corporate extortion ring in South Florida," Rosa explained, her voice steady and chillingly cold. "They ruined my father's construction firm twenty years ago, driving him to a grave he didn't deserve. When I found out they were doing the exact same thing to you—destroying an honest man with everything to lose—I decided to infiltrate."
"You... you became my housekeeper?" I asked, my mind struggling to process the sheer scale of her patience. "For fifteen years?"
"Patience is a weapon, Edward," Rosa said, turning to look me dead in the eye. "I watched you build your empire. I watched you hire Harold, trust Vanessa, and walk blindly into their web. I couldn't stop them until I had ironclad, unshakeable proof that would hold up in federal court—not just against them, but against every corrupted judge, politician, and banker in their pocket."
"And tonight?" I asked, my heart pounding. "Why plant the money in my guest room? Why let them arrest you?"
A thin, confident smile touched the corners of Rosa’s mouth.
"Because arresting me was part of the trigger," she said, tapping a key on her console. "Look at monitor three."
I stared at the screen. It showed the interior of the downtown holding cell where Rosa was supposedly locked up.
Except Rosa wasn't sitting in the cell anymore.
On the screen, a federal prosecutor—one of Harold’s most trusted allies—had just rushed into the precinct holding area, demanding an immediate private interrogation with the 'housekeeper' to silence her before she could talk to federal investigators.
"He's walking right into the trap," Rosa whispered softly. "Every word he says to her in that room is being recorded, encrypted, and automatically transmitted straight to the Department of Justice's internal integrity division."
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Just then, my phone rang.
It was Harold Bennett again.
