CHAPTER 1 — The Perfect Murder That Was Never Supposed to Have Witnesses
The screams disappeared long before Viktor's wheelchair struck the jagged rocks below.
For several endless seconds, Michael and Elena stood frozen at the edge of the cliff, unable to breathe.
The ocean swallowed every sound.
Only the howling wind remained.
Elena suddenly collapsed onto her knees.
"Oh my God... what have we done?" she whispered, her hands shaking uncontrollably.
Michael grabbed her shoulders.
"Pull yourself together! It's too late now."
"But... he's our father!"
"He was already dying," Michael snapped. "Nothing changes except we finally get a future."
Those words echoed in the cold air.
A future.
Ten million dollars.
That was what their father's life had become.
Michael forced himself to dial emergency services.
His voice cracked with practiced panic.
"Please! Help us! My father... he's in a wheelchair... we couldn't stop him! The brakes failed! He rolled right over the edge!"
He even cried.
Years of lying in business meetings had made him an excellent actor.
When rescuers arrived forty minutes later, both siblings looked devastated.
Elena's mascara ran down her cheeks.
Michael refused to leave the cliff, pretending to stare helplessly into the abyss.
Several rescue helicopters circled overhead while climbers descended the nearly vertical rocks.
Everyone believed they were witnessing a tragic accident.
Everyone...
Except one man.
Detective Daniel Harper had investigated accidental deaths for nearly twenty-five years.
Something immediately bothered him.
The wheelchair tracks.
They were too straight.
Too deliberate.
There were no signs of desperate attempts to stop the chair.
No deep footprints.
No drag marks.
No broken shrubs.
Nothing.
It looked less like an accident...
...and more like someone had calmly pushed the wheelchair directly toward death.
Harper quietly photographed everything.
Meanwhile, the rescue team finally reached the bottom.
One rescuer radioed up.
His voice sounded strangely confused.
"We found the wheelchair..."
Silence followed.
Then another message.
"But... Viktor isn't here."
Every person standing on the cliff froze.
Michael's blood turned cold.
"What do you mean he's not there?" he whispered.
The rescuer repeated himself.
"The wheelchair is destroyed..."
"...but there's no body."
Michael stared into the darkness below.
Impossible.
He had watched the wheelchair disappear.
There was no way anyone could survive that fall.
Then another rescuer shouted from below.
"Wait!"
"We found blood leading toward the caves!"
Detective Harper slowly removed his sunglasses.
His instincts screamed that this wasn't over.
Not even close.
Far below the cliffs...
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Someone had crawled away.
And whoever survived knew exactly who had pushed him.
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