CHAP 5: BETRAYAL AT HEADQUARTERS
đ„ THE CHIEF HANDED OVER THE DOSSIER... THEN PULLED HIS WEAPON!
Marcus didn't take Julia and Leo back to their home, nor did he take them back to the police station. Instinct told him that nowhere was safe. He brought them to a secure, off-the-grid safehouse he kept in the countryside.
After ensuring Julia and the child were locked inside safely, Marcus drove back to Police Headquarters under the cover of early morning darkness. He needed answers from the one man who had overseen the Saint Jude fire investigation two years ago: Police Chief Robert Miller.
Marcus walked into the Chiefâs top-floor corner office without knocking.
Chief Miller was sitting behind his mahogany desk, shredding documents into an industrial paper shredder. He looked up, startled, his eyes cold and sunken.
"Vance," Miller said, settling back into his leather chair. "Where have you been? You abandoned a crime scene, took a material witness, and turned off your police radio. People are talking."
"I went to Saint Jude Memorial Park, Chief," Marcus said calmly, standing in front of the desk with his hand resting near his holster. "I opened Leo Sterling's urn."
Millerâs face hardened. The hum of the paper shredder was the only sound in the room.
"There were no ashes in that urn, Miller," Marcus continued, his voice sharp as a razor. "Just a piece of concrete and a key to the Ravenhill Research Facility. You signed off on that death report two years ago. You told this city a three-year-old boy burned to death."
Chief Miller let out a long, heavy sigh. He slowly leaned back and opened his top desk drawer.
"Marcus... you were always a good detective," Miller said quietly. "Too good for your own good. You don't understand the scale of what you're sticking your nose into."
"Explain it to me then!" Marcus snapped. "Why is a boy who was declared dead two years ago crawling out of a drainage pipe under Interstate 95?"
"Because he wasn't supposed to escape!" Miller yelled, his voice suddenly filled with rage.
Before Marcus could draw his weapon, Chief Miller pulled a suppressed pistol from his desk drawer and aimed it directly at Marcus's chest!
"Chief... put the gun down," Marcus said steadily, his eyes locked on Millerâs trigger finger.
"I can't do that, Marcus," Miller spat, his hand trembling slightly. "If they find out one of the subjects got away, they won't just kill me. Theyâll erase my entire family. Ravenhill isn't just a clinic. It's an illegal genetic harvesting ring for the world's elite!"
"Who runs it, Miller?!" Marcus demanded.
"You want to know who pays the bills?" Miller laughed bitterly, his finger tightening on the trigger. "Look closer at the grieving parents you're protecting!"
BANG!
A gunshot shattered the glass window of the Chief's office!
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Chief Miller collapsed forward onto his desk, a red stain spreading across his back. A sniper bullet from an adjacent building had taken him down before he could pull his trigger.
Marcus hit the floor, rolling behind a steel filing cabinet as more bullets shattered the office windows!
