Chapter 12 - The Badge Behind the Door
Detective Ortiz trusted only one person in her department: Captain Daniel Reed.
She told him about the leak.
He promised to lock down Robert’s communications and identify every officer who had accessed the case.
Two hours later, Ortiz disappeared.
Emily received a text from her number.
COME ALONE. PARKING GARAGE LEVEL FOUR.
Emily knew it was a trap.
She also knew waiting might cost Ortiz her life.
She sent Maya’s nurse a message, then entered the garage with the black data drive hidden beneath her coat.
A black sedan waited beneath a flickering light.
Captain Reed stepped out.
He held Ortiz at gunpoint.
Blood ran from a cut above the detective’s eye.
Emily stopped.
“You.”
Reed smiled.
“Margaret should have understood that some institutions protect themselves.”
He had been a young patrol officer when Margaret first tried to report the experiments. Celia’s father paid him to destroy evidence.
Over thirty years, Reed rose through the department while continuing to bury complaints against the company.
“Where is my mother?” Emily asked.
“Alive, for now.”
“And Lauren Vale?”
“Also alive. She became inconvenient.”
Emily held up the drive.
“Release Ortiz.”
Reed pushed the detective forward.
Ortiz stumbled but remained standing.
“Don’t give it to him,” she said.
Reed raised the gun.
Emily tossed the drive across the concrete.
Reed bent to retrieve it.
Ortiz moved instantly.
She struck his wrist, and the gun fired into the ceiling.
Emily kicked the weapon beneath a parked car.
Reed slammed Ortiz against a pillar and ran toward the stairwell.
Police sirens echoed below.
Before disappearing, he shouted, “Maya won’t survive the night!”
Emily’s heart stopped.
She called the hospital.
No answer from the nurse.
Security checked Maya’s room.
The bed was empty.
A staff badge used to remove her belonged to Captain Reed’s sister, a hospital administrator.
On Maya’s pillow lay a note.
May you like
THE GIRL FOR THE LEDGER.
👉 The conspirators had taken Maya again, but this time they wanted the evidence Margaret had protected for more than thirty years.
