“What's happening?”
Daniel looked toward the interrogation room.
“Your partner is only one piece.”
Ryan's expression hardened.
“How many?”
Daniel paused.
“Enough that I don't trust the walls.”
Ryan looked around.
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone inside this building knows exactly what we're doing.”
Ryan's face went pale again.
Daniel handed him a card.
“Go home.”
Ryan stared at it.
“Why?”
“Because if you're innocent, I don't want you caught in the middle.”
Ryan took the card.
Then Daniel added:
“And don't tell anyone where you're going.”
Ryan nodded.
Daniel walked away.
Behind the interrogation room door, Cole sat motionless.
His phone had been confiscated.
His badge was gone.
But he wasn't afraid because he might lose his job.
He was afraid because Daniel had asked one question.
Who warned you?
And Cole knew exactly who.
CHAPTER 3 — THE NAME BEHIND THE MONEY
The next morning, Daniel sat inside an unmarked office three counties away.
On the wall was a map.
Red lines connected police stations.
Bank accounts.
Private businesses.
Vehicle registrations.
Complaint numbers.
And names.
At the center of the board was one name:
Derek Cole.
Around it were six other officers.
Daniel's assistant, Agent Sarah Bennett, entered carrying a laptop.
“We traced the cash.”
Daniel looked up.
“Where?”
“Cole's bank account.”
“Deposit?”
“No.”
Sarah placed the laptop on the desk.
“That's the strange part.”
Daniel studied the screen.
Cole hadn't deposited the two thousand dollars.
Instead, investigators discovered several cash deposits made over the previous six months.
All just below reporting thresholds.
“Same pattern?” Daniel asked.
Sarah nodded.
“Different dates. Same amount range.”
Daniel leaned back.
“Someone taught him how to hide it.”
Sarah opened another file.
“And there's more.”
A photograph appeared.
A black SUV.
“That's registered to a company called North Valley Security.”
Daniel frowned.
“Private security?”
“Technically.”
“Owner?”
Sarah hesitated.
“Martin Hale.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
Martin Hale wasn't a police officer.
He was a former police captain.
He had retired eight years earlier.
Then he created a private security company.
Since then, his company had received contracts from several counties.
Daniel stared at the photograph.
“Why is a retired captain connected to Cole?”
“We don't know yet.”
Sarah changed the screen.
Bank transfers appeared.
Payments from North Valley Security.
Then payments to three officers.
Cole was one of them.
Daniel stood.
“How much?”
“About eighty-seven thousand dollars over two years.”
Daniel looked at the wall.
“So this isn't bribery.”
“What is it?”
“Bribery is when someone pays an officer to do something.”
He pointed at the names.
“This is a system.”
Sarah nodded.
“What's the objective?”
Daniel looked at the map.
“Control.”
That afternoon, Ryan Miller received a message from an unknown number.
STOP TALKING TO INTERNAL AFFAIRS.
Ryan stared at it.
A second message arrived.
YOU DON'T KNOW WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH.
He immediately deleted both.
Then he remembered Daniel's warning.
Don't tell anyone where you're going.
Ryan drove to the small house of his older sister.
He thought he was safe.
He wasn't.
A black SUV slowly passed the house.
Ryan noticed it through the curtains.
The same vehicle appeared again twenty minutes later.
Then again.
He called Daniel.
“Inspector?”
“Ryan.”
“There’s a black SUV outside.”
“License plate?”
Ryan gave it.
Silence.
Daniel knew it.
North Valley Security.
“Stay inside.”