“And you believe these two officers are involved?”
“I believe they’re part of something larger.”
The captain looked at the documents again.
“How long have you been investigating?”
“Three months.”
“Why didn’t you tell local command?”
Victoria’s expression became serious.
“Because someone in local command is connected to it.”
Elena stopped breathing for a second.
“You have evidence?”
Victoria nodded.
“Enough to be concerned.”
“Enough to prove it?”
“Not yet.”
“Then why stop these officers today?”
Victoria looked toward the road.
“Because they made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“They stopped me.”
Elena stared at her.
Victoria continued.
“They thought I was just another young woman driving alone.”
She looked at the two inspectors.
“They didn’t know I’d spent months studying their behavior.”
The first inspector suddenly shouted from across the road.
“This is ridiculous!”
Everyone turned.
“I want my lawyer!”
Victoria didn’t react.
The inspector pointed at her.
“You set this up!”
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
She walked toward him.
“You set this up.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You followed me.”
“We had a reason.”
“What reason?”
He said nothing.
Victoria waited.
Then she asked:
“Who gave you the license plate?”
The man’s face changed.
Just slightly.
But Elena noticed.
“So you already knew her vehicle?” Elena asked.
The officer looked away.
Victoria smiled sadly.
“Exactly.”
She turned to Captain Morris.
“That’s what I wanted.”
“What?”
“The first crack.”
Elena frowned.
Victoria held out her phone.
“Play this recording.”
Elena pressed the screen.
A few seconds of audio played.
The first officer’s voice came through clearly:
“That’s the one. Same car. Same plate. Follow her.”
Elena looked up sharply.
The officer’s face went white.
“You recorded that?”
Victoria nodded.
“Before you stopped me.”
“How?”
“I heard your radio.”
The inspector shook his head.
“No. That’s impossible.”
Victoria looked at him.
“Nothing is impossible when people become careless.”
Then another voice appeared in the recording.
Not one of the officers.
A man’s voice.
Deep.
Calm.
And familiar.
“Make sure she doesn’t reach the city.”
Elena’s expression changed immediately.
“Who is that?”
Victoria looked at her.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
The captain replayed the audio.
Everyone listened.
The voice came again.
“Make sure she doesn’t reach the city.”
Silence followed.
Then the first inspector whispered:
“We never heard that.”
Victoria turned toward him.
“Yes, you did.”
“No.”
“You heard it before you stopped me.”
The inspector looked terrified.
Victoria’s voice became quieter.
“And now I know something I didn’t know this morning.”
“What?”
She looked at him.
“You weren’t trying to intimidate me because I questioned you.”
She paused.
“You were trying to keep me from reaching the city.”
The officer said nothing.
Victoria turned to Captain Morris.
“Take them in.”
“On what charges?”
Victoria looked at the evidence box.
“Official misconduct. Unlawful detention. Evidence tampering pending investigation.”
Elena nodded.
But before the officers were taken away, Victoria noticed something.
The first inspector kept looking toward the road behind them.
Not toward the city.
Not toward the patrol car.
Toward the trees.
Victoria followed his gaze.
Nothing appeared to be there.
But then she noticed a small flash between the branches.
A reflection.
Metal.
Or glass.
Someone was watching them.
Victoria’s instincts immediately sharpened.
“Captain.”
Elena turned.
“Don’t move.”
Everyone froze.
Victoria reached for her phone.
The flash appeared again.
This time she saw it clearly.
A camera lens.
Someone was recording them from the trees.
Then the figure disappeared.
Victoria ran toward the tree line.
“Stop!”
Elena followed.
They pushed through the bushes.
But whoever had been there was already gone.
On the ground, however, Victoria found something.
A small black envelope.
She picked it up carefully.
There was no name on the front.
Only four words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT.
Victoria stared at it.
Elena stood beside her.
“What does that mean?”
Victoria didn’t answer.
She turned the envelope over.
There was a symbol stamped into the wax seal.
The same symbol she had seen on one of the documents in her investigation.
Her face became completely still.
Elena noticed.
“You recognize it.”
Victoria nodded.
“Yes.”
“Who does it belong to?”
Victoria looked back toward the road where the two officers were being placed into separate vehicles.
Then she whispered:
“The person I’ve been trying to find for three months.”
Elena’s eyes widened.
“Who?”
Victoria closed her fingers around the envelope.
“I don’t know his name.”
“Then how do you know it’s him?”
Victoria looked at the empty trees.
“Because he just told me to leave.”
She paused.
“And people don’t threaten me unless they’re afraid of what I’ll discover next.”
PART 4
Victoria stood beneath the trees, the black envelope still in her hand.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The afternoon wind pushed through the branches, making the leaves whisper above them.
Captain Elena Morris looked at the message again.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT.
Then she looked at Victoria.
“Are you afraid?”
Victoria considered the question.
“Yes.”
Elena seemed surprised.
Victoria gave a faint smile.
“Being afraid doesn’t mean you stop.”
She carefully placed the envelope inside an evidence bag.
“Take this to the lab.”
Elena nodded.
“What about the officers?”
“Keep them separated.”
“Why?”
“Because one of them knows more than he’s saying.”
Elena glanced toward the patrol cars.
“And the other?”
Victoria looked at the first inspector.
“He knows who gave the order.”
They walked back toward the road.
The two officers were sitting separately in different vehicles.
Victoria approached the first one.
He immediately looked away.
She knocked on the window.
He reluctantly lowered it.
“Where did you get my license plate?”
“I already told you. We were checking vehicles.”
“No.”
Victoria leaned slightly closer.
