Chapter 10 - The Aftermath of Plaster
The interrogation room at the central precinct was quiet, save for the rhythmic clicking of a wall clock and the low hum of an old ventilation fan. Leo sat at the metal table, his forearms heavily bandaged, the raw cuts and abrasions stinging under layers of antiseptic ointment. The dark grey t-shirt he had worn in the lab was still stained with dried concrete dust and a faint smear of his own blood.
The door clicked open, and Detective Miller walked in, holding a thick manila folder labeled Harrison Clinic Archive. The detective dropped the folder onto the metal table with a heavy thud and pulled out the chair opposite Leo, sitting down slowly.
"Well, Mr. Vance," Detective Miller said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. "Your editors at the paper are calling every ten minutes demanding to know why you filed an explosive investigative report about a local dentist running an underground mortuary."
"Because it's true," Leo replied, his voice raspy and tired. "Did your team secure the basement lab?"
Detective Miller opened the folder, flipping past pages of dental charts, missing persons reports, and financial logs until he stopped at a series of high-resolution crime scene photographs. He turned the photos around so Leo could see them clearly under the harsh fluorescent light.
The images showed the stainless steel autopsy tables, the bone shelves, and, most horrifyingly, a climate-controlled walk-in vault hidden behind a false wall in Dr. Harrison’s private office. Inside the vault were dozens of numbered plaster casts—hundreds of dental molds, each meticulously cataloged, labeled with names and dates spanning over a decade.
"We found thirty-seven undeclared dental molds in that vault," Detective Miller said grimly. "Forensics is already cross-referencing them with missing persons databases across three states. Dr. Harrison isn't just looking at kidnapping charges. We're talking about a serial homicide investigation of unprecedented scale for this county."
Leo swallowed hard, staring at the photographs. The sterile white tiles in the pictures looked identical to the ones in his nightmares. "And Chloe? What happens to her?"
Detective Miller closed the folder and leaned back, his expression unreadable. "That's the complicated part. She was living under his roof, working in his clinic, and helping him maintain the facility. But she was also the one who unlocked the safe, found the evidence, and helped you break out of that lab."
"She didn't know," Leo insisted, his voice rising slightly in defense. "Not fully. Her father manipulated her since she was a child. He made her believe it was... medical preservation."
"The district attorney will decide what charges, if any, apply to her complicity," Detective Miller said neutrally. "She's being held in a separate room for questioning right now. But there's one piece of evidence my dive team hasn't been able to locate yet."
Leo frowned, wincing slightly as he shifted his bandaged hands. "What piece of evidence?"
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Detective Miller leaned forward again, his eyes narrowing. "According to Chloe's initial statement at the scene, there was a specific piece of evidence—a bloody red dental mold from the original case five years ago—that she dropped into a puddle in the alley before we arrived. When our dive team swept the drain, the drain was empty."
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