Chapter 10: The Discrepancy
Clara felt a cold wave of validation wash over her, followed immediately by a surge of deep apprehension. If the arrest was pre-staged, the conspiracy went far deeper than she had originally feared. It involved local law enforcement officials operating directly on the payroll of the Blackwood estate, subverting due process to protect a corporate dynasty.
“Why are you telling me this, Detective?” Clara asked, narrowing her eyes slightly. “If internal affairs finds out you’re poking around an off-the-record case on your own time, your badge is on the line.”
Ray offered a grim, humorless smile. “Let’s just say I’ve spent twenty years watching powerful men bend the law until it snaps, and I’m tired of watching innocent people get crushed in the gears. But I can’t walk into a courtroom with a hunch. I need hard proof of the dispatch logs, and those digital records are heavily encrypted behind departmental firewalls.”
“Can you access them?” Clara asked, her voice dropping to an urgent whisper.
“Not legally without a federal subpoena, which a local judge will never grant,” Ray admitted. “However, there’s someone who used to maintain those exact servers before he was quietly forced into early retirement last year. His name is David Chen. He lives off the grid in a cabin up in Pine Ridge.”
“Will he talk to you?”
“Only if I bring him something that proves the Blackwoods are throwing him under the bus as well,” Ray said. “When Chen was fired, his personal pension fund was mysteriously frozen due to an ‘auditing error.’ That error was authorized by the same corporate shell company that placed the 4:00 AM dispatch call.”
May you like
Clara’s mind raced as she connected the dots. David Chen was the missing link. If they could convince him to testify about the backdoor server access and the pre-staged dispatch logs, the prosecution's entire narrative would crumble into dust.
“Go to him, Ray,” Clara urged, gripping the bars with renewed hope. “Tell him I know about the codicil. Tell him the Blackwoods are cleaning house, and he’s next on their list if he doesn't speak up first.”
