Chapter 11: The Missing Asset
Agent Miller stared at his phone screen, his brow furrowing into a deep, troubled frown as he read the encrypted text message from the field unit stationed at Vance’s corporate headquarters. The quiet hum of the conference room air conditioning suddenly felt deafening as everyone at the table noticed the abrupt shift in the investigator's demeanor. Clara straightened her posture instantly, sensing that the situation had taken another dangerous turn.
"Agent Miller? Is there a problem with the seizure warrants?" Clara asked, her voice cutting through the tense silence with sharp urgency.
Miller looked up, his eyes locking onto Clara before shifting to Maya. "The federal strike team just raided Vance’s downtown executive offices. They secured the primary servers, but the physical vault containing the master ledger and the original estate transfer deeds has been completely cleared out."
Julian sat up straight, his eyes widening in disbelief. "Cleared out? How is that possible? The building was surrounded by our units within ten minutes of leaving the house."
"Vance must have had a secondary contingency plan in place the moment he saw us heading for the downtown branch," Maya realized aloud, her mind racing as she connected the dots. "When he left the house, he didn't go home to pack. He went straight to his private off-site backup vault."
Miller nodded grimly, tapping a few keys on his laptop to project a live security camera feed onto the conference room wall. The grainy footage showed the rear loading dock of Vance’s corporate office building, where a nondescript white utility van was seen speeding away into the evening traffic just two minutes before the federal agents breached the perimeter doors.
"We have an all-points bulletin out for the vehicle, but Vance is a ghost when it comes to offshore logistics," Miller explained, turning the screen so they could all see the tracking profile. "If he manages to cross state lines with those master deeds, he can legally contest the asset seizures and tie up the restitution process in federal court for years."
Clara slammed her hand lightly against the table in frustration. "He's trying to buy time to liquidate the remaining real estate holdings and convert them into untraceable cryptocurrency."
Maya stood up from her chair, her eyes burning with fierce determination. The fight wasn't over yet. Vance was running, but he was running with the very proof of their family's stolen inheritance. She reached down, picked up her canvas bag, and looked at Clara and Julian with absolute resolve.
"He hasn't left the state yet," Maya said firmly. "Vance always kept his personal contingency backups in a safety deposit box at the old municipal bank downtown—the one grandfather used before he got sick."
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Miller looked up sharply, a spark of professional interest in his eyes. "You know where his backup vault is?"
Before Maya could answer, her phone buzzed violently on the table, flashing an unknown caller ID with a local area code that made her blood run cold.
