Chapter 12
The shrill ringtone of Sarah's cell phone cut through the chaotic din of the police radios like a knife. Every head in the hallway turned toward her. Sarah slowly reached into her pocket, pulled out the sleek black smartphone, and stared down at the screen where a live video feed was attempting to connect from a restricted, encrypted protocol.
"Don't answer it," Marcus warned, taking a step toward her. "It could be a trap or a remote wipe command for our home network."
"It's not a remote wipe," Sarah said, her voice unnervingly calm as her thumb hovered over the accept button. "It's a direct feed. Look at the caller ID prefix—it's routing through the local cell tower at the West Kendall airstrip."
Detective Miller stepped in, holding out his hand. "Put it on speaker, Ms. Vance, and hold it steady so my tech unit can trace the triangulation."
Sarah nodded, swiped her thumb across the glass screen, and held the phone out in front of her as the video feed snapped into sharp, terrifying focus.
The small screen illuminated the dim hallway with the flickering blue light of a computer monitor. Filling the frame was Julian Vance—his blond hair disheveled, his eyes bloodshot and wide with manic panic, sitting inside the cramped office of a private aircraft hangar. Behind him through the reinforced glass window, the silhouette of a twin-engine Cessna sat waiting on the tarmac under the darkening evening sky.
“Mom? Are you watching this?” Julian's voice crackled through the tiny speaker, frantic and high-pitched. “I know you’re there. I know the police are standing right beside you with that damn leather ledger.”
Elena pushed herself up from the mahogany bench, ignoring Marcus's restraining hand, and stepped directly in front of the phone screen.
"Julian," Elena said, her voice shaking with a potent mix of agonizing grief and cold fury. "Look at me. Put the keys down and walk out of that hangar right now. It's not too late to turn yourself in."
A harsh, bitter laugh barked out from the phone speaker. Julian leaned closer to the camera lens, his face twisting into an unrecognizable sneer.
“Turn myself in? For what, Mom? For trying to reclaim what was supposed to be mine before Marcus manipulated the old man into cutting me out?” Julian screamed, his voice cracking with hysteria. “He was rotting away anyway! I just accelerated the timeline so we wouldn't lose everything to his medical debts!”
"You poisoned him!" Elena screamed back, the restraint finally shattering completely. "You killed your own father for pocket change!"
“I didn't kill him!” Julian shouted back, slamming his fist onto the desk in the hangar office, causing the camera angle to lurch violently. “Check the ledger again, Mom! Look at page eighty-four! Dad knew about the embezzlement from day one! He signed off on it to save the company from federal tax fraud, and he was going to pin it all on me to protect Marcus!”
Detective Miller snatched the phone out of Sarah's hand before anyone else could speak, his eyes locked onto the screen as he flashed his gold badge directly into the camera lens.
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"Julian Vance, this is Detective Miller," the detective commanded in a deep, authoritative voice. "The hangar is surrounded by federal and state units. Step away from the aircraft with your hands visible or—”
The video feed cut off abruptly to a black screen with a single flashing error message: Connection Terminated.
