Chapter 4
The fluorescent lights of the precinct breakroom hummed with an irritating, high-pitched frequency that matched Detective Elena Reyes’s frayed nerves. She sat at a scarred laminate table, nursing a paper cup of lukewarm black coffee that tasted like roasted asphalt. Across from her sat Captain Vance, a man whose silver hair and tailored shirts always projected an aura of untouchable authority. Today, however, Vance looked unusually restless, his fingers drumming a rapid tattoo against the wood.
"You're tracking shadows, Elena," Vance said, leaning back and crossing his arms. "The internal audit on the District 4 evidence locker came up clean. There's no missing cache of narcotics, no unaccounted-for contraband. You’re chasing ghosts."
"With all due respect, Captain, the audit was run by Lieutenant Miller’s detail," Elena replied, keeping her voice meticulously level. "Miller has three patrol cars parked outside his brother-in-law's auto shop every weekend. Those books are cooked."
"Miller is a twenty-year veteran," Vance snapped, his patience wearing thin. "He bleeds blue just like the rest of us. You need to drop this line of inquiry before you damage working relationships that this precinct depends on."
Elena didn't blink. She thought about the foil packet Arthur Stromtron had handed her in the parking lot. She hadn't turned it into evidence yet. Instead, she had slipped it into a secure, lead-lined pouch in her locker. The contents weren't drugs at all; they were micro-SD cards containing encrypted financial ledger transfers linking District 4’s seizure disposal accounts directly to an offshore shell company. Someone had tried to plant those cards on her not to arrest her for possession, but to frame her for corporate espionage and corporate-level theft—a crime that would guarantee an immediate, quiet termination without a departmental hearing.
"Working relationships are built on trust, Captain," Elena said softly. "And right now, that trust is rotting from the inside out. Someone tried to plant a false drop on me today while I was running errands for my daughter."
Vance’s eyes narrowed slightly, though his expression remained carefully neutral. "Your daughter is in college across the state, Elena. What does she have to do with this?"
"Nothing," Elena lied smoothly, protecting Sarah’s name from the crossfire. "Which is why it's deeply disturbing that someone is using my family life to send a message."
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Vance stood up, smoothing the front of his shirt. "Take two days off, Reyes. Clear your head. That's an order, not a suggestion."
As Vance walked out, Elena stared at the door. He hadn't asked who tried to frame her. Because he already knew.
