Chapter 4 - The Interrogation and the Hidden Ledger
Back at the precinct's secure holding facility, the air smelled of stale coffee and ozone. Arthur Vance sat handcuffed to a stainless-steel table in the interrogation room. His face was bruised, and a deep gash split his left eyebrow, but his posture remained rigid, military-straight.
Detective Miller slammed a heavy manila folder down onto the table. Clara stood behind the two-way mirror in the observation room, her heart pounding against her ribs as she watched every move.
"Let’s not play games, Arthur," Miller growled, leaning over the table. "You tried to poison your own seven-year-old daughter. You thought you could take the easy way out before the syndicate got to you."
Arthur raised his head slowly. His lips curled into a cold, mirthless smile. "You think I wanted to hurt Lily? You think I gave her that tea to murder her?"
"The toxicology report doesn't lie," Miller shot back.
"It was a sedative," Arthur corrected softly, his voice cutting through the room like a razor. "A synthetic paralytic designed to mimic death for six hours. If the agency’s hit squad breached my house and found a dead child, they would have called off the search and assumed the loose end was tied. It was the only way to save her life. I was going to retrieve her tonight."
Miller stared at him, searching for any sign of a lie. "And the stolen ledger? Where is the cryptographic drive, Arthur?"
Arthur leaned forward, the clinking of his handcuffs echoing in the small room. "The drive isn't in a safe. It isn't hidden in a wall. It’s encoded into the serial number of the silver fountain pen Lily carries everywhere—the one her mother gave her before she vanished."
In the observation room, Clara gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. She looked down at her palm where she had placed the silver pen earlier.
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Suddenly, the overhead lights in the precinct flickered violently and died. Red emergency backup strobes kicked in, bathing the hallways in an ominous crimson glow.
From the hallway outside came the distinct, horrifying sound of suppressed automatic gunfire.
