Chapter 3 - THE DIGITAL TRAIL
The cyber division worked through the dead of night to bypass the heavy encryption on the burned USB drive.
By the time the sun began to peek over the city skyline, Detective Reed had a stack of printed transcripts as thick as a heavy phone book.
He walked into the bustling bullpen, his eyes red and exhausted, and dropped the massive physical files onto his cluttered metal desk.
The loud thud of the paper hitting the desk caused several officers to turn their heads in sheer curiosity.
"These two individuals are not just greedy parents, they are cold-blooded monsters," Reed muttered to his longtime partner, Officer Jenkins.
"I want you to read this specific text exchange from last Tuesday, just two days before the cabin went up in flames."
Jenkins picked up the highlighted piece of paper, adjusting his reading glasses as his eyes scanned the horrific words.
"Make sure the attic hatch is nailed shut first, before you pour the accelerant on the lower stairs," Jenkins read aloud, his voice dropping in disgust.
"Do not worry about the screaming, the toxic pine smoke will suffocate her long before the actual flames do."
Jenkins looked up from the transcript, his stomach physically turning at the incredibly casual, callous tone of the messages.
"They were discussing their own teenage daughter's brutal murder like they were planning a weekend grocery list," Jenkins said, shaking his head in disbelief.
Meanwhile, across the city, Maya was resting in a highly secure, undisclosed safe house provided by the state witness protection program.
She sat perfectly still on the edge of a cheap twin bed, staring blankly out the reinforced window at the falling rain.
Her biological father, a genius software engineer, had built a revolutionary tech company from scratch before his untimely death a decade ago.
He had left absolutely every penny of his massive fortune to Maya in a locked trust, foolishly believing Sarah would be a good, protective mother.
Instead, Sarah had immediately married David, a slick, manipulative man who was drowning in millions of dollars of secret underground gambling debts.
They had completely drained Sarah's personal bank accounts within two years and desperately needed Maya's locked inheritance just to survive the wrath of dangerous loan sharks.
Maya clenched her fists so tightly that her fingernails dug deep, painful crescent moons into the palms of her hands.
She was not just going to send them to a federal penitentiary for the rest of their natural lives.
She was going to make absolutely certain that they lost every single asset, every ounce of dignity, and every friend they had ever known.
May you like
She picked up the encrypted cell phone Detective Reed had given her and dialed the direct number to her family's corporate attorney.
It was time to pull the next thread and watch their entire web of lies unravel.
