Chapter 10 - THE LEAK
Detective Ortiz did not defend her department.
She locked her jaw and started making calls.
Within an hour, she had reduced the operation to four people she trusted personally.
Tessa’s mother was found in a motel outside Worcester, sedated but alive.
Grant disappeared.
Vivienne was taken into federal custody under guard.
I should have felt relief.
Instead, I kept hearing her words.
Someone in the police department warned him.
At 3:40 a.m., Ortiz drove us to Vale Biologics.
The storage lab sat beneath an abandoned research wing near the river.
The keycard opened the first door.
Inside were file cabinets, old servers, and sealed medical boxes.
Tessa whispered, “This is it.”
Then the lights came on.
Malcolm Vale stood at the far end of the room.
He was seventy, silver-haired, perfectly calm.
Beside him stood Captain Ross from Boston Police.
Ortiz’s face hardened.
“Captain.”
Ross raised his weapon.
“You should’ve stayed with child-abuse charges, Lena.”
Malcolm looked at me.
“Your father understood how the world works. You never did.”
“My father helped kill children.”
“He protected institutions.”
Tessa stepped forward.
“My niece was six months old.”
Malcolm barely looked at her.
“And your sister was compensated.”
Tessa moved so fast I caught her around the waist.
Malcolm smiled.
“There it is. Emotion. Amelia had the same weakness.”
My grip tightened.
“What did you do to my wife?”
He looked almost bored.
“I warned her.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
I believed him for half a second.
Then he added:
“Grant did.”
Tessa stopped struggling.
Ortiz whispered, “We’ve got him.”
A red dot appeared on her chest.
Sniper laser.
“Down!” I shouted.
May you like
The windows shattered.
And in the chaos, Malcolm ran.
