Chapter 12 - One Life for the EvidenceDaniel’s hand tightened around his weapon.
“Where is she?”
Hayes smiled sadly.
“You were always predictable.”
“Where is Lisa?”
“Safe.”
“Bound to a chair isn’t safe.”
“She’s alive.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“You’re underestimating how badly this ends for you.”
Hayes looked at him.
“I know exactly how it ends.”
His calmness bothered Daniel.
This wasn’t a man improvising.
This was a man executing a plan.
Hayes looked toward Michael.
“I want the archive.”
Michael laughed.
“You think I kept one copy?”
“I know you didn’t.”
Michael’s smile faded.
Hayes continued.
“I want the master encryption key.”
Daniel looked at Michael.
“What key?”
Michael said nothing.
Hayes smiled.
“There it is.”
Daniel turned.
“You still haven’t told me everything.”
Michael looked ashamed.
Again.
“The data from the basement is encrypted.”
“And?”
“The master key is memorized.”
“By you?”
“No.”
Daniel felt dread.
Michael looked at Evan.
“The phrase is hidden inside something Evan knows.”
Hayes’s eyes moved to the boy.
Ryan immediately stepped between them.
Daniel noticed.
Whatever Ryan had done, he did not want Hayes near Evan.
Hayes said, “Smart.”
Michael stared.
“You’re not getting it.”
Hayes pointed toward the phone.
Lisa screamed as someone tightened restraints around her wrists.
Daniel moved.
Hayes lifted one hand.
“If I don’t call every ten minutes, she dies.”
Daniel froze.
“Where?”
“Trade first.”
“No.”
Hayes looked almost sympathetic.
“Then watch.”
Daniel forced himself to think like a cop.
Not a brother.
Not a father.
A cop.
“You came alone.”
Hayes smiled.
“So?”
“You don’t trust your people.”
The smile weakened.
Daniel continued.
“Northstar is collapsing.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“You sent a hit team to Millbrook.”
Hayes said nothing.
“They failed.”
Silence.
“And now you’re here personally.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“That means you don’t know who’s loyal anymore.”
Hayes’s eyes hardened.
Daniel knew he was right.
Michael spoke.
“Robert.”
Hayes looked at him.
“You lost control years ago.”
“Shut up.”
“David’s case started it.”
“I said shut up.”
Michael continued.
“Then Sarah.”
Hayes’s calm broke.
“You caused Sarah’s death.”
Michael flinched.
Hayes saw it.
“So noble now.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Where is Lisa?”
Hayes looked at him.
“Your old elementary school.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
“Abandoned six years ago.”
Marcus was already texting trusted state police contacts.
Hayes noticed.
“You have eight minutes.”
Daniel looked at Marcus.
“Go.”
Marcus nodded and left with two trusted officers.
Hayes laughed.
“You think I gave you the real location?”
Daniel watched his face.
“You did.”
Hayes stopped.
“Because you need us to believe you can still control outcomes.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You always liked being the smartest man in the room.”
Hayes’s jaw tightened.
Daniel remembered years of meetings.
Promotions.
Advice.
The chief’s little smile whenever he knew something before everyone else.
“You gave me the real location because you want us to rescue her.”
Hayes frowned.
“Why would I?”
“Because Lisa isn’t leverage.”
Daniel looked at Michael.
“The kidnapping is a distraction.”
Michael’s eyes widened.
Hayes’s expression changed.
Daniel knew.
“What are your people doing at the station?”
Hayes moved toward the phone.
Ryan tackled him.
They crashed to the floor.
Daniel grabbed Hayes’s arm.
A small remote fell from his sleeve.
Not a bomb trigger.
A network authentication token.
Michael stared.
“He’s wiping evidence.”
Hayes fought.
“You have no idea what you’re exposing!”
Daniel cuffed him.
“What evidence?”
Hayes laughed.
“Everything your brother left on department servers.”
Daniel looked at Lisa’s phone feed.
Then at Marcus’s text.
SITE CONFIRMED. MOVING IN.
Daniel turned to Michael.
“What’s stored at the station?”
Michael’s face went pale.
“I uploaded a backup nine years ago.”
“To police servers?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Northstar never thought law enforcement would search itself.”
Daniel understood.
Hayes had spent nine years unable to find it.
Now Michael’s return forced him to act.
Hayes smiled from the floor.
“Too late.”
The fire station lights flickered.
Daniel’s phone rang.
A patrol officer at headquarters.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“Server room’s on fire.”
Hayes laughed.
Then Evan spoke from behind them.
“You don’t need the server.”
Everyone turned.
The boy held the old hospital wristband.
Daniel frowned.
“I thought that was stolen.”
Evan shook his head.
“I switched it.”
Daniel stared.
The band stolen from the cabin evidence box had been a decoy.
Evan had kept the real one.
Michael began laughing.
Not because it was funny.
Because he understood.
Evan pulled apart the wristband’s inner seam.
A thin strip of numbers was printed inside.
Michael whispered, “The master key.”
Hayes stopped smiling.
Evan looked at Daniel.
“My dad said the truth should stay with family.”
Daniel glanced at Michael.
Then at his son.
For the first time, Chief Hayes looked afraid.
But Michael’s expression became worse.
“Evan…”
The boy looked at him.
“What?”
Michael stared at the numbers.
“That isn’t only an encryption key.”
Daniel frowned.
“What else is it?”
Michael whispered:
“It’s the account number where Northstar stored the payoff money.”
Daniel looked at Hayes.
Hayes went completely pale.
Michael continued.
“And if that account is still active…”
May you like
His voice dropped.
“…we can see every officer, judge, and politician they ever paid.”
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