Chapter 20

ISABELLA

Nobody moved.

The audio file had ended but the room still felt full of my father's voice.

I kept my hands flat on the table. I kept my face still. I did not want anyone to see how hard I was shaking inside.

"Second file is ready," Fen said.

He clicked it open before anyone told him to. The image loaded slowly from the top down.

A street. Daylight. A police precinct in the background.

Two men. Standing close. Near the side entrance.

"Do you know either of them?" Antonio asked.

I looked at the man on the right first. I did not know him.

Then I looked at the man on the left.

My whole body went cold.

"Sarah," Dante said. His voice was sharp. "Who is he?"

I did not answer right away. I could not.

"Sarah." Christian said my name this time, lower and quieter than Dante.

I forced myself to speak. "I need a minute."

"You don't have a minute," Dante said, moving closer to the screen. "Tell us who he is."

"I know him," I said finally.

"From where?" Antonio asked.

"A photograph," I said. "One that showed up in my room. The first night I was here." I looked at Antonio. "You remember I told you about it. The photo that was there and then gone."

Antonio's eyes changed. "Yes. I remember."

"That is the same man," I said. "The same face."

Dante turned from the screen and looked at me directly. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know," I said.

"Think harder," he said. "Because if someone put his photo in your room before this drive ever arrived, then they were already watching you. Before any of this started."

I looked at the man on the screen again. "I know."

"Who is he?" Christian asked. He had not moved from the wall. His voice was calm but his eyes were not.

I took a breath. "His name is Victor Hale. He worked with my father."

The room went very quiet.

"Worked with him how?" Antonio asked.

"Same unit," I said. "For three years. My father trusted him." I paused. "He came to the funeral. He stood right next to my mother. He cried."

Dante turned back to the screen. "And now he is standing outside a police precinct with a man connected to the syndicate your father was investigating."

"Yes," I said.

"The same syndicate that was passing intelligence through someone inside the force," Dante said slowly.

"Yes."

Dante turned and looked at me. His face said everything before his mouth did.

"Victor Hale is the leak," he said.

I already knew that. I had known it the second I saw the face on the screen. But hearing someone else say it made it real in a way I was not ready for.

"My father knew," I said. "That is why he made the recording. He was getting close. He knew someone in the unit was feeding information to the syndicate. He just did not name anyone."

"Because Victor walked in," Fen said from his seat. He had not looked away from the screen. "That is when the recording cut off. Someone came through that door."

I looked at him. "You think it was Victor."

Fen shrugged. "I think the timing is not a coincidence."

"Three weeks later your father was dead," Antonio said.

Nobody answered that. There was nothing to say.

Christian pushed off the wall. "If Victor Hale knows you exist, he already knows why you are here."

"He might not know," I said.

"He put a photograph in your room, Sarah." Christian's voice did not rise. It just got very flat and very serious. "He already knows exactly who you are."

I did not answer. Because he was right.

"Third file is almost open," Fen said.

All of us turned back to the screen.

The progress bar moved slowly. Then it stopped.

Fen frowned. "That is strange."

"What is it?" Dante asked.

"The file is not encrypted," Fen said. He leaned forward. "It was never encrypted. It has been sitting here open the whole time. Waiting for us to reach it."

"Open it," I said.

Fen clicked.

It was not an audio file. It was not an image.

It was a name. Just one name. Plain text. Black letters on a white screen.

I read it once. Then I read it again.

The air left the room.

"That is not possible," Dante said.

"It is right there," I said, pointing at the screen.

"I see it," Dante said. "But that person is dead."

"I know," I said. "That is what I was told."

Antonio stepped forward. His face was very still. "If that name is real, then someone lied to you for a long time."

"Not just to me," I said quietly. I looked at the screen one more time. "To everyone."

Christian moved to my side. Not touching me. Just there. His voice was low. "Sarah. Do you know what this means if it is true?"

I nodded. I could barely speak.

Because if the name on that screen was telling the truth, then my father had not been working alone.

And the person who had helped him hide the evidence was someone I had believed was gone forever.

Fen pointed at the screen. "There is one more thing." He scrolled down below the name. A single line of text appeared underneath it. He had not mentioned it until now.

I leaned in and read it.

My heart stopped.

"Fen," I said. My voice was barely above a whisper. "When was this file last opened?"

Fen typed fast. He checked the data. Then he stopped typing.

He looked up at me. His face was not calm anymore.

"Six hours ago," he said.

I stared at him. "Six hours ago?"

"Yes," he said.

"That was after the drive arrived here," I said slowly.

"Yes," Fen said again.

"Which means someone opened this file while it was already in this building," I said.

Nobody spoke.

I looked at Antonio. Then at Dante. Then at Christian.

All of us thinking the same thing.

Someone in this building had accessed the drive before Fen ever touched it.

"Who else has been in this room tonight?" I asked, my voice steady even though nothing inside me was.