Chapter 2 - THE DETECTIVE IN THE VIDEO
For the first time since I entered the gym, Dustin looked afraid.
Not of me.
Of the screen.
I reached toward the security console.
The coach lunged forward.
“Don’t touch that.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
His jaw tightened.
“Because you don’t understand what you’re looking at.”
I almost laughed.
For years, men had used that sentence when they desperately needed someone else to remain confused.
I pressed PLAY.
The recording had no clear audio, but the picture told enough of the story.
Evelyn stood near the cage with both arms wrapped around herself.
Dustin paced in front of her.
Detective Raymond Kessler stood ten feet away.
Watching.
Not intervening.
Then Dustin grabbed Evelyn by the wrist.
My fingers curled against the desk.
The coach noticed.
“If you break that computer,” he said quietly, “you lose your evidence.”
That stopped me.
He was right.
I forced my hand open.
On-screen, Evelyn pulled away.
Dustin shoved her.
Kessler turned his back.
My breathing slowed.
I had spent years teaching Marines that rage shortened vision.
You saw the target.
You missed the battlefield.
So I watched everything.
Kessler wasn’t simply ignoring what happened.
He was waiting.
Finally, Evelyn pulled something from her purse.
A small black flash drive.
She held it up.
Even without audio, I could tell she was threatening them with it.
Dustin’s expression changed immediately.
He reached for her.
Evelyn ran.
The recording ended twelve seconds later.
“What was on that drive?” I asked.
Nobody answered.
I turned toward Dustin.
“What was on it?”
“Nothing.”
Wrong answer.
His eyes had moved toward the coach.
I followed them.
The coach sighed.
“Your daughter found something she wasn’t supposed to find.”
“What?”
“Financial records.”
Dustin shouted, “Shut up, Rick!”
Coach Rick didn’t even look at him.
“Your daughter works in accounting, right?”
My stomach tightened.
Evelyn handled payroll for a commercial property company downtown.
Rick continued.
“She found payments connected to this gym.”
Dustin charged at him.
I stepped between them.
“What payments?”
Rick stared at me.
Then he said three words that made everything suddenly much bigger.
“Your daughter found millions.”
Dustin’s face turned gray.
But Rick wasn’t finished.
“The money belongs to his uncle.”
I leaned closer.
“What does his uncle want?”
Rick looked toward the locked doors.
“Not what.”
His voice dropped.
“Who.”
Then the lights outside the gym suddenly went dark.
Three black SUVs pulled into the parking lot.
May you like
Rick swallowed.
“His uncle knows you’re here.”
