Chapter 12 - THE FRIEND WHO LIED TO RYAN
Police intercepted the siding.
SUV empty.
Train slowed.
Tactical officers boarded.
They found Michael.
Alone.
Alive.
Ryan cut his restraints.
“Where’s Adrian?”
Michael looked ashamed.
“He took Hale.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Then:
“Ryan, there’s something else.”
Michael had known more than he admitted before the kidnapping.
He had contacted Victor Hale months earlier.
How?
Encrypted email.
Victor escaped Adrian briefly and reached out using an old police contact list.
Michael received the message.
He did not tell Ryan.
Why?
Victor claimed a senior police official had leaked information during the original corruption case.
Michael feared internal compromise.
Ryan’s anger rose.
“You thought I was compromised?”
“No.”
“Then why not tell me?”
“I didn’t know who was.”
Michael had investigated alone.
Found tunnel.
Found Adrian.
Found shell payments.
Then got caught.
Ryan said:
“You nearly got yourself killed.”
Michael answered:
“I know.”
“Worse. You made me investigate blind.”
Silence.
Friendship did not erase that.
Then Michael gave him the key.
Victor had hidden the original corruption backup in:
a police evidence archive.
Not city hall.
Not bank.
Police evidence.
Under a misfiled burglary case number.
That was why someone inside law enforcement mattered.
Who could access it?
A captain.
An evidence supervisor.
Or someone higher.
Then Ryan remembered Robert Hayes had helped pull archive access earlier.
Could Robert be the leak?
May you like
He hated the thought immediately.
Which meant he had to examine it.
