The Witness Everyone Thought Was Gone
Chapter 03 - The Witness Everyone Thought Was Gone
The hospital locked down the maternity floor. Rachel’s medication was replaced before any serious harm was done, but security footage showed a person wearing hospital scrubs entering her room with a stolen badge.
The face was hidden.
Detective Brooks traced the stolen badge to an orderly who had reported it missing the previous night. The only useful clue was a courthouse parking pass found near the elevator.
William used the photograph to locate Daniel Kane.
Hidden in the image’s metadata was a message: OLD RECORDS BUILDING, BASEMENT 3.
William and Brooks went there under police protection. Behind a locked archive room, they found Daniel living among boxes of outdated court files and computer equipment.
He had not fled the country.
He had been hiding from his sister.
Daniel explained that six months earlier, Julia ordered him to create secret access to the courthouse camera system. She claimed it was for witness protection, but he discovered she was deleting footage connected to Senator Vale’s cases.
When Daniel threatened to expose her, men followed him home. He disappeared to stay alive.
On the morning Rachel fell, Daniel had remotely copied the courthouse feed before Julia’s accomplice erased it.
He showed them the video.
Julia could be seen placing her hand against Rachel’s back and pushing.
But Daniel revealed something even worse. The system had recorded audio from a microphone near the doors.
Just before the fall, Julia whispered into her phone:
“If she survives, use the hospital plan.”
The voice answering her belonged to Senator Vale.
Detective Brooks prepared arrest warrants.
Yet when officers arrived at Julia’s office, she was gone. Senator Vale had also vanished from his home.
Daniel warned them that Julia still had access to the courthouse emergency network. The next day, a grand jury was scheduled to review the evidence against Vale.
“If she controls the system,” Daniel said, “she can lock down the building, destroy the servers, and trap everyone inside.”
Rachel refused to remain silent.
Despite William’s objections, she asked doctors to discharge her long enough to testify by secure video link. Her statement would ensure the case survived even if the physical evidence was destroyed.
As the grand jury assembled, the courthouse lights suddenly went out.
Emergency doors locked.
Fire alarms began ringing.
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Then every screen in the building displayed a message:
DROP THE CHARGES, OR THE EVIDENCE BURNS WITH THEM.
