Chapter 9 - The Ghost in the Driveway
Detective Sterling didn't hesitate. He pulled his radio from his belt, barking a quick order to the patrol units stationed near our residential district.
“Dispatch Car Four to the Moreland residence immediately. Suspect tampering with an independent witness's vehicle,” Sterling commanded into the comm-link. He looked back at me. “Who knew your car was still parked there?”
“Only the people who were tracking our movements,” I said, my heart pounding against my ribs. “The broker ring knows we have the physical medication bottles, the pantry evidence, and the unredacted notes.”
The mother stood up from her chair, her hands clenched into tight fists. “They’re looking to destroy whatever evidence is left inside your car. They think we left the secondary files there.”
“Then let’s give them an audience,” Sterling said, a grim smile touching his lips. He tapped his radio again. “Car Four, hold your position three houses down. Wait for my signal to box them in.”
We didn't have to wait long. Within twenty minutes, a secure live-feed video link popped up on Sterling’s department tablet, patched directly from the dashcam of the police cruiser that had arrived at the scene.
On the grainy screen, under the pale glow of the suburban streetlights, a sleek black sedan was parked directly behind my car in the driveway. The driver’s side door of my vehicle was wide open. A man in a dark tactical jacket was leaning inside the interior cabin, frantically tearing through the glove compartment and center console.
“Got you,” Sterling muttered under his breath. He pressed the transmit button. “Car Four, move in. Block the driveway. Let’s take him alive.”
On the tablet screen, the two unmarked police cruisers suddenly roared out from a side street, their high-beam headlights instantly blinding the alley as they pinned the black sedan against the curb and blocked the exit of the driveway.
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The man inside my car froze, half-submerged in the front seat, before attempting to scramble backward out the door. Two officers swarmed him instantly, slamming him against the side panel and snapping steel cuffs onto his wrists.
“Suspect secured,” the officer’s voice crackled over the radio. “And Detective... you’re going to want to see what he was holding.”
