Chapter 5 - The Master Key
With a sudden, explosive movement, Ethan vaulted over the wooden pallets, slamming Daniel down hard against the concrete floor before the desperate man could hurl the phone into the burning barrel.
The phone flew from Daniel’s grasp, skittering across the smooth concrete and stopping right near my sneaker.
"Got him!" Ethan barked, snapping the cuffs onto Daniel’s wrists as he thrashed and screamed against the floor. "You have the right to remain silent, Daniel. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
I bent down—careful of my ribs—and scooped up the phone. Miraculously, the screen protector was cracked, but the OLED display flickered to life under my thumb. A small biometric prompt blinked on the screen: Face ID Recognition Required.
I lifted the phone to my face.
Click.
The lock screen dissolved instantly.
"Good girl," Ethan muttered, hauling Daniel to his feet and shoving him toward the waiting backup officers outside. He turned to me, checking my posture. "Are you alright? You pushed it hard out there, Claire."
"I'm fine," I breathed, though my vision swam slightly at the edges. I looked down at the unlocked device. "Ethan, look at this. The auto-sync was paused while the phone was in airplane mode, but the moment it connected to the local cell tower... look at the incoming transfer log."
Ethan leaned in close over my shoulder.
The screen displayed a live-updating ledger showing a massive wire transfer executed less than twenty minutes ago—moving three million dollars from Sterling Global Logistics' primary operating account directly into an overseas holding entity under Evelyn Sterling's maiden name.
"She wasn't just covering up an assault," Ethan realized, his eyes widening. "She was draining the company dry to fund a flight out of the country while Daniel kept us distracted."
Before we could leave the warehouse, my phone buzzed again.
This time, it wasn't an unknown number or a frantic husband. It was an email notification from an encrypted domain service.
Subject: Sarah Jenkins - Safe Drop Access Code.
My breath hitched. I clicked the notification, revealing a digital folder containing scanned bank statements, audio recordings of board meetings, and a signed deposition from Sarah Jenkins herself, detailing how Evelyn and Daniel had systematically threatened her life six months before she vanished.
"She didn't flee the country," I whispered, staring at the screen in horror. "Sarah never left."
Ethan’s expression hardened into absolute professional focus. "What do you mean, Claire?"
"Look at the timestamp on Sarah's deposition," I pointed to the bottom of the PDF. "It was uploaded the night she disappeared. And look at the GPS coordinates embedded in the file metadata."
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Ethan pulled out his department tablet, plugging the coordinates into the GIS mapping software. The blue pin dropped not onto a highway or an airport, but onto a sprawling commercial property owned by Sterling Global Logistics—specifically, the industrial park storage facility located less than two miles down the access road.
"The old Maple Ridge cold storage facility," Ethan said, his voice dropping an octave. "Sterling Global's primary warehouse."
