Chapter 4 - The Unmasking of the Predator
I didn't go back to the office the next morning. I went to the state investigative bureau, using every ounce of leverage I possessed to bypass the bureaucracy. I didn't want an investigation; I wanted a hunt. I hired the best private security team in the country, a group of ex-special ops professionals who understood that some people operate beneath the law.
While the girls recovered, I spent my nights in the hospital, reading to them and waiting for the moment they felt safe enough to speak. It took three weeks before Lily spoke her first full sentence, and it was to ask for a crayon. Mia remained silent, watching the world with the eyes of a soldier.
Then, the lead surfaced. It came from a local orphanage that had been shuttered years ago, a place that had appeared in Mia’s fragmented, terrifying descriptions. My team found the records—or what was left of them. It wasn't just an orphanage; it was a front for a human trafficking ring that had operated with impunity for decades.
The "shadow man" wasn't a ghost. He was a high-ranking city official who had used the system to harvest the very children he was supposed to protect. The rage I felt was so absolute it turned me cold. I had played the game of the elite my entire life, and now I realized the board was rigged with the blood of children.
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"We have him," my head of security said, handing me a file. "But he’s connected, Andrew. If we take this to the press without absolute proof, we’ll be crushed."
"Then we don't go to the press," I said, a dangerous, new resolve taking hold of me. "We bring the house down."
