Chapter 27 - The Guard on the Payroll
The interrogation room in the basement of the Blackwood barracks smelled of stale sweat, cheap floor wax, and raw fear.
Officer Higgins, a thickset man with thinning grey hair and a permanent scowl, was handcuffed to the center ring of the metal table. His prison guard uniform was unbuttoned at the collar, revealing skin flushed with terror. Beside him on the floor sat the heavy black nylon duffel bag, unzipped just enough to reveal brick upon brick of crisp, sequential hundred-dollar bills.
Detective Miller slammed the heavy steel door behind her, Daniel following closely in the shadows near the one-way mirror.
"Two hundred thousand dollars, Higgins," Miller began, her voice dangerously quiet as she tossed the guard’s badge onto the table. "You threw away a twenty-year pension and signed yourself up for twenty-five years in federal prison for a bag of dirty Vance money."
Higgins swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. "I didn't hurt nobody. I just carried a burner phone into the cell block. That's all I did! Diane told me it was just to talk to her lawyer about an appeal!"
"You're lying!" Daniel stepped out from the shadows, slamming both hands onto the table. The violent slap of his palms made Higgins flinch backward against his chair.
"You passed the coordinates to Julian Vance!" Daniel yelled, the veins in his neck bulging. "He broke into my house! He tried to put an iron chain around my six-year-old son’s neck! He tried to burn my child alive! Tell us where he is, Higgins, or so help me God, I will personally make sure you are placed in the general population wing of the very prison you guarded!"
Higgins looked at Daniel’s bandaged feet, at the dried blood on his collar, and at the unhinged, feral fury burning in the father's eyes. The guard’s bravado completely collapsed.
"I don't know where he is right now! I swear to God!" Higgins stammered, tears leaking from his bloodshot eyes. "Julian only met me once, two nights ago, behind the diner off Route 9! He gave me the duffel bag and told me to give Diane the burner phone!"
"What did he tell you about his rendezvous point?" Miller demanded, leaning over the table, her badge glinting beneath the fluorescent lights. "Every operation has an exfiltration plan. Where was he supposed to take the boy?"
Higgins shook his head frantically. "He didn't give me coordinates! He just said... he said he had an old fishing cabin up on the north ridge of Blackwood Lake. An abandoned ranger outpost near the reservoir spillway. He said he had satellite gear, medical supplies, and fake passports stashed in the floorboards!"
Daniel and Miller exchanged a sharp, frozen glance.
*Blackwood Lake.*
The exact same rural lake where Detective Miller’s off-the-grid family cabin was located.
"Why Blackwood Lake?" Miller asked, her voice turning cold as ice. "That area is miles of dense state forest. Why would Julian pick that reservoir?"
"Because the Vance family used to own the timber rights up there thirty years ago!" Higgins blurted out, desperate to save himself. "Diane bought an old logging parcel before the state turned it into a nature preserve! Julian said it was the only place in the county where thermal imaging helicopters couldn't penetrate the canopy! He told Diane he was going to take the boy there, make the ransom call, and wait for Daniel to deliver the documents!"
Miller grabbed Higgins by his shirt collar, pulling him forward until their noses nearly touched. "Did he have anyone else with him? Is he working alone?"
"He's alone!" Higgins cried. "He told me he didn't trust anyone else with Vance blood! He said he was going to finish what Vanessa started, and nobody was going to stop him!"
Miller released him with a shove of disgust, turning to Daniel. "I’m calling the tactical commander. If Julian is holed up at that abandoned ranger outpost near the spillway, we can surround the perimeter before sunrise. We have an armored BearCat vehicle and eight tactical deputies five minutes out."
"I'm coming with you," Daniel said immediately.
"No, Daniel," Miller said firmly, grabbing his arm. "You have a six-year-old boy asleep down the hall who has survived hell. You are going to my father's safehouse on the south shore with Deputy Evans. The outpost Julian is using is six miles north across the water. You stay with your son. Let my team take this bastard down."
May you like
Daniel looked back toward the hallway where Mason was sleeping. The exhaustion in his bones screamed at him to stop, to let the professionals handle the monster.
He took a deep breath and nodded. "Bring him in, Miller. Don't let him leave that forest alive if he reaches for that knife."
