chapter sixteen
1124 Words
Chapter Sixteen: The Aftershock
The arrest of Richard Voss didn’t just shake the city.
It cracked it open.
By morning every news station was broadcasting the same headline:
COUNCILMAN ARRESTED IN TRAFFICKING SCANDAL
Cameras crowded outside the courthouse. Reporters shouted questions into microphones. Politicians rushed to distance themselves from Voss.
But Elizabeth knew something the cameras didn’t.
Voss wasn’t the top of the chain.
Men like him rarely were.
They were simply the most visible.
---
Inside the precinct, chaos reigned.
Phones rang nonstop.
Women who had once been too afraid to report abuse were suddenly calling in.
Some cried.
Some whispered.
Some simply asked one question:
“Is it safe now?”
Elizabeth stood at her desk, listening to a recording of a new witness statement. Her jaw tightened.
“It’s not safe,” she said quietly.
Moreno looked up from across the room. “What?”
Elizabeth turned the computer screen toward him.
Another missing woman had just been reported.
Disappeared overnight.
Two days after Voss’s arrest.
Moreno frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. If he was running the operation—”
“He wasn’t alone,” Elizabeth finished.
---
The missing woman’s name was Jenna Rivers, a nurse who had filed a domestic assault complaint six months earlier.
The case had gone nowhere.
Her boyfriend had powerful connections.
But that wasn’t the detail that made Elizabeth’s stomach tighten.
Jenna had been scheduled to testify against Voss.
Moreno stared at the file.
“So someone’s cleaning up.”
“Yes.”
“And they’re doing it fast.”
Elizabeth closed the folder slowly.
“Faster than we expected.”
---
They visited Jenna’s apartment.
The door was unlocked.
Inside, nothing looked disturbed.
The bed was made.
Her purse sat on the counter.
Phone gone.
Keys gone.
No blood.
No struggle.
Moreno rubbed his chin. “Looks voluntary.”
Elizabeth shook her head.
“No.”
She walked to the kitchen sink.
A glass sat there.
Half full.
Water untouched.
“She was interrupted,” Elizabeth said quietly.
Moreno looked confused.
“How do you know?”
“She worked night shifts. Nurses hydrate constantly. She wouldn’t leave a glass like this unless something pulled her away suddenly.”
Moreno gave a slow nod.
“You notice strange things.”
Elizabeth didn’t reply.
She noticed survival details.
---
They searched the apartment thoroughly.
Nothing obvious.
No forced entry.
But Elizabeth eventually knelt near the hallway carpet.
Something faint caught the light.
A small black scuff mark.
Rubber.
From a boot.
She pulled a flashlight from her pocket and angled the beam.
There were more marks.
Leading toward the door.
Dragging marks.
Moreno crouched beside her.
“She fought.”
“Yes.”
“And lost.”
---
Security footage from the building lobby showed a man wearing a delivery jacket leaving with a large box on a trolley at 3:12 AM.
Elizabeth stared at the screen.
“That box is too heavy for packages,” she said.
Moreno swallowed.
“You think she was inside it?”
Elizabeth didn’t answer.
But the silence said enough.
---
They tracked the delivery company logo.
Fake.
No registered service under that name.
Which meant planning.
Professional planning.
Someone had stepped in to replace Voss immediately.
Moreno leaned back in his chair.
“Whoever this is, they’re organized.”
Elizabeth nodded.
“And they’re watching us.”
---
That night Elizabeth returned home late.
The hallway of her apartment building was quiet.
Too quiet.
She paused before unlocking the door.
Something felt wrong.
A subtle shift in the air.
Her instincts screamed.
She slowly pushed the door open.
Inside—
The lights were already on.
And someone sat in her chair.
A man in his early forties.
Well dressed.
Relaxed.
Smiling.
Elizabeth didn’t reach for her weapon yet.
“Breaking and entering,” she said calmly.
The man chuckled.
“You’re very composed.”
“Who are you?”
He leaned forward slightly.
“Someone who admires your work.”
Elizabeth stepped inside, closing the door behind her.
“You have ten seconds before I call backup.”
He raised his hands casually.
“No need for that. I’m not here to hurt you.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Then you’re here to threaten me.”
“Not threaten,” he corrected gently.
“Advise.”
Elizabeth almost laughed.
“I’ve heard that line before.”
“Yes,” he said softly. “From Richard Voss.”
Her hand moved closer to her holster.
“You’re connected to him.”
“Connected,” he repeated thoughtfully.
“I prefer the term colleague.”
Silence filled the room.
Then Elizabeth asked the question she already suspected the answer to.
“You’re the one they called R.”
The man’s smile widened slightly.
“Close.”
He stood slowly.
“My name is Roman Kade.”
The name meant nothing to Moreno.
But to Elizabeth—
It struck like lightning.
Roman Kade.
Private security magnate.
Consultant for multiple government agencies.
Untouchable.
Powerful.
And now standing inside her living room.
---
“You shouldn’t have arrested Voss,” Kade said calmly.
Elizabeth met his gaze.
“You shouldn’t have trafficked women.”
He sighed softly.
“You misunderstand the scale of things.”
“Then explain it.”
“These women,” he said, “were liabilities. Broken domestic situations. Legal chaos. We simply relocated them.”
Elizabeth’s voice hardened.
“You chained them in a warehouse.”
“A temporary measure.”
Her fists tightened.
“And Jenna Rivers?”
Kade tilted his head slightly.
“Still alive.”
Elizabeth’s heart thudded once.
“Where?”
He smiled again.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether you keep digging.”
Silence stretched.
Elizabeth stepped closer.
“You broke into the wrong home.”
Roman Kade chuckled softly.
“No, Detective.”
He walked toward the door.
“I broke into the right one.”
He paused before leaving.
“One last piece of advice.”
Elizabeth’s eyes burned into him.
“What?”
“Heroes don’t win wars like this.”
He opened the door.
“They disappear.”
Then he walked out.
Just like that.
Gone.
---
Elizabeth stood frozen for several seconds.
Then she grabbed her phone.
“Moreno,” she said when he answered.
“You’re not going to believe this.”
“What happened?”
Elizabeth stared at the door Roman Kade had just walked through.
“The man running the operation just paid me a visit.”
A pause.
“You’re kidding.”
“I wish I was.”
“What’s his name?”
Elizabeth took a slow breath.
“Roman Kade.”
The silence on the other end TBC.
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