He replayed the dispatch recording.
There was almost nothing on it.
A distorted voice.
A few sentences.
Then silence.
He played it again.
And again.
Something about the voice bothered him.
Not the words.
The background.
A faint electronic tone.
Vale had heard it before.
He searched old recordings.
Three weeks earlier, a similar anonymous call had led officers to a warehouse suspected of receiving stolen electronics.
The same tone.
The same distortion.
The same phrase:
"Vehicle may be connected to organized theft."
Vale leaned back.
Someone had been feeding the department information.
False information.
He opened the previous case.
The warehouse raid had found nothing.
No stolen goods.
No suspects.
But the anonymous caller had never been identified.
Vale called Price.
"Come to my office."
She arrived five minutes later.
"I found something."
She listened to the recordings.
Then she looked at him.
"Same voice."
"Exactly."
"Could be the same person."
"Or the same system."
Vale opened another file.
"Look at the companies involved in these cases."
Price read the names.
Then stopped.
One company appeared repeatedly.
Northstar Logistics.
Price frowned.
"Why would a logistics company be connected to vehicle theft?"
"That's what I want to know."
Vale opened another document.
Northstar had recently lost a major government contract.
The company had also been investigated for falsified security records.
At the bottom of the report was a name.
Gregory Vane.
Chief operations officer.
Price looked at Vale.
"Isn't that the company Adrian Carter worked for?"
"Formerly."
"When?"
"Eight months ago."
They stared at each other.
Then Vale opened Adrian Carter's employment records.
He had resigned after reporting irregularities inside Northstar.
The investigation had gone nowhere.
But one month later, Northstar's internal security director disappeared.
Two weeks after that, a series of theft reports began.
Vale slowly understood.
The Lamborghini hadn't been randomly targeted.
Nia hadn't been randomly stopped.
Someone had used her as bait.
And if Adrian Carter had been watching Northstar...
Perhaps Northstar had been watching him too.
By midnight, Adrian had taken Nia home.
Her grandmother was asleep upstairs.
Adrian sat at the kitchen table with Nia.
"Tell me exactly what happened."
Nia told him everything.
The pharmacy.
The police cars.
The questions.
The handcuffs.
The interview.
Adrian listened without interrupting.
When she finished, he said:
"You did well."
"I was scared."
"I know."
"Really scared."
"I know."
She looked down.
"Why would someone report your car stolen?"
Adrian didn't answer immediately.
"Because they wanted me to notice."
Nia frowned.
"What?"
"If they wanted the Lamborghini, they could have stolen it from the garage."
"Then why involve me?"
"Because they wanted to send a message."
He stood.
"Stay here."
Adrian went upstairs.
A few minutes later, he returned with an old laptop.
He opened it.
On the screen were several documents.
Nia recognized the company logo.
Northstar Logistics.
"Your father worked there?"
"I consulted for them."
"What happened?"
"I found evidence that someone inside the company was moving stolen equipment through legitimate shipping channels."
"Did you report it?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"They fired me."
Nia stared at him.
"Did they threaten you?"
"Not directly."
"Then who did?"
Adrian looked toward the window.
"That's what I haven't figured out."
He opened another file.
There were photographs.
Shipping containers.
Warehouse numbers.
Vehicle identification plates.
Dates.
Names.
Then Nia noticed something.
One of the license plates belonged to the black SUV she had seen following her.
"Dad."
Adrian looked.
Nia pointed.
"That's the vehicle."
Adrian's expression changed.
"Where did you see it?"
"Across from the pharmacy."
He stared at the photograph.
Then at his daughter.
"You didn't tell the police?"
"I wasn't sure."
Adrian nodded.
"Good."
"Why?"
"Because now we know this wasn't random."
He closed the laptop.
"We need to be careful."
At that exact moment, a car passed slowly outside their house.
Adrian stood.
The headlights disappeared around the corner.
Nia whispered:
"Was that them?"
Adrian didn't answer.
He simply turned off the kitchen light.
The next morning, Detective Vale returned to the pharmacy.
He requested the surveillance footage.
The manager cooperated.
Three hours of recordings were reviewed.
At 9:13 p.m., Nia entered the lot.
At 9:14, the black SUV appeared.
At 9:15, it parked across the street.
At 9:17, Nia entered the pharmacy.
At 9:19, she exited.
At 9:20, the police cruisers arrived.
Vale watched carefully.
The SUV was gone.
"Can you enhance this?" he asked.
The manager called the security technician.
Twenty minutes later, they had a clearer image.
The driver was a man.
Middle-aged.
Baseball cap.
Dark jacket.
But there was something else.