She looked at him.
“Who?”
“Miguel Torres.”
Reaper typed.
ONE OF OUR ROUTE COORDINATORS.
Chloe understood.
The attack might have been designed to kill more than Jack.
Maybe it had been designed to destroy the club's leadership in one strike.
But why?
Reaper gave her the answer.
Money.
The club transported legal goods for companies operating along old highway routes.
Fuel.
Machinery.
Auto parts.
Agricultural equipment.
The cartel had been trying to force several businesses into paying protection.
Jack had refused.
He had also provided information to federal investigators.
That made him a problem.
Chloe stared at him.
Why didn't the police protect him?
Reaper looked away.
Then typed:
BECAUSE SOME OF THEM ARE BEING PAID NOT TO.
That night, another piece of information arrived.
Miller had disappeared.
His house was empty.
His police vehicle had been found abandoned.
His phone had been turned off.
Chloe stared at the screen.
He's running.
Reaper nodded.
OR SOMEONE IS MOVING HIM.
A federal agent named Elena Brooks arrived the next morning.
She didn't look like what Chloe expected.
No sunglasses.
No dramatic entrance.
She wore plain clothes.
Dark blazer.
Simple shoes.
She showed Chloe a federal badge.
Then she sat.
“I've been trying to find you for forty-eight hours.”
Chloe couldn't hear her.
Reaper explained.
Elena switched to writing.
I'm investigating the Route 66 attack.
Chloe nodded.
Elena continued.
We believe the crash was part of a larger operation.
Chloe looked at Reaper.
Elena noticed.
“You trust him?”
Chloe considered the question.
Then nodded.
Elena smiled faintly.
“Good.”
She placed a photograph on the table.
A truck driver.
Mid-forties.
Dark beard.
Tattoo on his wrist.
Chloe stared.
Her eyes widened.
She pointed.
Elena leaned forward.
“You recognize him?”
Chloe nodded.
She grabbed a pen.
That is the driver.
Elena's expression changed.
“Are you sure?”
Chloe nodded again.
Then wrote:
I saw him leave the truck.
Elena looked at the photograph.
Then at Chloe.
“You may have just identified the most important witness in this case.”
Chloe frowned.
Elena explained.
The driver had been missing for six months.
His real name was Victor Hale.
He had worked as a contract driver for a transportation company.
But investigators believed he had been recruited for targeted attacks.
He had disappeared after another suspicious crash.
Now he had been seen on Route 66.
Chloe looked at the photograph again.
She noticed something.
The tattoo.
A small black triangle.
She pointed to it.
Elena asked:
“What?”
Chloe wrote:
He had something on his hand.
She drew the triangle.
Then added:
But I saw another symbol.
“What symbol?”
Chloe closed her eyes.
She remembered the driver's hand gripping the steering wheel.
Then the truck door.
Then the moment he jumped.
A silver ring.
Engraved.
She drew it.
Three lines.
Elena stared.
Then stood.
“I know that symbol.”
Reaper looked at her.
Elena's face had gone pale.
“It belongs to a private security company.”
She picked up her phone.
Then stopped.
“Not just any company.”
Chloe looked at her.
Elena whispered:
“Someone with access to federal transportation contracts.”
The Betrayal
The investigation widened.
The truck company was legitimate.
The security company was legitimate.
The police department was legitimate.
The money trail was not.
Payments had moved through shell corporations.
Shell corporations had moved through offshore accounts.
And every path eventually led back to a businessman named Richard Voss.
Voss owned a private logistics empire.
He had contracts across several western states.
He was respected.
He donated to charities.
He appeared on television.
He shook hands with politicians.
And he had one unusual connection.
He had once been Jack Taggart's business partner.
Chloe stared at the photograph of Voss.
She recognized him.
Not from the crash.
From the bank.
The rejection letter.
The bank that denied her medical loan was owned by a financial group connected to Voss.
She told Elena.
The agent stared at her.
“Are you saying your loan rejection was connected to him?”
Chloe shook her head.
“No.”
She wrote:
I don't know.
Then:
But it is strange.
Elena agreed.
Very strange.
The more they investigated, the more suspicious coincidences appeared.
Chloe's medical file had been accessed by someone outside her hospital.
Her bank application had been reviewed unusually quickly.
A police report concerning the crash had been altered.
The original description of the truck's movements had disappeared.
And Detective Miller had accessed Chloe's room before anyone officially knew she was a witness.
Someone had been watching her from the beginning.
Then Reaper discovered something worse.
There was a tracking device beneath Chloe's Honda.
She stared at it.
Her hands trembled.