As the hours dragged on, Lucas felt the walls closing in around him. Ranger’s demands echoed in his mind like a relentless drumbeat. The threat of blackmail hung over him like a noose, tightening with each passing moment. Lea’s involvement only deepened his dread; her unpredictable nature made her impossible to trust. It felt as though she’d lured him into an inescapable trap, and now Ranger was tightening the screws.

  Lucas paced his dimly lit living room, the shadows of the evening stretching across the walls like specters of his guilt. He thought of Ranger’s demand—an obscene amount of money he couldn’t possibly muster without raising suspicion. His mind raced with options: could he silence Ranger? Could he trust him not to demand more? Every possibility ended with the same grim outcome.

  Meanwhile, at Lea and Mike’s hotel room, frustration was mounting. Their initial suspicion that the body was hidden in Lucas’s garage had been shattered when their search yielded nothing. Now, confusion clouded their thoughts as they tried to determine where the body could have been moved.

  Lea leaned over a makeshift map of Lucas’s property they’d sketched from memory. “It doesn’t make sense,” she muttered. “If it’s not in the garage, where could he have taken it? He didn’t have time to move it far, especially not with the police keeping an eye on him.”

  Mike frowned, his jaw tightening as he traced the map with his finger. “Maybe we missed something. He’s clever—he wouldn’t leave it in plain sight. What if it’s hidden somewhere we wouldn’t think to look?”

  Lea’s eyes narrowed as an idea began to form. “What if he moved it off the property altogether? What if someone else is involved?”

  Mike paused, considering her words. “Then we’ll have to watch him closer. If he’s still hiding something, he’ll slip up eventually. We just have to be ready when he does.”

  Back at the station, Samuel sat in the briefing room with his team, their earlier reconnaissance yielding little progress. Each officer reported back, sharing snippets of information about Lucas, Lea, and Mike—but none of it provided concrete evidence. Samuel listened intently, his brow furrowed as he absorbed the reports.

  When the room fell silent, he stood and addressed his team. “This case has been nothing but dead ends,” he began, his voice heavy with frustration. “But after speaking with Lea and Mike this morning, I’m starting to think we’re not looking at a simple missing person’s case anymore.”

  The officers exchanged uncertain glances.

  “Marcus isn’t just missing,” Samuel continued, his tone firm. “I believe he’s dead. Lea and Mike, whether intentionally or not, hinted at it today. They brought up the garage floor—not just as a place of interest, but with an odd sense of certainty. Why? Because they suspected something was there, only to find it wasn’t. That means either Lucas moved the body, or it was never there to begin with.”

  Samuel’s voice grew sharper. “I don’t trust any of them—Lucas, Lea, or Mike. They’re playing a game, trying to stay one step ahead of each other, but it’s our job to stay ahead of them. From this moment forward, we approach this case with two possibilities: Marcus is missing, or Marcus is dead. Either way, someone in that trio knows the truth, and I won’t stop until we find it.”

  The team nodded, a renewed sense of urgency filling the room.

  The case was becoming more convoluted with every passing hour. Samuel, burdened by the weight of unanswered questions, found himself at a crossroads. The threads of the investigation seemed too tangled to unravel, leaving him questioning his next move.

  As the late-night meeting adjourned, Samuel issued a final directive to his team: “Reexamine all the evidence, every statement, every detail. Dig deeper into the lives of everyone involved. Someone knows more than they’re saying, and we need to figure out who.”

  Dismissing the officers, he made his way home, his mind still racing.

  Morning crept in slowly, a frosty dawn painting the station in muted hues of gray. Samuel arrived back at the station by 5 a.m., his tired eyes betraying the toll of the case. After ordering a strong coffee, he sat at his desk, the steam rising from the cup as he stared blankly at the case files. His patience was wearing thin.

  Determined to press forward, Samuel picked up the phone and dialed Lucas.

  At the other end, Lucas was barely asleep, the weight of Ranger’s threats and Lea’s schemes depriving him of any real rest. The shrill ring of his phone startled him. He fumbled to answer, his voice groggy and fraught with unease.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Hello?”

  Without preamble, Samuel’s firm voice cut through the line. “Be at the station at 7 a.m. sharp.”

  Before Lucas could respond, the line went dead. He stared at the phone in his hand, dread pooling in his stomach. Exhausted and wary of what new ordeal awaited him, he began to prepare for the meeting.

  Samuel repeated the process, calling Lea and Mike in turn, summoning them to the station at the same hour. He had resolved to confront all three directly, hoping to peel back the layers of lies and half-truths that had clouded the investigation.

  The clock struck 6:45 a.m. as Lea and Mike arrived at the station. The chill of the morning air clung to them as they entered, their breath visible in the cold. They were ushered to a waiting area, where Samuel greeted them curtly and offered them a seat.

  The tension in the room was palpable. Lea sat with her arms crossed, her face a mask of unreadable calm, while Mike appeared restless, glancing at the door every few seconds.

  At 6:55 a.m., Lucas finally entered the station. He paused at the threshold, taking in the sight of Lea and Mike waiting for him. His greeting to Samuel and the officers was polite but devoid of warmth. He pointedly avoided meeting Lea’s gaze and looked at Mike with a mix of confusion and suspicion, clearly unsure of his connection to the case.

  “Morning,” Lucas muttered, his voice hoarse.

  Samuel wasted no time. Gesturing for them to follow, he led all three into his office, where chairs were arranged facing his desk. Once they were seated, Samuel leaned forward, his steely gaze fixed on them.

  “This ends now,” he began, his voice low but laced with authority. “I’ve been patient, giving each of you the chance to come forward with the truth. But today, I won’t tolerate anything less than honesty. Whatever I ask, you will answer truthfully. If I catch any of you lying or withholding information, there will be consequences.”

  The weight of his words hung heavily in the room. Lea and Mike exchanged a tense glance, while Lucas sat rigid, his eyes fixed on the floor. The warning had shaken them all, but the secrets they held were not easily pried loose.

  As silence settled over the office, Samuel prepared to begin his questioning, determined to unravel the threads of deception that bound these three together.

  Samuel leaned back in his chair, his piercing gaze fixed on Lea and Mike. “Let’s start from the beginning,” he said firmly. “Explain the entire incident, step by step.”

  Lea and Mike exchanged a brief look before launching into their rehearsed version of events. Their story unfolded smoothly, weaving a narrative that painted Lucas as a suspicious figure. They detailed Lucas’s alleged behavior—how he had followed Lea and Marcus, his strange demeanor, and the events leading up to Marcus’s disappearance.

  Lucas sat silently, his expression calm, but his sharp eyes betrayed his focus. He listened intently, dissecting their words as he pieced together their connection. For the first time, he realized the depth of Mike and Lea’s relationship. A flood of memories surged in his mind, and the puzzle began to come together.

  Mike… he’s the mastermind, Lucas thought. He had always suspected that someone else was pulling the strings, someone orchestrating Lea’s moves. Now, as he absorbed their narrative, he felt certain he was right.

  When Lea and Mike finished, Samuel jotted down a few notes before fixing his gaze on them. “Why do you think Lucas is behind Marcus’s disappearance?” he asked again.

  Lea and Mike repeated their accusations, reinforcing their claims about Lucas’s behavior. Lucas, however, remained silent, his calm demeanor masking his rising frustration. Inside, he was seething at how effortlessly they pinned the blame on him.

  Samuel finally turned to Lucas, his tone firm. “Your turn.”

  Lucas took a steadying breath. In the silence of the last hour, his sharp mind had crafted a narrative. He stepped forward and began, his voice steady but resolute. “I don’t even know these people—Marcus, Lea, or Mike. I was just going about my regular work that day. I think they’re trying to frame me for reasons I can’t understand.”

  Samuel’s expression didn’t shift, but his questions grew sharper. “What about the garage floor?”

  Lucas didn’t flinch. “I’ve had plans for that construction work for weeks. It has nothing to do with any of this. Lea is just trying to take advantage of an unrelated situation.”

  His response was measured, confident, and devoid of any hesitation. For Samuel, the conversation offered no breakthrough. Even after an hour of questioning, he failed to uncover anything substantial to push the case forward. But for Lucas, it was an entirely different story. The encounter had provided him with a wealth of information about Mike and Lea’s involvement, confirming his suspicions.

  Samuel finally dismissed them, permitting all three to leave the station. Lea, Mike, and Lucas exited quietly, tension hanging thick in the air.

  Lucas drove home, his frustration bubbling beneath the surface. How long will this go on? he thought bitterly. The way Mike and Lea had maneuvered the conversation to point fingers at him gnawed at his mind.

  As he turned onto a dimly lit street, his phone buzzed. His jaw tightened as he saw the caller ID—Ranger.

  Suppressing a groan, Lucas answered the call. Before he could speak, Ranger’s gruff, domineering voice cut through.

  “Are you working on collecting my money?” he barked. “Remember, you’ve got two days left. If I don’t get my payment by then…” Ranger let the threat hang ominously in the air before continuing, “It won’t be good for you.”

  Without giving Lucas a chance to respond, Ranger hung up, leaving the dial tone ringing in his ear. Lucas clenched the steering wheel, his frustration now at a boiling point. The walls were closing in, and he was running out of time.

  As Lucas drove through the empty streets, his mind was a battlefield of anger and frustration. The audacity of Ranger’s threats and the sheer gall of Lea and Mike twisting the narrative against him pushed him to his limit. His grip on the steering wheel tightened as the anger boiled over. Finally, he pulled over to the side of a desolate road, the sound of his tires crunching on the gravel echoing in the cold night air.

  He stepped out of the car, the frigid wind biting at his skin, but he barely noticed. His hands trembled as he reached into his pocket for a cigarette. Lighting it with a flick of his lighter, he exhaled a plume of smoke into the darkness, his thoughts racing with vengeful clarity.

  They think they can corner me? he thought, his jaw tightening. They have no idea who they’re dealing with. Ranger, Lea, Mike… they’ll all pay for this. They don’t know my past, what I’m capable of.

  But even in his rage, Lucas knew that blind retaliation wouldn’t serve him. I can’t lose control now, he reminded himself. I need a plan. A good one. Something that hits them where it hurts the most.

  His mind sharpened, calculating every detail. One thing was clear—Marcus’s body was the key to everything. He was the only one who knew where it was, and that knowledge gave him an edge over everyone. If used wisely, it could turn the tables on Lea and Mike, and even Ranger.

  Taking a long drag from his cigarette, Lucas began to weave his plan, his anger simmering into a cold, calculated resolve. The game was far from over, and Lucas was determined to come out on top.

  “Let them think they have the upper hand,” he muttered under his breath, flicking the cigarette butt onto the gravel and grinding it under his heel. “They’ll see soon enough who’s really in control.”

  Lucas climbed back into his car, the cold determination in his eyes reflecting in the rearview mirror. As he drove away, the outlines of his plan began to take shape—a plan that would make Lea, Mike, and even Ranger regret underestimating him.

  To be continue.......