Chapter 2 - Shattered Glass
The morning sun brought no warmth, only a harsh, grey light that filtered through the blinds of Room 214. Daniel had not slept a single wink. He had spent the remaining hours of the night pacing the small room, his mind calculating variables, mapping out strategies.
At 7:00 a.m., his phone buzzed. It was Sam.
"I’ve got something, Daniel," Sam said, his voice tight. "But you’re not going to like it."
"Tell me," Daniel said, stepping out into the hallway.
"The SUV you saw last night belongs to Julian Vance—no relation to the detective, thank god. But Julian is the son of Arthur Vance, the wealthiest real estate developer in Chicago and a major donor to Bradley University. Julian is also the president of the Sigma Phi fraternity."
Daniel’s blood ran cold. "And Julian’s phone? Was he near the science center last night?"
"That’s where it gets complicated," Sam replied. "Julian’s phone GPS was turned off between 10:30 p.m. and midnight. But I managed to hack into the local cell tower logs. I found three other devices belonging to Sigma Phi members that pinged within fifty yards of the science center at exactly 11:00 p.m."
"Who do they belong to?"
"Carter Hayes, the son of a prominent defense attorney, and Marcus Sterling, whose family literally has their name on the building where Lily was attacked. The third phone belongs to a girl named Chloe Evans. She’s Lily’s roommate."
Daniel’s heart skipped a beat. "Lily’s roommate? Why would her roommate be involved in this?"
"I ran a scan of Lily’s social media and emails from the past forty-eight hours," Sam explained. "A few hours before the attack, Lily sent an encrypted email to the university’s dean of student affairs. The email didn't have any text, just an attachment named 'Sigma_Confidential.pdf'. But the email was intercepted. It never reached the dean. It was deleted from the university's mail server by an administrator account."
"Someone on the inside is covering for them," Daniel realized, his fists clenching. "What was in that PDF, Sam?"
"I don't know yet. I'm trying to recover it from Lily’s deleted cloud backups, but whoever did this used a professional-grade wiping program to clean her accounts. They didn't just beat her, Daniel. They tried to erase her digital footprint."
"They missed her physical phone," Daniel said, pulling the shattered device from his pocket. "It's damaged, but the flash memory should still be intact. I'm bringing it to you."
"Bring it over," Sam said. "But be careful. If these kids have the kind of backing I think they do, they’ll know you’re looking for them."
Daniel hung up. He walked back into the room and approached Lily’s bedside. She was awake, her face pale, her eyes filled with a quiet, agonizing sadness.
"I have to go for a little while, sweetheart," Daniel said, kissing her hand. "I’m going to find out what they took from you. I’ve got a friend who is going to fix your phone. I’ll have guards outside your door. You are safe here."
Lily nodded slowly, a single tear rolling down her cheek. She pointed again at the phone in his hand, her eyes pleading.
"I know," Daniel whispered. "I won't let them get away with this."
Twenty minutes later, Daniel was driving his old Ford F-150 through the heavy morning traffic of Peoria, heading toward the secluded cabin where Sam lived and worked. The sky was still overcast, threatening more rain.
As Daniel merged onto the interstate, he noticed a silver sedan trailing three cars behind him. He changed lanes; the sedan changed lanes. He took an abrupt exit; the sedan followed.
They’re tailing me, Daniel thought, a grim smile playing on his lips. They think I’m just an old, grieving father.
Instead of heading toward Sam’s cabin, Daniel took a detour into an industrial park near the river. The area was deserted on a Friday morning, filled with empty warehouses and overgrown weeds. Daniel drove deep into the maze of concrete structures, finally pulling his truck into a blind alley behind an abandoned manufacturing plant.
He killed the engine, reached under his seat, and pulled out his old military-issue Sig Sauer 9mm pistol. He checked the chamber, slid it back into his waistband, and waited.
Ten seconds later, the silver sedan slowly turned the corner into the alley.
The driver, realizing it was a dead end, stopped. Before they could put the car in reverse, Daniel threw his truck door open and sprinted toward the sedan.
He didn't draw his gun. He didn't need to.
Daniel reached the driver’s side door, smashed his elbow through the window, glass shattering into a thousand glittering pieces, and grabbed the driver by his collar. With one powerful, fluid motion, Daniel unlocked the door from the inside, threw it open, and dragged the young man out onto the wet asphalt.
The passenger, a young woman, screamed in terror.
Daniel pinned the driver to the ground, his heavy boot pressed firmly against the man's chest. The driver was young, barely twenty, wearing a expensive designer jacket and sporting a bleeding cut on his cheek from the shattered glass.
"Who are you?" Daniel roared, his voice echoing off the concrete walls.
"I don't know what you're talking about! Let me go!" the young man gasped, clawing at Daniel’s boot.
Daniel shifted his weight, pressing harder until the young man groaned in pain. "You’ve been tailing me since the hospital. I’ll ask you one more time, and then I’m going to start breaking things. Who sent you?"
"Julian! Julian Vance!" the passenger screamed from the car, her voice hysterical. It was Chloe Evans, Lily’s roommate. Her face was pale, tears streaming down her makeup-smeared face. "Please don't hurt him! He’s Marcus Sterling! Julian told us to follow you! He wanted to know if you had Lily’s phone!"
Daniel looked down at Marcus Sterling, the son of the billionaire whose name adorned the campus science building. The boy was trembling, all his wealthy arrogance evaporating in the face of a real warrior.
Daniel reached down, grabbed Marcus by his shirt, and hauled him to his feet, slamming him against the side of the silver sedan.
"Where is Julian Vance?" Daniel demanded, his face inches from Marcus’s.
"I-I don't know! He’s at the fraternity house! He’s trying to clean up the mess!" Marcus stammered, his eyes wide with terror.
"What mess?" Daniel growled. "What was on my daughter’s phone? What did she find?"
"It... it was the hazing," Chloe sobbed from the car, her hands shaking. "The fraternity... they went too far last week. A freshman pledge, Toby... he drank too much, fell down the stairs. He’s in a coma in a private clinic. Julian and the guys covered it up. They paid off his family, deleted the security footage. But Lily found out. She had video of the whole thing on her phone. She was going to go to the police, to the dean."
Daniel’s blood boiled. "And so Julian decided to kill her?"
"No! No, it wasn't supposed to go that far!" Marcus cried. "Julian just wanted to scare her! He wanted to get her phone! But she fought back. She wouldn't give it up. Julian... he lost his temper. He hit her. We tried to stop him, but he just kept hitting her..."
Marcus broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
Daniel felt a wave of absolute fury wash over him. He wanted to crush Marcus’s jaw right there, to make him feel a fraction of the pain Lily was experiencing. But he controlled himself. He was a professional. Anger was a tool, not a master.
Daniel reached into Marcus’s pocket, pulled out his iPhone, and tossed it into the passenger seat of his truck. He did the same with Chloe’s phone.
"If either of you calls Julian, if either of you warns him," Daniel said, his voice deadly calm, "I will find you. And I promise you, your families' money won't be able to buy enough security to keep me away. Do you understand me?"
May you like
Both of them nodded frantically, paralyzed by fear.
Daniel climbed back into his truck, threw it in reverse, and roared out of the alley, leaving the two wealthy college students shivering in the cold morning air, surrounded by shattered glass.
