Chapter 4 - Secrets in the BloodThe man with the scarred face was identified through security camera footage near the neighborhood as Marcus "The Barber" Vance’s primary enforcer. Victor Vance’s criminal reach was far wider than anyone in the department had anticipated, and now, the Vance family’s tragedy made perfect, horrifying sense.
At the hospital, Elena Vance had been stabilized after a terrifying hour of cardiac arrest, but she remained in a medically induced coma. Thomas, however, was beginning to show signs of consciousness.
Morales sat by Thomas's bedside, waiting patiently as the doctor adjusted the oxygen flow. Thomas's eyes fluttered open, bloodshot and wild with panic.
"Sofia..." Thomas croaked, his voice raw from the intubation tube. "Where... where is my baby?"
"She's safe, Thomas. She's in protective custody. No one can hurt her," Morales said, leaning in close. "But you need to tell me what happened. We found the ledger. We know about Victor."
Thomas let out a ragged, trembling breath. Tears welled in his eyes. "Victor... he used my accounting firm to launder money from illegal land acquisitions. When I found out, I wanted to go to the DA. I copied the digital master ledger onto a flash drive. But Victor found out. He sent Marcus to my house."
"Marcus forced you to stage the suicide?" Morales asked.
Thomas nodded weakly. "He broke in... he had a gun. He forced Elena and me to take the sleeping pills. He told us if we didn't make it look like a tragic accident due to our financial debts, he would find Sofia at her school and... and make her suffer. He forced me to write a suicide note, which he took with him to leak to the press later. Then he opened the gas valve, blocked the vent, and locked us in. He thought we would sleep and never wake up. He didn't know Sofia was awake."
"Where is the flash drive, Thomas? The ledger we found is good, but we need the digital files to lock Victor away for good," Morales urged.
"It's... it's in Sofia's favorite place," Thomas whispered, his eyelids growing heavy as the sedatives began to take hold again. "The place where the giants sleep... she knows..."
Before Morales could ask for clarification, Thomas drifted back into unconsciousness.
"The place where the giants sleep," Morales repeated to himself. It sounded like a children's story, or a riddle.
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As he walked out of the room, his phone rang. It was the social worker, Sarah. Her voice was frantic, trembling with terror.
"Officer Morales! You need to get to the safe house right now!" she gasped. "There was an armed intrusion. Two men in black masks... they took Sofia."
