Chapter 9 - Justice in the Light
I didn't stop running until I slammed my palm against the driver's side window of the patrol car.
The trooper inside startled, his hand instinctively dropping to his side holster as he rolled down the window. "Sir! Step back—"
"My name is Ignacio Reyes!" I shouted over the sound of the rain, pulling back my jacket to reveal April, safe and dry against my chest, and pulling out the brown folder. "I am holding evidence of federal medical homicide and corporate fraud involving Dr. Arthur Vance and Aethelgard Biotech! There are armed security personnel pursuing me in these woods right now!"
The trooper's eyes widened as he looked at my mud-soaked clothes, the baby, and the official legal seals on the documents I pressed against his steering wheel. He immediately opened his door and stepped out, placing himself between me and the tree line.
"Get in the back of the car, son," the trooper commanded, pulling his radio from his shoulder. "Dispatch, this is Unit 402, I have an 10-33 emergency at the Route 83 diner. I need immediate backup and federal liaison notification."
Within three minutes, two dark sedans burst out from the dirt road nearby, skidding to a halt near the edge of the diner lot. Two armed men in rain jackets stepped out, but when they saw the state trooper with his sidearm drawn and his spotlight trained directly on them, they froze.
"Drop your weapons! Hands where I can see them!" the trooper roared over his PA system.
Seeing that the situation had turned completely against them, the two men slowly backed away, raised their hands, and allowed themselves to be disarmed as three more state police cruisers screamed into the parking lot, sirens wailing through the rain.
An hour later, Marcus Brody, our family attorney, arrived at the state police headquarters alongside two senior agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
I sat in a private room, wrapped in a warm blanket, feeding April a bottle of warm milk. The brown folder and Marina's phone sat on the center of the metal table between the federal agents.
Agent Miller, a stern woman with sharp eyes, finished reviewing the last page of the ledger and looked up at me with profound respect.
"Mr. Reyes," she said quietly. "Your wife was a remarkably brave woman. She left behind enough concrete evidence to dismantle this entire operation. With this paper trail and the cloud-synced audio files, we've already secured federal arrest warrants for Dr. Arthur Vance and six board members of Aethelgard Biotech."
I closed my eyes, letting out a breath I felt like I had been holding for six agonizing weeks.
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"Is it over?" I whispered.
"It's just beginning for them," Agent Miller replied, offering a rare, gentle smile. "Vance was taken into custody fifteen minutes ago at his home. He won't ever practice medicine again, and he won't see the outside of a federal penitentiary for the rest of his life."
