Chapter 7 - The Traitor Exposed
Vance sneered, reaching slowly into his coat pocket. "It doesn't matter what you know. Arthur and I have enough capital overseas to live comfortably five times over. You think a local detective can hold me?"
"She doesn't have to," Dana Brooks' voice resounded from behind Vance.
Vance spun around to find Detective Brooks and four armed state troopers closing in from the main entrance, their service weapons drawn and targeted directly at his chest.
"Marcus Vance, you are under arrest for attempted capital murder, child endangerment, corporate fraud, grand larceny, and obstruction of justice," Dana announced firmly, stepping forward with handcuffs ready.
Vance's face twisted into panic. He backed away toward the emergency exit corridor, but Ray Collins moved with surprising speed, blocking the narrow doorway with his large frame.
"Going somewhere, Marcus?" Ray asked coolly.
Desperate, Vance attempted to rush past Ray, but the veteran driver sidestepped and used his solid upper body strength to shove Vance against the row of metal lockers. The superintendent crashed hard against the steel doors, dazed, as Detective Brooks slammed him to the floor and clicked the heavy steel handcuffs around his wrists.
"Search his coat," Ray suggested, breathing heavily.
Dana reached into Vance's deep pocket and pulled out a small black object: the identical wireless camera jammer that Ray had photographed beneath Bus 18, along with a secondary cloned keycard bearing Ray’s employee credentials.
"Got you," Dana said coldly.
As the state troopers hauled a screaming, protesting Marcus Vance out of the school and into the pouring rain, Arthur Pendelton was simultaneously taken into custody at his suburban home by federal agents. The conspiratorial web that had held Jefferson County in a grip of corruption for over a decade had finally collapsed completely.
The next morning, the headlines across the state read very differently:
SUPERINTENDENT ARRESTED IN BUS SABOTAGE PLOT
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BUS DRIVER RAY COLLINS EXONERATED AND PRAISED AS HERO
DECADE-OLD EMBEZZLEMENT SCHEME UNCOVERED AT JEFFERSON MIDDLE
