Chapter 10 - The Phone That Started Ringing
An officer handed Brooks a mobile phone recovered from the SUV.
"It was hidden beneath the driver's seat."
The screen remained locked.
Then it vibrated.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
No caller name appeared.
Only a single letter.
"M."
Everyone watched silently.
Brooks declined the call.
Seconds later, a text message appeared.
Status?
Another followed almost immediately.
Payment collected?
Then another.
Leave immediately if police arrive. Destroy the files.
The detective slowly looked toward Derek.
"You still want to tell me this was just an ordinary accident?"
Derek said nothing.
Kyle closed his eyes.
Walter stared at the glowing screen.
His expression changed almost imperceptibly.
Brooks noticed.
"You recognize something?"
Walter answered after a long pause.
"Not the phone."
He looked toward the distant highway exit disappearing into the mist.
"But the way those messages are written..."
Brooks waited.
Walter spoke quietly.
"I've seen those exact instructions before."
"When?"
Walter's eyes remained fixed on the screen.
"The final investigation I worked before retirement."
The detective's face hardened.
"You think the same person is still running this operation?"
Walter didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he reached into his old leather notebook, turned to a page that had yellowed with age, and compared a handwritten note with the new message on the phone.
The wording matched almost perfectly.
He slowly closed the notebook.
"If I'm right," Walter said quietly, "today wasn't an accident."
Brooks frowned.
"It was a recruitment test."
The officers exchanged uneasy glances.
No one spoke for several seconds.
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Because if Walter's suspicion was correct, Derek and Kyle were not the masterminds.
They were merely the lowest level of a much larger operation—one that had remained hidden for more than a decade and had just realized that its carefully planned scheme had collided with the one investigator who had nearly destroyed it years ago.
