Chapter 5
The inspection team arrived at 7:58 a.m.
Two minutes early.
Director Chen led them.
Twelve agents.
Four forensic analysts.
Two IT specialists.
They moved through the Westbridge Police Department like a storm.
I watched from the hallway as they fanned out.
The desk sergeant's face went white when he saw them.
He reached for his radio.
"Don't even think about it," Chen said.
She held up her badge.
"Integrity inspection. By order of the Attorney General."
"All communications are now frozen. All servers. All cameras. All records."
"Anyone who interferes will be arrested on the spot."
Landry came storming out of his office.
His face purple with rage.
"What is the meaning of this?" he shouted.
"You can't just—"
Chen cut him off.
"We can. And we are."
"Captain Thomas Landry, you are hereby placed on administrative leave, effective immediately."
"Your weapon and your badge, please."
Landry stared at her.
Then his eyes found me.
Standing at the back of the room.
Watching.
This was my doing.
He knew it.
"You," he spat.
I said nothing.
Simply watched as he slowly unclipped his badge.
Placed his weapon on the desk.
The symbolism was not lost on anyone.
The man who had run this precinct like his personal kingdom...
Was now just another citizen.
The IT specialists went straight for the server room.
Forensic analysts began photographing everything.
The evidence room door.
The muddy shoeprints in the hallway.
The blanket under Landry's desk.
Agent Torres pulled me aside.
"We've got a problem," he said quietly.
"Body camera footage from that night. It's gone."
"All of it?"
"Every officer who was on duty. Their cameras were either turned off or the footage has been wiped."
"IT says it's a professional job. Someone who knew what they were doing."
"Landry."
"Most likely. But we're not dead yet."
Torres nodded toward the young rookie I'd noticed the night I arrived.
He was sitting in the break room.
Staring at his hands.
"Officer Reed. Twenty-two. First year on the job."
"He was there that night. And he's been acting strange ever since."
"Keeps going to the bathroom. Won't talk to anyone."
"I think he's scared."
I looked at the kid.
He couldn't have been more than a few years out of the academy.
Still had that idealistic shine.
Or what was left of it.
"I'll talk to him."
I found Officer Reed in the men's room.
He was splashing water on his face.
The mirror showed his eyes.
Wide.
Terrified.
He jumped when he saw me.
"Ma'am... I..."
"Easy," I said.
I leaned against the sink.
Kept my voice calm.
"I'm not here to arrest you, Officer Reed."
"I'm here because I think you saw something that night. Something you wish you hadn't."
He swallowed hard.
His Adam's apple bobbed.
"I... I can't..."
"Landry told you not to talk."
"He said if I said anything..."
The kid's voice broke.
"He said my career would be over before it started."
I nodded.
"That's what men like Landry do. They threaten. They intimidate."
"They make you think they're untouchable."
"But here's what he didn't tell you."
I leaned in slightly.
"Men like Landry always fall. And when they do, they take everyone who protected them down with them."
"Every single one."
"The question isn't whether he goes down. The question is whether you go down with him."
Reed's hands started shaking.
"I didn't know," he whispered.
"I didn't know she was your mother. I didn't know any of this."
"I just... I just followed orders."
"What did you see?"
He closed his eyes.
Took a deep breath.
"I was first on the scene," he said, his voice barely audible.
"When we got there... Mrs. Vance was screaming. Saying your mother had attacked her."
"But your mother... she was on the ground. She could barely move."
"I tried to call for medical. But Captain Landry... he told me to stand down."
"He said she was faking. That she was mentally unstable."
"I... I should have insisted. I should have—"
"What else?" I asked gently.
He opened his eyes.
Tears were streaming down his face now.
"I saw the bat."
My heart stopped.
"Where?"
"Captain Landry took it from Mrs. Vance. Put it in the trunk of his personal car."
"He told me if I ever mentioned it... he'd make sure I never worked in law enforcement again."
"He said he'd ruin my family."
I reached out.
Touched his arm.
"You did the right thing by telling me."
"Nobody is going to ruin your family. Not while I'm here."
"Where is Landry's car now?"
"It's... it's parked in the secure lot out back."
Torres was already moving when I stepped out of the bathroom.
"Secure lot. Landry's personal vehicle. The bat's in the trunk."
Ten minutes later, they had it.
Wrapped in evidence tape.
A wooden baseball bat.
Dark stains covered the barrel.
Forensic would confirm it later.
The blood matched my mother's DNA.
And there, on the handle...
A partial fingerprint.
Brooke's.
We had her.
But it wasn't enough.
Not yet.
Because Landry hadn't just covered up an assault.
He'd built an entire system of corruption.
And I intended to tear the whole thing down.
The IT specialists made their breakthrough that afternoon.
They recovered deleted emails.
Text messages.
Bank records.
Landry had been taking bribes for years.
Protection money from local drug dealers.
Payoffs to make DUI arrests disappear.
And in at least three cases...
Cash payments to make domestic violence charges vanish.
All involving his niece.
All involving victims who had been too scared to speak up.
Until now.
Torres had found them.
Three women.
All former partners of Brooke.
All beaten.
All threatened.
All told that if they pressed charges...
Nobody would believe them.
Because Landry owned the police.
One by one, they agreed to testify.
The pattern was undeniable.
Brooke would find a partner.
Isolate them from friends and family.
Then the violence would start.
And when they tried to leave...
Landry would step in.
Make the charges disappear.
Destroy their credibility.
It was a machine.
And my brother had married into it.
I was going through the financial records when my phone rang.
Arthur.
I stared at the screen for a long moment.
Then answered.
"Clara, we need to talk."
His voice was shaky.
Desperate.
"I think... I think Brooke has been lying to me."
I said nothing.
"Clara? Are you there?"
"You think?" I finally said.
The words came out colder than I intended.
But I didn't care.
"Mom is in the hospital with a broken wrist, fractured ribs, and a concussion."
"And you're just now starting to think she might be lying?"
"I know I messed up," he said. "God, I know."
"I just... I didn't see it. I didn't want to see it."
"She told me things. About Mom. About you. She said you all hated her."
"She said if I didn't take her side, she'd leave me. She said she'd take everything."
I closed my eyes.
The cowardice of it.
The weakness.
He'd chosen his own comfort over his mother's safety.
"Where are you, Arthur?"
"Home. But Brooke... she's acting strange. She's been on the phone all day. Whispering."
"She keeps saying that 'they' can't prove anything. That her uncle will fix it."
"She doesn't know Landry's been suspended, does she?"
"No. I didn't tell her. I... I was scared."
"Arthur, listen to me carefully."
"Do not confront her. Do not say anything that might tip her off."
"Just stay calm. We're coming."
"Clara... is she going to prison?"
The question hung in the air.
My own brother.
Asking if the woman who had nearly beaten his mother to death was going to be punished.
"Yes," I said.
"She is."
He was quiet for a long time.
Then...
"Good."
That single word.
It didn't fix anything.
It didn't heal the bruises.
It didn't undo the betrayal.
But it was something.
A crack in the wall Brooke had built around him.
May you like
"Stay put," I said.
"We're on our way."
