Chapter 10 - What Happened to Isabella
The notebook changed everything.
Federal agents removed Derek from active duty that afternoon.
Not arrested.
Not charged.
Suspended pending investigation.
His badge and department firearm were surrendered.
For Harper, the badge mattered more.
Derek had used it like armor for years.
Now it was gone.
But Gabriel barely reacted.
He wanted the notebook.
Agent Price refused.
“You’ll see copies through counsel.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
Price stared back.
“We have an agreement.”
Gabriel stepped away.
Harper followed him onto the balcony.
“You knew what I.A. meant immediately.”
Gabriel looked over Cambridge.
“I hoped I was wrong.”
“What do you think happened?”
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he told her.
Six years earlier, Isabella Ashford had discovered financial records inside one of her father’s companies.
The records showed police officers receiving payments.
At first she believed her father was bribing them.
Then she realized some transactions were reversed.
The officers were paying someone inside the organization.
Gabriel never learned why.
Isabella told him she planned to take the documents to a federal prosecutor.
She disappeared the next night.
Her body was found twenty hours later.
The documents vanished.
“You thought your father killed her.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“For three years.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“My father died swearing he didn’t.”
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at Harper.
“But before he died, he gave me the name Thomas Nolan.”
Harper remembered the officer from Derek’s parties.
“So Nolan knew Isabella.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
Gabriel gave her a look.
She understood immediately.
“Right.”
“The police had signed the death report.”
“Exactly.”
Harper leaned against the railing.
“And Vane?”
“Assistant District Attorney Charles Vane was a junior prosecutor then.”
“He closed Isabella’s case.”
Gabriel nodded.
Harper felt sick.
The notebook was not simply Derek’s record of recent extortion.
Whatever existed inside Precinct Twelve had existed for at least six years.
Maybe longer.
A phone rang inside.
Rebecca answered.
Her face changed almost immediately.
“Harper.”
Something in her voice made Harper return.
“What happened?”
Rebecca covered the phone.
“Your former landlord is downstairs.”
“My landlord?”
“He says the police are searching your old apartment.”
“Federal?”
“No.”
Harper stared at her.
“Who?”
Rebecca’s expression hardened.
“Boston Police.”
Agent Price stood.
“They have no authority to search an active federal evidence location.”
Rebecca spoke into the phone.
“Do not let anyone inside.”
A second later she cursed.
“What?”
Harper asked.
“They’re already there.”
Price grabbed his jacket.
Gabriel followed.
Price turned.
“You stay here.”
Gabriel ignored him.
“I said stay here.”
“And I heard you.”
Harper almost laughed despite everything.
They reached the apartment building twenty minutes later.
Two police cruisers were outside.
A detective Harper did not recognize stood in the doorway.
Price approached.
“Federal investigation.”
The detective showed him a warrant.
Price read it.
His expression darkened.
“Who signed this?”
“Judge Merrick.”
Rebecca looked over Price’s shoulder.
“This warrant was issued thirty minutes ago.”
Harper’s stomach tightened.
Derek had been suspended only three hours earlier.
Someone was still protecting him.
They entered the apartment.
Drawers had been emptied.
Cabinets opened.
Noah’s mattress overturned.
Harper felt violated all over again.
Then a uniformed officer emerged from the bedroom carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a handgun.
Harper stared.
“That isn’t mine.”
The detective looked at her.
“It was found beneath your mattress.”
“I have never owned a gun.”
Gabriel’s expression became ice.
Agent Price took one look at the weapon.
“Do not touch anything else.”
The detective smiled.
“Why?”
Price pointed toward the gun.
“Because that serial number belongs to a weapon reported missing from Precinct Twelve evidence storage.”
The detective’s smile vanished.
Harper looked at Gabriel.
May you like
Someone had planted a police evidence weapon in her apartment.
And whoever had done it had made one enormous mistake.
