Chapter 8 - The Coffin in Evidence.
The evidence warehouse stood fifteen miles in the opposite direction from the freight terminal.
Ortiz had to choose between pursuing Claire and protecting the ledger that could dismantle Daniel’s entire operation.
She split the teams and sent Sergeant Mason to the warehouse while she led the rescue effort.
Ethan insisted that the hiding place could not be the obvious satin compartment.
His mother preferred hiding important things inside ordinary objects that had already been examined.
Mason video-called from the warehouse and showed the damaged white coffin under bright fluorescent lights.
Technicians removed the lining, handles, nameplate, and base panels.
They found nothing.
Ethan asked them to turn the camera toward the broken lid.
The red-handled hammer had created a jagged crack across the center, but one corner remained perfectly smooth.
He remembered Claire teaching him about woodworking and explaining that hollow decorative panels sounded different when tapped.
“Check the raised border,” he said.
An evidence technician tapped each section with a rubber tool.
The lower-left border produced a dull sound.
Inside it was a narrow waterproof envelope containing the original ledger, a flash drive, and signed statements from three employees.
The documents proved that Daniel had diverted millions from the family company and used charity accounts to hide the transfers.
They also revealed payments to Victor Dane and Stephen Vale made weeks before Claire’s disappearance.
Mason sealed everything as evidence.
At the freight terminal, Ortiz’s team approached North Star’s loading bay from two directions.
A surveillance drone showed Claire seated inside an office beside stacked cargo containers.
Victor guarded the only visible door.
Daniel paced near a freight train scheduled to depart in twelve minutes.
He spoke on the phone, apparently still believing police were headed toward the marina.
Ortiz waited for the train horn to cover the team’s movement.
Victor noticed a reflection in a window and locked the office before officers reached him.
Daniel ran across the tracks and disappeared between moving freight cars.
Police detained Victor without a shot being fired, but the office was empty when they forced it open.
Claire’s chair remained warm.
A maintenance hatch in the floor led into a storm-drain system beneath the terminal.
Daniel had moved her seconds before the raid.
Ortiz entered the tunnel with two officers.
The passage divided into three branches, each filled with rushing rainwater.
On the wall, Claire had drawn a heart in blue marker.
Ethan recognized it through the live body-camera feed.
The point of the heart leaned to the right.
“Take the right tunnel,” he told Ortiz.
She followed it toward the river warehouse.
Then the video feed froze.
A final sound came through the radio before the signal vanished.
It was Daniel’s voice, calm and close.
May you like
“Detective, you should have gone to the marina.”
THE WOMAN BENEATH THE WHITE LID
