Chapter 5 - The Dead Woman's Room
The heavy glass shattered across the floor, echoing loudly in the silent hallway.
Vincent reached into the dark room and flipped the old-fashioned manual light switch.
Isabella's private study was not covered in four years of dust and neglect as he had expected.
The room was absolutely pristine and glowing with the humming light of massive computer servers.
Someone had secretly converted his dead wife's sanctuary into a high-tech surveillance and control hub.
We rushed inside and locked the shattered door using a heavy iron chair.
I scanned the glowing monitors, seeing live camera feeds of every single room in the mansion.
I saw the police cars finally arriving at the front gates, blocked by Doctor Blake's armed security guards.
Vincent stared at a large portrait of his beautiful wife hanging above the glowing servers.
He reached out with a trembling hand and touched the frame of the painting.
The frame shifted slightly, revealing a hidden wall safe that had been left completely unlocked.
I reached inside the safe and pulled out a stack of leather-bound journals belonging to Isabella.
I opened the final journal, dated just two days before her fatal traffic accident.
Her elegant handwriting detailed a horrifying discovery about Doctor Blake's medical research.
Isabella had uncovered that Blake was running an illegal shadow pharmaceutical syndicate.
He was using extremely wealthy, isolated families as unknowing test subjects for experimental genetic therapies.
Isabella had written that she planned to expose him to the authorities the very next morning.
She never made it to the police station because her car brakes mysteriously failed on the highway.
Vincent's face twisted into an expression of pure, unadulterated rage.
Doctor Blake had murdered the love of his life to protect his billion-dollar illegal enterprise.
Now, he was using the exact same syndicate to slowly harvest data from the failing bodies of her twin sons.
I found the main power switch for the server rack and pulled it down with all my strength.
The monitors instantly went completely black, effectively blinding Doctor Blake's control over the smart house.
The heavy steel shutters over the windows slowly began to retract as the emergency override kicked in.
We could finally hear the sirens wailing outside the estate grounds.
I grabbed the journals, knowing they were the only evidence that could send Blake to prison.
Suddenly, the heavy iron chair we used to barricade the door was violently blasted away by a shotgun.
Doctor Blake stepped through the ruined doorway, surrounded by four massive armed mercenaries.
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He pointed a heavy pistol directly at Vincent's chest.
He smiled coldly and thanked us for gathering all the loose ends into one convenient room.
