Chapter 4 - The River Rescue
The grey dawn broke over the choppy, swollen waters of the Blackwood River.
An emergency medical tent had been hastily set up on the muddy riverbank.
Officer Natalie arrived in her cruiser, jumping out and running toward the flashing lights.
Paramedics were furiously working over a freezing, shivering man lying on a stretcher.
His face was caked in dried mud, his clothes were torn to shreds, and his hands were raw and bleeding.
Despite the hypothermia and severe trauma, his eyes suddenly snapped open with desperate panic.
"Ashley," he rasped, coughing up water as a paramedic pressed an oxygen mask to his face.
"She... she needs her medicine."
Natalie pushed through the medical staff and knelt beside the stretcher, taking his freezing hand.
"Andrew, I'm Officer Natalie," she said calmly. "Ashley is safe in the hospital. She has her medicine."
Andrew closed his eyes, a massive tear cutting a clean path through the mud on his bruised cheek.
"Thank God," he whispered, his voice cracking with pure emotional relief.
Detective Vance arrived moments later, stepping heavily through the thick mud with his notepad ready.
Vance looked down at Andrew with undisguised contempt and snapped his fingers at the paramedics.
"Hold off on the transfer to the hospital," Vance ordered harshly. "This man is under arrest."
Andrew tried to sit up, but his exhausted body collapsed back onto the stretcher with a groan.
"Arrest me?" Andrew coughed weakly. "What are you talking about?"
Vance pulled out the bank embezzlement file and slammed it onto the metal side rail of the stretcher.
"You stole five million dollars from the federal credit union, Miller," Vance accused loudly.
"And then you tried to fake your own death by driving your truck off the old guardrail."
Andrew stared at the detective in sheer confusion, struggling to process the massive lie.
"I didn't steal any money," Andrew pleaded, his voice breaking. "I was running from loan sharks!"
"Loan sharks who gave you fifty thousand dollars in stolen bank funds?" Vance mocked.
Before Andrew could defend himself, a sharp screech of tires echoed from the highway above.
A black luxury sedan tore down the embankment, sliding sideways before slamming to a violent halt.
The doors flew open, and three masked men holding heavy assault rifles jumped out into the mud.
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Detective Vance drew his service weapon, but one of the armed men fired a suppressive burst overhead.
"Step away from the prisoner!" the leader of the masked men screamed, aiming his rifle right at Vance's chest.
