Chapter 1 - The Flash Drive
My phone buzzed again in my hand.
Mark? The police have a search warrant. They’re asking for you. Please hurry.
Sarah was good. If I hadn’t just watched her on a high-definition monitor orchestrating my downfall, I would have rushed home to protect her. Instead, I stared at the text, the venom in my blood crystallizing into pure survival instinct.
"Don't reply," Leo whispered, his hands hovering over his keyboard. He was pale, sweating under the harsh fluorescent lights of the repair shop. "If you reply, they can ping your location."
"Copy the files," I ordered, my voice sounding like it belonged to a stranger. "Put them on two separate encrypted flash drives. Then wipe your terminal."
Leo nodded frantically, his fingers flying across the keys. "I’m putting a lock on these. Only you can open them. Man, this is a murder charge. If you go back to that house, they’re going to slap cuffs on you before you even get out of your car."
He was right. Sarah had planted the stolen jewelry and the murder weapon exactly where the police would look. She and Thomas had perfectly weaponized my recent, very public argument with Mr. Henderson over property lines. It was a textbook frame-up.
Leo handed me two small black flash drives. I slipped one into my shoe and the other into my jacket pocket.
"Lock your doors, Leo. Don't tell anyone I was here," I said, dropping a hundred-dollar bill on his desk.
May you like
I walked out the back exit into the cold morning air. I didn't go to my car. Sarah had access to the GPS app for the SUV. Instead, I walked three blocks to a pawn shop, bought a cheap prepaid burner phone with cash, and pulled the battery out of my real phone, tossing it into a storm drain.
I was officially off the grid. Now, it was time to hunt.
