JACK MORGAN: "Get a warrant. We don't enter until the team has the legal authority and the site has been assessed."
Laura nodded.
LAURA BENNETT: "Already requested. The judge is reviewing the supporting evidence."
Jack looked at the clock.
Every hour mattered.
If Foster was being held against his will, the people responsible might move him once they learned that the warehouse had attracted attention.
But rushing in without sufficient grounds could compromise the investigation and place the missing witness in greater danger.
Jack had learned that patience was not the same as hesitation.
Sometimes, the fastest way to reach the truth was to make sure the next step could not be undone.
While the warrant was being prepared, investigators continued reviewing the recovered communications. A technician discovered that the message sent to Daniel Reed had passed through an account associated with an internal dispatch terminal.
The message itself had been deleted from the device, but a backup server retained part of the transmission record.
The recipient was Daniel Reed.
The sender account belonged to a restricted administrative profile.
Its authorization token had been issued to the office of Deputy Commissioner Shaw.
That did not establish that Shaw personally typed the message, but it proved that someone had used credentials connected to his office.
Laura brought the finding to Jack.
LAURA BENNETT: "We have a direct link between the message and Shaw's administrative account."
JACK MORGAN: "Can we establish who used it?"
LAURA BENNETT: "Not yet. Several people had access to the office terminal."
JACK MORGAN: "Then we need the access logs, the building security footage, and interviews with everyone who had authorization."
LAURA BENNETT: "That includes Shaw's executive assistant."
JACK MORGAN: "Start there."
The assistant, a woman named Melissa Grant, had worked for Shaw for nearly seven years. She was known for her efficiency and discretion, and her name appeared on several administrative records connected to the department's evidence-transfer system.
When agents contacted her, she initially agreed to an interview.
Then she changed her mind.
Her lawyer informed investigators that she would not answer questions until she had reviewed the allegations.
Jack understood the hesitation. If Melissa had merely followed administrative instructions, she might fear being blamed for decisions made by her superiors. If she had knowingly helped conceal evidence, she might be trying to determine how much the investigators already knew.
Either way, she was an important witness.
The team continued examining the records while preparing a formal interview request.
Shortly after midnight, Jack received a call from the field team near Meridian Logistics.
The search warrant had been approved.
Agents had entered the warehouse and found signs that someone had recently occupied an office on the second floor. A chair had been overturned, a bottle of water sat on a desk, and a mobile phone had been left charging beside a stack of documents.
There was no sign of Daniel Foster.
However, one agent had discovered a narrow service corridor leading to a locked storage room at the rear of the building.
Jack grabbed his jacket.
JACK MORGAN: "What's in the room?"
FIELD AGENT: "We haven't opened it yet. The lock is damaged, and we're waiting for the evidence technician to document it."
JACK MORGAN: "Keep the scene secure. Nobody touches anything until it's photographed."
FIELD AGENT: "Understood."
Jack looked toward Laura.
JACK MORGAN: "We're going."
The drive took less than twenty minutes.
By the time they arrived, the industrial district had fallen quiet. Rows of warehouses stood behind chain-link fences, their loading bays dark beneath the pale glow of security lights. The air smelled of rain, oil, and damp concrete.
Jack entered the building with Laura and two agents.
The office on the second floor matched the description they had received. The overturned chair remained near the desk, and the charging phone had been photographed and placed into an evidence container.
Jack examined the room without touching anything.
A paper cup sat beside the computer. Several pages had been torn from a notebook, leaving uneven edges along the binding. A security monitor displayed several camera feeds, but most of the screens were black.
JACK MORGAN: "Check the camera system's storage. I want to know whether the footage was erased or simply disconnected."
The technician nodded.
Jack moved toward the rear corridor.