"That's impossible."
Sarah looked at him.
"Unless he's still alive."
At the same time, Arthur was sitting inside a small café.
Across from him sat an elderly woman named Margaret Lewis.
She had been Michael's former schoolteacher.
She was one of the few people who had continued helping Arthur after everyone else abandoned him.
"Are you sure it was Elena?" Margaret asked.
Arthur nodded.
"I heard her voice."
"Did she tell you where Michael is?"
"No."
Margaret lowered her voice.
"Then we have to assume they're watching you."
Arthur looked out of the window.
"I've assumed that for nine years."
Margaret reached into her handbag and removed an envelope.
"I found this in my late husband's belongings."
Arthur opened it.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
The first line made him stop breathing.
Arthur, if you ever find this, Michael asked me to tell you that he is sorry.
Arthur looked up.
"Who wrote this?"
"My husband."
"Why did he have it?"
Margaret's eyes filled with tears.
"Because he was the last person who saw Michael before the police took him away."
Arthur's hands trembled.
"Where did they take him?"
Margaret shook her head.
"I don't know."
Then she leaned closer.
"But I know the name of the facility."
She wrote it on a napkin.
Blackwood Rehabilitation Center.
Arthur stared at the words.
The facility had officially closed eight years earlier.
But he remembered the name.
It was located outside the city.
And it had once been managed by a private security company connected to Michael's employer.
Arthur folded the napkin.
For the first time in nine years, he knew where to look.
Unfortunately, someone else had heard the conversation.
A man sitting near the café entrance quietly stood up.
He walked outside and made a phone call.
"Sir, we have a problem."
The voice on the other end answered.
"What now?"
"The old man knows about Blackwood."
There was silence.
Then the captain spoke.
"Find him."
Daniel arrived at the police station the following morning to find his locker open.
His uniform was missing.
So was his service weapon.
He immediately reported the incident.
Within twenty minutes, he was sitting in an administrative office.
Captain Hayes stood in front of him.
"Your weapon was recovered from an unauthorized vehicle."
Daniel looked confused.
"What vehicle?"
"A stolen car found near the warehouse."
Daniel shook his head.
"I never put my weapon there."
Hayes placed a report on the desk.
"Your fingerprints were found on the vehicle."
Daniel stared at the document.
"That's impossible."
Detective Miller entered the room.
"We also found evidence that you accessed restricted files without authorization."
Daniel stood.
"This is a setup."
Hayes looked at him coldly.
"You're suspended pending investigation."
Daniel felt the room closing in around him.
"Sir, someone is framing me."
"Then you should have thought about that before involving yourself in a closed case."
Two officers escorted him out.
As he walked through the hallway, he noticed several colleagues watching him.
Some looked surprised.
Others looked away.
James Wilson approached.
"Daniel..."
Daniel stopped.
"Do you believe them?"
James hesitated.
That hesitation hurt more than anything else.
"I don't know what to believe."
Daniel nodded slowly.
"Then don't believe anything until you see the truth."
He continued toward the exit.
Sarah was waiting outside.
"What happened?"
"They suspended me."
She looked furious.
"On what grounds?"
"Apparently, I stole my own weapon and planted it in a stolen car."
Sarah shook her head.
"They're trying to destroy your credibility."
Daniel looked at her.
"Can you prove it?"
"I can try."
She opened her phone and showed him a photograph.
It was taken from a security camera outside the station.
A man was entering Daniel's locker area late the previous night.
Daniel zoomed in.
The face was partially visible.
He recognized the uniform.
"That's Officer James Wilson."
Sarah looked at him.
"Your partner?"
Daniel said nothing.
He could not believe it.
James had worked beside him for almost three years.
They had shared patrol shifts, meals, and countless conversations.
Now he might have been involved in framing him.
That afternoon, James received a phone call.
"Is it done?" a man asked.
James looked toward the station entrance.
"Yes."
"Good."
"Listen, I don't want anything else to do with this."
The man laughed.
"That's not how this works."
James tightened his grip on the phone.
"You promised nobody would get hurt."
The voice became cold.
"Then you should have stayed out of it."
The call ended.
James stood silently for several seconds.
Then he opened a message on his phone.
It contained a photograph of his wife leaving their apartment with their young daughter.
Below it was a sentence.
Do what you're told.
James closed his eyes.
He had not betrayed Daniel because he hated him.
He had done it because someone had threatened his family.
And now he was beginning to realize that there might be no way out.
Meanwhile, Sarah discovered something important.
The original Blackwood facility had not been demolished.
It had been transferred to a private company operating under a different name.
Northbridge Security Solutions.
She printed the property records.
Then she noticed a signature.
Richard Hayes.
Daniel stared at the document.
"He's connected to the company."
Sarah nodded.
"He's not just protecting the people involved. He may be one of them."
Daniel looked toward the street.
"We need to get inside Blackwood."
"Not yet."
"Why?"
"Because if Hayes owns the property, he probably has people watching it."
Daniel looked at her.
"Then how do we get in?"
Sarah placed a small flash drive on the table.
"My father left me something."
She connected it to her laptop.
A video appeared.
The recording showed Detective Thomas Walker sitting inside a parked vehicle.
He looked frightened.
"If anyone is watching this, I need you to understand that the official report about Michael Bennett is false."
Walker looked directly into the camera.
"Michael discovered that the department was operating an illegal detention facility. People were being held there without charges. Some were witnesses. Others had information that could destroy powerful people."
He swallowed.
"Captain Hayes ordered me to erase the records."
The video continued.
"I refused."
Then Walker leaned closer.
"If anything happens to me, find the basement beneath Blackwood. That's where they keep the real files."
The screen went black.
Sarah sat motionless.
Daniel looked at her.
"Your father knew."
Sarah nodded.
"And he died because of it."
Neither spoke for several seconds.
Then Daniel's phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
A message appeared.
You have forty-eight hours to stop investigating.
A second message followed.
Or Sarah Mitchell will disappear just like her father.
Arthur had not slept in two days.
The discovery of Blackwood had changed everything.
He now understood why Michael had insisted that the silver key must never leave his possession.
It was not merely a key to a storage unit.
It was connected to something much larger.
Something that could expose the entire operation.