Chapter 11 - The Basement Torture Cell
Detectives cordoned off the entire suburban house scene.
Yellow police tape stretched across the front porch entrance.
Special Agent Harris led the forensic investigation team inside.
I walked into the house beside Agent Harris today.
We walked down the basement stairs into dark cellar.
The air smelled damp, stale, and heavily of mildew.
In the back corner of basement sat iron door.
The steel door was secured with two heavy padlocks.
Officer Miller used bolt cutters to snap iron chains.
The heavy steel door swung open into pitch darkness.
Agent Harris shined his heavy flashlight beam inside space.
Inside the tiny windowless room lay a wooden chair.
Thick nylon rope coils rested on the concrete floor.
Empty water bottles and moldy bread crusts lay scattered.
This was where Julian locked his mother for days.
A dark, windowless solitary confinement cell inside suburban home.
My heart burned with explosive, uncontrollable, lethal anger again.
"Look at the back wall panel, Agent Harris," I said.
Agent Harris walked over, tapping the drywall with fingers.
A hollow sound echoed behind the painted wood panel.
Harris used a crowbar to pry the panel open.
Behind the drywall sat a small steel safe unit.
The safe required a digital six-digit security code.
I looked at the digital keypad, thinking fast today.
I typed Margaret's late husband's military service number.
Zero, eight, four, two, one, nine.
The electronic lock chimed green with a soft beep.
The heavy steel safe door opened into dark vault.
Inside lay stacks of physical gold bullion bars today.
Beside the gold rested a black encrypted hard drive.
And a handwritten leather journal bound in dark cover.
Agent Harris pulled the black hard drive out carefully.
"This drive contains his offshore banking ledger files, Elena."
Agent Harris announced with a cold, satisfying smile line.
"We can track every single dollar stolen from trust."
"And we have the names of all illegal buyers."
I picked up the leather journal, opening pages.
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The handwriting inside belonged to Julian Vance himself.
📖 Chapter 12 reveals the secret entries inside Julian's journal that expose a wider international financial crime network. 👇
