I looked at him through the camera. I looked at the blood on his shirt from Lily’s wound.

“I told you you would regret it, Richard,” I said, my voice cold and flat, transmitting perfectly through the satellite connection. “You thought you were untouchable behind your money and your corrupt police chief. You were wrong.”

I paused, a cold, predatory smile touching my lips.

“And now,” I said, “the evidence collection portion of the evening begins.”

Ghost looked at me through the camera and nodded. He reached into a pouch on his tactical vest.

He pulled out a heavy, industrial nail puller.

5. The Blood Confession

“No need for the pliers, Ghost,” I said calmly through the video feed. “Let’s be a bit more civilized.”

Ghost smiled, a terrifying, humorless expression. He tossed the nail puller onto the table and replaced it with a sleek, military-grade laptop, which he immediately connected to Richard’s home network server.

“We’ve been monitoring your digital traffic for the last hour, Richard,” I explained, watching his face contort with a new wave of panic. “My men hacked into your internal home servers the moment I gave the Code Black. They have everything.”