DEADLY SECRETS UNVEILED

Chapter 4

Pursuit of The Missing Papers

With the insight about Dr. Bennett's missing research papers, Detective Vanilla Lawson's urge to get going arrived at another pinnacle. She, Agent Michael Stevens, and Lucy Bennett clustered together in the area's meeting room.

"Lucy, could you at any point consider any individual who could have approached your dad's review?" Vanilla asked.

Lucy shook her head, her eyes loaded up with stress. "Nobody with the exception of his partners, however, I can't really accept that any of them would do this."

Agent Stevens interposed, "We want to track down those papers, Lucy. They could be the way to disentangling this whole secret."

As the threesome examined their subsequent stages, Official Johnson went into the room with a grave articulation. "Detective, we just got a report. Dr. Lawrence was tracked down dead in his loft."

The room fell into a weighty quiet. The unexpected and rough end of Dr. Lawrence sent shockwaves through the investigation.

Vanilla's brain dashed, coming to an obvious conclusion. "We need to get to Dr. Lawrence's loft right away. It could hold the responses we're searching for."

They showed up at the scene, where cops and detectives amassed the structure. Dr. Lawrence's condo had been stripped, and obviously, somebody had been looking for something.

Agent Stevens inspected the confusion. "This was certainly not an irregular break-in. It was a designated look for information."

Vanilla's eyes fell on a broken photo placement. Among the wrecked glass lay a photo of Dr. Bennett and Dr. Lawrence, grinning together in more joyful times. She got it, a weighty inclination getting comfortable in her chest.

A measurable examiner drew nearer with a plastic proof pack. "Detective Lawson, we tracked down this secret in a cabinet."

Inside the sack was a little, written hand notepad. Vanilla perceived Dr. Bennett's careful penmanship right away. It was a journal of sorts, reporting his considerations and perceptions.

She flipped through the pages, her heart beating as she coincidentally found a passage that creeped her out. "Somebody is watching me. I can feel it. They need my research, and they'll remain determined to get it."

Agent Stevens inclined in to peruse her shoulder. "This validates our intuitions, however, it likewise brings up the issue of what their identity is."

Lucy, standing close by, murmured, "My dad referenced a safe. He said he kept a reinforcement of his research in it, for good measure."

Vanilla went to Lucy with a hint of something better over the horizon. "Do you have any idea where the safe is found?"

Lucy gestured. "In the cellar, behind the shelf."

The threesome hurried to the storm cellar, where they tracked down a secret entryway behind a dusty shelf. Inside, they found the safe — a weighty, steel behemoth with a computerized keypad.

Lucy's voice trembled. "My dad's birthday was the code. April fifteenth."

The safe clicked open, uncovering a hard drive and a pile of records. Vanilla's heart hustled as she understood they could at last be very nearly revealing reality.

Before they could look at the items, an unexpected accident reverberated from the cellar steps. They went to see a covered gatecrasher remaining in the shadows, a firearm prepared on them.

"You shouldn't have come here," the interloper murmured, their voice mutilated by a voice modulator.

Vanilla felt a flood of adrenaline. They were caught, confronting an obscure adversary who was able to kill to safeguard the destructive mysteries concealed inside those archives.

What's more, as the strain in the cellar raised to a limit, Vanilla realised that the centre battle of their investigation had arrived at a lethal peak — one that would test their determination and clever more than ever.