Two hotels.
Nothing.
Then a license-plate reader outside Tallahassee caught a pickup truck registered to Vance’s brother-in-law.
Marcus sent teams south.
They found the truck parked behind a marina.
Vance was on a fishing boat preparing to leave.
His lawyer later insisted he had planned the trip for weeks.
Investigators found $84,000 in cash inside a dry bag.
They also found a handgun.
Three burner phones.
And printed copies of McKetric County body-camera deletion procedures.
Vance was arrested.
His first interview lasted twelve minutes.
He said:
“Keller went rogue.”
Rebecca almost laughed.
“His body camera recorded your voice.”
Silence.
Vance recovered.
“You think.”
“We know.”
“Audio can be manipulated.”
Rebecca placed a transcript on the table.
Purple coat. Black truck.
Vance looked away.
“Could be anybody.”
“Then let's talk about your share.”
No answer.
“Thirty percent upstairs.”
Vance’s mouth tightened.
Rebecca continued.
“We have bank deposits.”
“Cash-property discrepancies.”
“Dispatch edits.”
“A confidential informant who says you threatened his brother.”
Vance finally smiled.
Not because he found anything amusing.
Because men like Vance sometimes smiled when cornered, as if contempt could create exits.
“You know what your problem is?”
Rebecca waited.
“You think this county works like Atlanta.”
“No.”
“We think federal criminal law works in this county exactly as well as anywhere else.”
Vance leaned back.
“You have Keller.”
“Take him.”
“Price?”
“Take him too.”
“Leave me out.”
Rebecca stared.
“You just offered two officers like spare parts.”
“They made choices.”
“So did you.”
Vance’s smile disappeared.
Rebecca stood.
“We'll see you in court.”
The search of Vance’s office changed the case again.
Behind a false panel in a filing cabinet, agents found envelopes.
Cash.
Photocopies of driver licenses.
Vehicle information.
Lists of motorists.
Some names had dollar amounts beside them.
Others had single letters.
S
P
N
Pike helped decode them.
S meant seizure.
P meant pressure.
N meant no value.
Nia stared.
“No value?”
Pike looked sick.
“Nothing worth taking.”
There were eighty-three names.
That number became the center of Operation Lantern.
Eighty-three encounters.
Not all illegal.
Not all extortion.
But every one had to be checked.
Eighty-three people who might have driven away believing what happened to them was isolated.
It was not.
Among the documents was a photograph of Nia.
Taken from a distance.
Leaving the federal building six days before the operation.
Marcus stared at it.
“How?”
The leak investigation reopened.
This time they found the answer quickly.
Calvin Ross had not taken the photograph.
Neither had Price.
A private investigator named Curtis Dane had.
Who hired him?