Chapter 8 - THE REAL TARGET
The arrested man called himself Colin Price, but fingerprints identified him as Conrad Vail, a former security contractor for Rainier Biological Institute.
He refused to explain who hired him.
He only asked one question:
“Where is Abigail Ward?”
When told she was in custody, he smiled.
“You don’t understand. Abigail isn’t the target.”
Mara leaned across the interview table.
“Then who is?”
Conrad looked directly at the camera.
“Your dog.”
The statement sounded absurd, but the evidence suggested otherwise.
Titan had detected the snake near Lily. He had found Mason in the ravine. He had recognized the attacker at the hospital before any officer did.
He had also become the public face of the incident.
The criminals knew the park video had gone viral. They knew public pressure might force the department to remove him. They needed Titan discredited, isolated, and unavailable.
Why?
Because Titan had smelled something at the park.
Something connected to the laboratory.
The department brought in Dr. Evelyn Carter, a veterinary toxicologist, to examine the residue found on Titan’s harness. She discovered tiny traces of a chemical compound used to mark research animals.
“Titan was exposed to it at the park,” she said.
“Could it harm him?”
“Not in this quantity. But it may have been used to make him follow a scent.”
“To lure him?”
“To direct him toward the children.”
The room went silent.
Mara looked at me.
“They wanted Titan to find Lily.”
“Why?”
Dr. Carter studied the evidence.
“The compound is derived from a synthetic pheromone. It can be applied to clothing or objects. The scent would be attractive to a trained search dog.”
“So they placed it near the girl.”
“And arranged the snake beneath the leaves.”
The attack had been designed to create a public scandal.
They expected Titan to react.
They expected him to knock Lily down.
They expected the video to show a police dog appearing to attack a child.
But they had not expected Titan to stop the snake before it struck.
The plan had failed because Titan did exactly what he had been trained to do.
Protect the innocent.
Abigail heard the explanation and finally agreed to speak publicly.
She told investigators that Daniel had hidden his research files before his death. He had divided them into three parts and given each part to someone he trusted.
One part had been buried beneath an old memorial stone.
One part had been hidden inside the Rainier Institute archives.
The final part had been given to a child.
“A child?” Mara asked.
Abigail nodded.
“Daniel worked with a girl named Ava. She was the daughter of a janitor at the institute. She used to bring him coffee during late shifts. He trusted her father.”
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know. Her family moved after the accident.”
“What does she have?”
“A recording.”
According to Abigail, Daniel had secretly recorded a conversation between the lead scientist and the private buyer. The recording proved that the laboratory accident was murder.
The criminals had spent years searching for it.
“Could Lily or Mason be connected?” I asked.
Abigail shook her head.
“No. But the person who sent me the message believed the witness had appeared near Centennial Park.”
Mara pulled up a list of recent park employees.
One name caught my attention.
A temporary groundskeeper hired three months earlier.
Andrew Wells.
His initials were A.W.
The same initials stitched into the scarf.
We found Andrew’s employment file.
The photograph showed a thin man with brown hair and pale eyes.
He had worked at Rainier Institute under a different name.
Andrew Wells was actually Andrew Ward.
May you like
Abigail’s older brother.
The brother everyone believed had died in the laboratory accident.
