Burke had one hand on the wheel, the other resting loose near the radio as the road cut through the trees in long, familiar bends.
His phone lit up against the dash.
QUINN.
He answered without hesitation.
“Tell me you’ve got something.”
“It’s confirmed,” Tessa Quinn said. “High purity. Same composition we’ve been tracking out of Miami. You weren’t chasing ghosts, Burke.”
Burke had an uneasy feeling about all of it.
Didn’t matter. This wasn’t a missing person anymore.
This was something else.
The road curved ahead.
He didn’t slow down.
* * *
Jackson County Courthouse — Judge’s Chambers
Burke stood before the heavy desk, his hat gripped in his hand, watching Judge Harlan flip through the affidavit with deliberate, measured slowness.
“A confidential informant, Burke?” Harlan said finally, looking up over the rims of his glasses. “You’re asking me to sign a warrant for the Hollis estate based on ‘suspicions’ and ‘nighttime movement’?”
He tossed the folder onto the desk. It landed with a dull thud.
“Wade Hollis is the wealthiest man in Jackson County five times over. He is the backbone of this economy. If I authorize a raid and we come up empty, it’s not embarrassment—it’s a lawsuit that could gut your department.”
Burke didn’t flinch.
He leaned forward, placing both hands on the edge of the desk.
“It’s more than suspicion, Judge.”
Harlan said nothing.
“Our source observed a fixed pattern—same box truck, marked for restaurant supply, moving in and out of that property in the early morning hours. Not once. Repeatedly. Along with aircraft activity that doesn’t match any filed manifests.”
Harlan’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You ran the tail number?”
“It doesn’t exist,” Burke said. “Not in any system that should be tracking it.”
That gave Harlan pause.
He picked up the photo of the truck, studying it longer this time.
“Restaurant supplies for a cattle operation,” he muttered. “Still thin.”
Burke didn’t move.
“It’s not the label,” he said quietly. “It’s the volume, the timing, and the fact that no one can account for where it’s coming from or where it’s going.”
Harlan set the photo down.
