Chapter 7 - A Desperate Gambit
Valerie didn't hesitate. She grabbed her thick winter coat, gathered the folder of printed documents, and sprinted out to her car. She dialled Detective Frank Miller’s direct cell phone while accelerating down the dark, misty highway.
"Valerie?" Frank’s voice sounded groggy, but instantly cleared when he heard her frantic tone. "What's going on? It's four in the morning."
"Frank, listen to me very carefully," Valerie said, her voice burning with desperate intensity. "Marcus Mercer is fleeing the country with Lila at six o'clock this morning from the regional airport. He isn't abusing her in the traditional sense—he’s injecting her with an unauthorized, illegal experimental drug created by his offshore company!"
Silence hung on the line for three agonizing seconds. "Valerie... that sounds insane."
"I have the corporate records, Frank!" Valerie shouted over the engine noise. "I tracked his offshore firm, Aegis Therapeutics. He’s running an illegal human trial in the steel barn behind his house! Eleanor reached out to me twenty minutes ago. She’s terrified! If he gets Lila onto a private aircraft, they are gone, and that child will die from these injections!"
Frank was quiet again, but this time Valerie heard the sound of a bed creaking and shoes hitting the floor. "Where are you right now?"
"I'm heading toward the county airport," Valerie said. "Meet me there with federal authorities or state police, Frank! You have to stop that plane!"
"Valerie, I can't get a search warrant or an arrest warrant based on corporate filings and a text message in ninety minutes!" Frank warned, his professional caution battling his instincts. "If I block a private flight without an official order from a judge, Marcus will sue the department into oblivion."
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"Then don't block the flight as an arrest," Valerie begged, tears streaming down her face as she navigated the dark, winding roads. "Block it as an emergency child welfare intervention! Intercept them at the terminal. Get a court-ordered blood test drawn by an independent hospital, not Dr. Harrison! If the drug isn't in her system, I will resign my job and surrender myself for arrest. But if I'm right, you save Lila's life!"
There was a tense pause. "I'm calling the state police," Frank growled, his decision made. "Meet me at the airfield gate in twenty minutes. Do not approach Marcus alone, Valerie! Do you hear me? Do not go near him by yourself!"
