Chapter 245: Unmasking the Culprits and the Road Ahead

Three days passed. During that time, Ruby and Tania stayed put under Eric’s roof alongside the rest of the girls for their own safety while their apartment remained under surveillance. Late the following afternoon, Eric headed downstairs with Katie to meet up with Kyle, who had reported having fresh leads regarding their prior requests. Stepping into Melissa’s cafe, they found Kyle already waiting for them with a thick manila folder resting on the table. Eric and Katie slid into the booth opposite him.

"Did you manage to dig up anything solid, Mr. Kyle?" Katie asked.

Kyle didn’t answer with words. Instead, he pushed the folder across the table toward Katie. Eric and Katie leaned in close, pulling the cover open together. Inside sat a complete dossier on a young woman named Ingrid Watson—covering her general background, home address, corporate executive history, and a collection of public social media snapshots. All of it was standard open-source info anyone could look up, though it detailed her role as CEO of Woodward Commercial Construction.

The documents showed that the company was family-owned and operated entirely by Ingrid. In addition to her corporate duties, she held private investments in boutique retail chains, high-end restaurants, and local art galleries. Flipping to the next page, they found a stack of corporate financial spreadsheets and tax reports indicating that the business was fully solvent, clean, and free of any legal debt.

When Katie turned the page, the file shifted to the corporate acquisition logs detailing Martin’s former company, scheduled to be managed down the line by Derek Norton—Ingrid’s fiancé. Every piece of registration data was logged through fully public corporate registries. However, past that point, the dossier stopped focusing on Ingrid and her company entirely, pivoting instead to track Derek down to his personal banking activity, transaction ledgers across multiple accounts, joint statements, and financial footprints.

"What does this guy Derek even have to do with our investigation?" Eric asked, furrowing his brow.

"Take a look for yourself. There are several cash transfers directed straight to someone you happen to know," Kyle replied smoothly.

Eric scanned the lines of the transaction ledger until a familiar name jumped out at him. A series of sizable wire transfers from Derek had been sent directly to David Watts, tagged with the memo: Information fee. Eric snapped his gaze back to Kyle.

"Wait... he wired money to my uncle because my uncle was feeding him info? What is the meaning of this?" Eric demanded.

"That’s where things get interesting. I pulled David Watts’s profile too, and the results are pretty wild. Check the very back page," Kyle instructed.

Eric flipped the folder over and opened it from the reverse side, turning to the final sheet. His eyes went wide. Printed out across the page was a complete transcript of a Discord and chat history between Derek and David. In the chat, Derek repeatedly grilled David about Elliot’s Production, The Empress, and Nobelia. In response, David had handed over sensitive insider details, alongside a stash of private photos featuring the members of both groups. Spotting the specific images used in the conversation, Eric stood up abruptly, his hands trembling. Katie glanced over at the photos, then looked up at Eric with a knowing smile.

"So... the exact images used to forge those smear articles against The Empress—the ones that got yanked down two days ago—actually came straight from your uncle," Katie concluded.

"Figures. I knew that scumbag was involved," Eric growled, his fists clenched.

"On top of that, you can see right here where your uncle handed over Ruby and Tania’s residential addresses... as well as Jade’s and the address for this exact building," Katie added, scanning the chat logs.

"Right. And if you look back at the financial records, there are multiple unflagged transfers to anonymous third parties. More importantly, those transactions were processed using a joint account shared with Ingrid," Kyle pointed out.

Eric sank back down into his seat and flipped back to the joint account ledger. Sure enough, a series of heavy cash transfers had been funneled to untraceable accounts. Even more damning, the login credentials and device IP addresses used to execute those transfers belonged directly to Ingrid, matching her standard digital footprint.

"So it’s official. Ingrid and Derek are tied directly to everything that’s hit Tania, Ruby, and The Empress recently... looks like we finally have enough to hand all of this over to Detective Norman," Eric stated.

"Don’t worry about that. I’ve already forwarded copies of all these files to Norman, and he’s already on the move," Kyle replied.

"Hmm... thank you, Mr. Kyle," Katie acknowledged.

"Don’t mention it. Just doing the job I was hired for," Kyle smiled.

"But I still don’t get it... what did I ever do to cross them? Is this really just because our companies used to be rivals with CJR?" Eric wondered aloud.

"From what I’ve pieced together, there’s a strong chance Derek used Ingrid’s name and resources to run his dirty work. I’m still tracking the final destination of those funds, and I’ve already managed to pull a few fresh breadcrumbs right here," Kyle answered.

Reaching into his shirt pocket, he pulled out a small USB flash drive and placed it gently on the table, sliding it toward Eric and Katie. Katie scooped it up immediately, pulled out her laptop, plugged the drive in, and opened the root directory. Three folders appeared on screen: two labeled Derek, and a third unnamed folder marked only with three periods (...).

Opening the third folder, Katie found a scattered collection of unorganized files. Sorting through them one by one, they revealed digital receipts, point-of-sale invoices, and scattered photographs. As the image files loaded, the blood drained from Eric and Katie’s faces. The photos displayed bulk orders and store checkouts for batches of identical gray hoodies.

Following those were surveillance stills showing a mid-twenties male walking down a sidewalk holding a camera while wearing one of those exact hoodies. The angle looked like a traffic or security camera capture, snapped right near the hotel where Tania and Greg had exited. Eric leaned in, trying to zoom in on the suspect’s face, but Katie reached out to tap the screen, pointing out a blurry detail along the camera’s strap. Staring closely, they spotted a faint blog URL and a Discord handle printed on the fabric strap.

"No doubt about it. This is the exact same guy who published the hit piece against The Empress using the exact credentials printed on that camera strap... I guess he was rushing or just sloppy, since he accidentally used a different handle when he posted the article targeting Tania," Katie analyzed.

"Yeah... exactly. Did you pass these photos along to Detective Norman too, Mr. Kyle?" Eric asked.

"Already did. But I’m still mapping out the exact head count. Based on Derek’s transaction logs, I’d bet my fee there are at least four or five people mixed up in this crew, including this photographer," Kyle answered.

Katie scrolled through the receipts and invoices, noting they were all billed directly to Ingrid, matching the exact monetary amounts wired from the joint account held by Ingrid and Derek. Pausing for a moment of reflection, a sly smile crept across her lips.

"Funny how Derek probably thought he was clever framing Ingrid by using joint funds and receipts under her name, but he got sloppy or just plain stupid. He used hardware registered to his own corporate profile and sent these payment receipts straight from his personal email," Katie noted.

"Spot on. I’m still pulling forensic data on those communication channels and have already briefed Norman on that angle," Kyle confirmed.

"Alright. In that case, I’m going to attend the Southwest Bridge reopening event and take up Ingrid’s invitation in person," Eric declared.

Katie whipped her head around to stare at Eric as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head, while Kyle just sat back with a quiet, amused smile.

"What on earth makes you want to do a reckless thing like that?" Katie demanded.

"Instead of sitting around guessing motives, I’ll just ask her straight to her face why she’s coming after The Empress and Nobelia. Besides, at a high-profile public event hosted by her own company, they wouldn’t dare pull any stunts," Eric reasoned.

"Hmm... fine. If you’re going into the lion’s den, I’m coming with you as your plus-one," Katie conceded.

"Deal... let’s do it," Eric agreed.

"Alright, since business is wrapped up for now, I’m heading out. I’ll reach out if there are any new developments," Kyle announced, standing up from the table.

"Thank you so much again, Mr. Kyle," Katie expressed gratefully.

"Yeah, really appreciate it, sir," Eric added.

"Alright... I’m taking off. See you around," Kyle said.

Kyle walked past them, casually raising a hand in a brief farewell before pushing open the cafe door and stepping outside. Eric pulled out the invitation and showed it to Katie, and the two of them immediately dove into discussing their next steps.