The room was silent, apart from the soft ticking of a clock. He didn't look up when James entered the lead investigator who had once worked for politicians and criminals alike. But nothing had prepared him for alex.

He sat in silence, sleeves rolled up, tie loosened, staring at a flickering screen, hotel security footage from the night she vanished. Blurry. Incomplete. Useless. James cleared his throat. "Sir, we've expanded the radius to 150 miles around the hotel, but so far—" Alex cut him off without looking. "You think I care about your radius?" James swallowed hard. "No, sir." Alex leaned back slowly in his chair, finally meeting his eyes. What stared back wasn't anger. It was something worse. Control.