Ralphie Pearce IV

Present-day.

Sam's hotel room.

Levi was lying sideways on the bed, a hand propped under his head for support. Hazel eyes glued on Sam. Sam leaned back on the headboard of her Hotel bed, making herself comfortable. It was a long story after all.

"As you already know, I worked in the FBI before. During those years I worked at the Headquarters working on several cases. It was a year before I resigned from my position when Wright and I crossed paths." she said.

A sigh escaped her lips as she recalled the details, "I was originally at their satellite office for a seminar when the lead forensic Dr. Woods invited me to look at a fresh case with him. It was a case involving a family, the Lawsons." Levi noted how her eyes darkened at the mention of the name as if she was back there.

"The couple, Meredith and Philip were driving to Philpott Lake that summer with their 6-year-old son, Henry." Sam clenched her jaw; images were flashing in her mind. Images of that very crime scene so fresh like she was reliving it then.

Levi noted how her eyes reddened at the mention of the child. He can't blame her, nobody enjoys dealing with a homicide that involved kids.

"Their vehicle was found abandoned at the side of the road. Their bodies a mile away in the woods. Execution style, two bullets at the back of their heads." She scoffed as if a bullet to the head of a child would make dealing with the case easier. It wasn't.

She recalled looking at that small body on the examination table. The coolness of the steel surface in that cold morgue was nothing in comparison to the feel of that body under her touch. He was so small, her mind kept repeating then.

"Philip Lawson was involved in some corporate scam. He'd scammed millions of dollars to several small businesses. So, we figured the motive must be linked to that" she further explained.

"There were no cartridges on the crime scene, not one. The suspect must have been a professional, for he took the time to pick each one. He knew exactly what he was doing." Sam recalled.

"Scuffings and indentation on the bumper of the car were present, it meant that the suspect must've intentionally hit their car with his. We theorized that Philip got off the car to confront the suspect and was then held at gunpoint and then taken to the woods with his family." Sam says, taking a sip of water on her bedside table.

"The case was leading us to a guy named Rhys Lloyd, a small business owner in Richmond, who left numerous threatening emails and calls to Philip Lawson. I imagined he hired a professional hitman for revenge after losing 2 million dollars to Lawson. And this is where Wright comes into view, he was the lead detective on the case." Sam paused, considered stopping there and then, but the expectant look on Levi's face says she has to continue.

She expelled a lungful of breath and continued, "I remember clearly, 'everything' in that crime scene. It was late afternoon, the sun was still high and it was especially hot then. We did an initial sweep of the vehicle. Crime techs labeled, collected pieces of evidence, and took pictures. I remember every little thing, every spec of dirt, every evidence that was present there when we arrived. NO CARTRIDGES were found on the site." Sam repeated, even emphasizing it.

Levi noted her choice of words, the magnitude of what she was saying. 'Everything' the word she said with so much conviction, made him tilt his head both in disbelief and curiosity. It was impossible to remember everything, he thought. The brain makes mistakes, Levi knew that best. And even if she did have an incredible retention rate. Of which he is a witness. No memory is perfect. Science says that an average person's visual memory lasts (usually) no more than 30 seconds. Even in special cases of people who claimed to have an eidetic memory, it isn't perfect.

Sam took note of how his eyes flashed with a hint of doubt, she couldn't blame him. Her childhood psychologist still doubts her 'gift' to this day.

"We had no hard evidence that could lead us to the suspect. And I knew it was going to be a cold case the moment we examined their heads and found no bullets inside. The suspect had taken the time to remove it, one after the other. 6 bullets in total. Like I said, professional." Sam sneered, recalling it. A knife based on the cuts was used to scoop the bullet out of their skulls.

"Months later, I learned they made an arrest, to a man named Christian Austin," Sam says. "He was a street drug dealer, some small fish. Of course, I naturally questioned the lead forensic, Dr. Woods. He informs me that they 'luckily' discovered a cartridge inside the vehicle and the State ballistics database had matched it to the 9mm caliber Austin used in convenience store robbery five years before," she continued.

"I questioned Dr. Woods, again." Sam scoffed recalling their exchange at the parking lot, she flew back there especially to speak with him. When he said on the phone that they must've missed some vital evidence at the scene didn't make sense to her. She never misses anything. She's 'incapable' of it.

She grabbed Wood's arm, stared straight to his brown eyes. His face said that he knew she knew what happened. What he, no, what they did.

"I couldn't care less about Austin getting the chair for this, even if he doesn't deserve it. What I care about is the boy, Henry." She gripped his arm tighter. Henry's small face and light blond hair on the examination table flashed in her mind.

"His spirit will—" Sam paused looking at the man's dark eyes and she released him suddenly like he was a disease.

"I take it, this is not the first." Sam figured a dark laugh passed her lips. Finding it all suddenly amusing.

"I was going to say that the dead will not give you rest, but I can already see that your conscience is already keeping you up." She says, leaving him.

"Two weeks later Dr. Woods was found in his car, a bullet in the head. Suicide." Sam says, "Ironic." Levi commented.

"Yeah, it was almost poetic," Sam says, "And funny enough, I discovered it was Wright who 'found' the cartridge. How bizarre was it? A suspect who was smart enough to scoop out the bullets from the victims, pick up each cartridge on the site of the murder. Out of the blue, he makes a simple 'mistake' of dropping a cartridge inside the victim's car. How was that fucking possible?" Sam asked Levi, they both found the notion ridiculous.

Sam laughed, "The why apparently didn't matter, because the jury decided to convict Austin a year later," she informs.

"During Austin's trial, I did my own digging and discovered a few 'miracle' evidence or witnesses suddenly appearing in his cases. One case so high-profile, that basically made him a local celebrity in Virginia. But in truth, Wright, a highly respected man in the bureau had been planting evidence since the beginning of his career." Sam claimed with conviction.

Sam sighed, looking around the room. "I took it to my boss. A week later I got called in his office, there with him was Josh Wright. He denied all accusations, and simply called it assumptions. My boss tells me it's all circumstantial, and I had no hard proof, after all the man that could prove it had killed himself out of guilt."

Sam gets off her bed and grabs two bottles of water in the mini-fridge. Hands one to Levi which he accepts.

"He got away, not even an investigation. I spoke with my superior, he tells me that he 'understands where I was coming from'", Sam says, quotes.

"That he believes I was onto something. However, he cannot do anything about it. I understand, bureaucracy at its finest. But he just had to add something else as I was leaving his office. He said 'If I was honest, drug dealer off the streets? I'm not completely against the idea.'" she stared at Levi, he chuckles amused.

"So, I quit my job," Sam adds, looking at Levi who was about to say something, she cuts him off.

"I know you'd say I can miss something." Sam started, looking at him directly, her expression serious.

"And I'm telling you, it's IMPOSSIBLE for me to miss anything," Sam states confidently, and before Levi could question her about such a claim, she says,

"I know for a fact, that Wright had been planting evidence to incriminate others, lowlife mostly," Sam says, at the back of her mind he must have thought that he was god, and he could judge.

"I also know for a fact that Rhys Lloyd also happened to be his cousin's business partner. And that they met each other, two weeks before Austin's arrest; I know it because I hacked into his computer and his mobile phone and saw the exchange. And I also happen to have a copy of a CCTV video of them eating in an Italian restaurant. All these cannot be used in court."

Her confession surprised Levi, he knew she was good, but she was even better. Maybe he shouldn't question her 'morality', he'd seen her before hacking Criminal Investigation Department after all.

"I spoke to him after that meeting," Sam said, earning a curious look from the blond. "Wright," she answered.

"He came by hours later that day in the morgue and he spoke to me. Claimed I was reaching, imagining things. And that Dr. Woods had always been depressed, that he even had a therapist. And I shouldn't look more to it than it actually was. And I told him, 'You're right. All these are mere assumptions in the sight of the law, after all, I wasn't handling the cases you've been magically solving. I get it." Sam says,

She narrowed her eyes at Levi, and as if she was talking to Wright like she did back then she said,

"But one day, I'm going to be called over a case of yours. Wherever I might be, whatever I might be doing, I'm going to leave all of it and come, I promise you. And I'm going to be personally dealing with the evidence. And when that happens, I swear it in the name of Henry Lawson, I'll be watching when they handcuff you and I'll enjoy every second of it."