The Final Code

chapter fifteen

The night was still and quiet, the kind of night where every shadow seemed darker and every sound amplified in the silence. I could hear the faint hum of the lights above us as Scarlett and I stood in the middle of the team's makeshift command center. The room, with its cluttered boards and half-eaten food, had an almost suffocating feel to it. But it wasn't the room that was pressing down on me—it was the weight of the case, of everything we had yet to uncover.

We had a lead. A small, barely noticeable thread, but it was a lead nonetheless.

Elena, who had been quiet for the better part of the last hour, looked up from her laptop. "This might be it," she said, her voice carrying a mix of excitement and trepidation. "A series of old, unsolved cases—murders that follow the same pattern. And they all occurred in areas where your dad... might have been. And, believe it or not, they were all families."

I glanced over at Scarlett. Her face had gone pale, and I could see the flicker of something in her eyes—recognition. "You think my dad was connected to this?" she asked, her voice low, barely above a whisper.

I didn't need her to say more. The question hung in the air like a stone, a heavy weight neither of us could lift. This was more than just a case for her now—it was personal. Too personal.

"Elena, can you pull up the specifics of those cases? I need everything we've got," I said, trying to keep my voice steady, though inside I was anything but.

Elena nodded and began typing rapidly, pulling up the cold cases that had been buried for years. As the list populated on the screen, I scanned the names of the victims. Some were families wiped out overnight, others had a similar signature: a combination of violence and something more cryptic—ciphers. The kind of thing the killer left behind, just like in the murders we were working now. It was unmistakable.

"Look at this," Scarlett muttered under her breath as she leaned over the desk, pointing to a name on the list. "This one—Lillian Walters. Her family was murdered, and her husband was never found. It was like... he disappeared."

The moment she said it, my heart skipped a beat. The husband had disappeared. No body, no trace. Just like her father. I swallowed hard.

"Do you think my dad's death isn't accidental?" Scarlett asked, her voice tight.

I didn't know how to answer. Every instinct inside me screamed that something bigger was at play. But what was it? Why her father, why her family, and why her? I wasn't sure yet, but the dots were beginning to connect.

"We'll dig into this," I replied, trying to hold it together, though I could feel the heat of her gaze burning into me. "I'll find out more. I swear."

Scarlett's eyes flashed, her posture stiffening as she straightened up. She was still processing everything, still trying to hold on to some semblance of control. But I could see it—she was unraveling, just like the case. Slowly, thread by thread, she was falling apart.

I couldn't just sit back and pretend like that didn't bother me. She wasn't just my partner in this—she was... something more. She had become someone I wanted to protect. And that terrified me.

"I'm sorry," I said suddenly, my voice rough. The words felt foreign, uncomfortable, but they needed to be said. "For pushing you. For... not giving you the space you needed." I shifted uncomfortably, meeting her eyes. "I'm just trying to help. And I know I haven't been good at it."

Scarlett looked at me for a long moment, her jaw set, her lips tight. The silence between us felt like a wall I couldn't break through, but I needed to try. I stepped toward her, trying to make up for the tension I'd created. "You didn't ask for any of this. Hell, I didn't either. But I need you to know that I'm here through it all."

Her eyes flickered with something—anger, hurt, frustration. "You don't get it, Nick. You keep trying to solve my life for me. You keep pushing me into corners I don't want to be in. You don't know what it's like to have someone take everything from you—and then act like they're doing you a favor by helping you find the pieces they left behind."

She was furious. And I deserved every bit of it. She had every right to feel that way. I had stepped over boundaries, and I hadn't been as sensitive as I should have been. But I couldn't walk away now. Not when we were so close to finding answers.

"I get it," I said, my voice low. "I do. But I'm not leaving you alone in this, Scarlett. I won't."

She didn't answer right away, and I could feel the weight of her silence pressing down on me. The tension in the room was suffocating. I wanted to fix things, but I wasn't sure how.

I turned and grabbed my coat from the back of the chair, needing a moment to clear my head. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, glancing at the time. I should have stayed focused on the case, but everything felt off. I needed something to break the tension, to give us a chance to regroup.

"I'm going to grab us some coffee," I said, walking toward the door. "You've been at this all night, and I know you're not going to sleep until we get somewhere."

Scarlett didn't answer, but I could hear the rustle of papers behind me as she turned back to the files. I wasn't sure if she'd actually stay put, but I knew that if I didn't step out of that room for a minute, I might lose it.

I walked down the hall, letting the cold air hit me as I pushed through the door and into the alleyway outside the building. I needed some space to think, to breathe. The case was becoming personal. Scarlett's past was too close to home. Her father, the Cipher... it was like it was all closing in on me.

I went to the coffee shop down the street, bought two strong black coffees, and went back to the office. I walked through the door and handed one to Scarlett. She didn't look up from the files, but I could see the tightness in her shoulders relax just a fraction when I placed the coffee on the table.

"Thanks," she muttered, not meeting my eyes.

I nodded and sat back down. There was so much more to uncover. So much more to figure out. But for now, we needed to stay focused.

The night wore on, and the deeper we dove into the case, the more I realized that we were getting dangerously close to something neither of us was prepared for. We weren't just hunting a killer anymore—we were uncovering a story that ran deeper than either of us could have imagined.

And whatever was coming next, it wasn't going to be pretty.

We were about to discover things that could change everything.