Chapter 683: The First Test
Dayo woke up sometime after eight in the morning.
For a few seconds, he stayed where he was, staring at the ceiling without moving. His body felt better than it had in days. Not completely rested, but enough that the heaviness in his head was gone.
Then everything came back.
The kidnapping.
Jennifer.
Luna.
The drive to the IRS facility.
The decision he had almost made.
Dayo turned toward the bedside table and picked up his phone.
The screen was already crowded with messages.
Felix had sent several.
Max had sent two.
Bella had left one.
Wayne had apparently decided that sending a message at seven in the morning was reasonable.
Valerie had sent three.
Ulrich had sent one.
Most of them were asking the same thing.
Did it work?
Dayo stared at the messages for a while.
They still thought he had gone through with it.
He had never told them otherwise.
The thought made him sit up.
Luna had stopped him before they could leave the area. Dayo had returned with Max and Bella, sent them home, and then gone straight into his own head. Somewhere between the piano and sleep, he had forgotten that everyone else was still waiting for an answer.
His thumb moved over Felix’s name.
He almost called him.
Instead, he put the phone down.
He would deal with it after he checked on Jennifer.
Dayo got out of bed and walked through the quiet hallway. The house was still. There was no television playing downstairs, no conversation coming from the kitchen, and no sound of Jennifer moving around.
He stopped when he reached the room where she usually slept.
The room was empty.
Dayo knew she was safe with Luna, but seeing the empty space still made something tighten inside him. A small pair of socks had been left near the side of the bed. He picked them up and held them in his hand for a moment.
They were so small.
A few days ago, he had been holding her while wondering whether he would ever get the chance to do it again.
Now he was standing in her room holding her socks.
Dayo sat on the edge of the bed.
The anger he had carried for days wasn’t gone. He still wanted Michael and Silas to pay for what they had done. What had changed was what he wanted their punishment to look like.
Luna had stopped him from making one decision.
She had not stopped him from fighting.
Dayo looked at the socks again before placing them neatly on the bed.
His phone vibrated from downstairs.
He walked back into the hallway and finally called everyone.
Felix answered first.
"You’re awake."
"Yeah."
Wayne joined a few seconds later, followed by Valerie and Ulrich. Max and Bella were not included in the call. Dayo wanted to speak to them separately later.
There was a short silence.
Wayne broke it.
"So?"
Dayo leaned against the kitchen counter. "It wasn’t successful."
Nobody answered.
Valerie was the first to speak. "What happened?"
"I didn’t go through with it."
Wayne’s voice changed immediately. "Wait. You didn’t?"
"No."
"But you left with Max and Bella."
"I did."
Felix sounded confused. "Then what happened?"
Dayo looked down at the kitchen counter.
"Luna found us."
The silence that followed was different.
Ulrich finally asked, "She came after you?"
"Yes."
"And she convinced you to stop?"
Dayo nodded even though they couldn’t see him. "Eventually."
Wayne let out a breath on the other end of the call. "Thank God."
Valerie was quiet for a moment before saying, "Is Jennifer safe?"
"She’s safe."
That answer changed the mood of the call.
Everyone had been so focused on what Dayo might have done that they had almost forgotten what had started everything.
Ulrich spoke more quietly. "Then that’s what matters."
Dayo didn’t answer immediately.
He knew they were relieved.
He was relieved too.
Wayne asked, "Are you still planning to do something about Michael and Silas?"
Dayo looked toward the stairs.
"I’m not letting them walk away from this."
Nobody questioned that.
The difference was that Dayo no longer sounded like a man preparing to kill someone.
He sounded tired.
"I almost made a decision yesterday that would have changed everything," he continued. "I’m not doing that anymore."
Valerie understood before the others.
"So what are you going to do?"
Dayo picked up a glass of water and took a drink.
"We’re going to do it properly."
Felix stayed quiet.
Dayo noticed.
"Felix, stay on the line after the others leave."
"Okay."
Wayne seemed reluctant to hang up. "You need anything?"
"No. Go rest."
"You too."
"I will."
The call ended with Ulrich and Valerie first. Wayne stayed another few seconds, then finally disconnected.
Felix remained.
Dayo put the phone on speaker and sat down at the table.
"I want everything organized," he said.
Felix didn’t ask what he meant.
"Everything we’ve got?"
"Everything."
"Financial records?"
"All of it."
"Communications?"
"Yes."
"The companies?"
"Every one we can connect."
Felix was already reaching for something on his desk.
Dayo continued, "I want the material from Isobel’s side included. The files we got from her, the payment trail, the Montreal server information, the links to Graham and Leonard, everything we’ve collected since then."
Felix paused.
"That’s a lot."
"I know."
"We’ve been keeping some of it separate because the connections aren’t all complete."
"That’s why I want you to organize it. I don’t want a pile of information anymore. I want a clear picture."
Felix understood what he meant.
"You want timelines."
"Yes."
"People, companies, accounts, transfers, communications."
"Yes."
"And the kidnapping?"
Dayo’s expression changed slightly.
"Include everything we can prove."
Felix didn’t press him about what he could not prove.
"What are you planning to do with it?"
Dayo looked down at the table.
"We’re going to test them."
"Test who?"
"The people handling the investigation."
Felix was quiet.
Dayo continued before he could answer. "Michael and Silas are supposed to be in custody. They shouldn’t have the freedom they’re having."
"You mean the visitors?"
"The calls. The information they’re getting. The people who can reach them. The access they’re being given."
Felix understood.
Dayo had already suspected something was wrong before, but now he was looking at it differently.
"If they’re operating from inside custody," Dayo said, "then somebody is allowing it."
Felix leaned back in his chair.
"We have some evidence of that."
"I know."
"We also have to be careful."
"I know that too."
Dayo looked toward the window.
"If we send everything to the police without knowing who is clean, we could be giving their people the evidence we collected against them."
Felix didn’t disagree.
That was the problem.
The investigation itself had become part of the investigation.
Michael and Silas were being held, but they were not completely cut off from the outside world. They had people visiting them. They had access to information. They had communication channels that ordinary detainees should not have.
Somebody was making that possible.
Dayo said, "Get the material ready. Come here when you’re done."
"How long?"
"Take your time. I don’t want mistakes."
Felix nodded even though Dayo couldn’t see him.
"I’ll be there."
The call ended.
Dayo remained at the table for a while.
He knew this would take time.
That was fine.
He had spent months building JD Records. He had spent years learning how the entertainment industry worked in this new life. He had watched companies rise and fall because somebody made one bad decision at the wrong time.
Silas had survived because he had layers.
Dayo was going to remove them one at a time.
Three hours later, the doorbell rang.
Dayo opened it to find Felix standing outside with two large bags and a hard case.
"You weren’t joking," Dayo said.
Felix stepped inside. "Neither were you."
They carried everything into the dining room.
Felix had turned the table into a temporary workspace. Several folders were stacked in one corner. A laptop sat open beside an encrypted drive. Printed documents had been separated into different sections, each marked with dates and names.
Dayo looked over the table.
"This is everything?"
"This is what we can currently support."
Felix pulled out a chair.
"I separated the material into financial records, communications, corporate structures, personnel, custody activity, and the information from the three other bosses."
Dayo looked at the folders.
"Graham, Isobel and Leonard?"
"Yes."
Felix opened the first folder.
"The Graham material is straightforward. We have the original financial connections, the shell companies and the transfers."
He moved to another section.
"Isobel is more complicated because some of what she gave us was insurance material. The Montreal server payment is useful because it establishes a financial connection. It doesn’t, by itself, prove every part of the operation."
Dayo nodded.
"And Leonard?"
"Same problem. We have strong connections, but we need to separate what is confirmed from what we’re inferring."
"Good."
Felix looked at him. "Good?"
"I don’t want assumptions in the package."
That was the first real sign that Dayo’s approach had changed.
Before, he had been thinking about how much damage he could cause.
Now he was thinking about how much of the truth he could prove.
Felix moved to another folder.
"This is the police facility."
Dayo pulled it closer.
"What exactly do we have?"
"Records of unusual visits. Communication activity. People moving in and out who shouldn’t have had the level of access they had. We also have footage that raises questions about the rooms being used."
Dayo looked up.
"Rooms?"
Felix nodded. "Michael and Silas have been given access to spaces that aren’t supposed to be part of ordinary custody operations. They’re meeting people there. Documents have been brought in. Phones have been used. There’s enough here to show they’re being treated differently."
Dayo opened one of the files.
He studied the photographs and timestamps.
"This is real?"
"We verified the dates."
"And the footage?"
"We have copies."
Dayo continued reading.
"So technically they’re in custody."
"Yes."
"But they’re still operating."
"To some degree."
Dayo closed the file.
"Then that’s our first move."
Felix looked at him.
"What do you want to do?"
"We send this to the people who are supposed to be watching the police."
Felix understood immediately.
"The commission."
"Yes."
"We also send it to the IRS side."
"Exactly."
Felix considered the idea.
"If we send both at the same time, neither side can easily say they didn’t know."
"That’s the point."
Dayo stood and walked around the table.
"We’re not sending them everything yet. Not the entire network. Not every piece of evidence we have. I want enough to force a response."
Felix looked at the custody files again.
"You want to see whether they act."
"I want to see who acts."
The distinction mattered.
If the oversight authority opened an investigation, Dayo would know there were still people willing to look.
If the IRS acted on the financial side, they would have another independent pressure point.
If nothing happened, that would tell them something too.
Felix asked, "And if the information leaks?"
"Then we’ll know somebody inside is talking."
"You think Michael and Silas will find out?"
"They might."
Felix was quiet.
Dayo didn’t seem worried.
"In fact," he continued, "I want to know how quickly they find out."
Felix looked at him carefully.
"You want to use their reaction to identify the leak."
"If they suddenly change their behavior after we submit the evidence, yes."
"That could work."
"It doesn’t need to be complicated."
Felix pulled the laptop closer.
"We need to write the submission carefully."
"Do it."
They spent the next hour preparing the documents.
The package did not accuse every officer who appeared in the footage. It did not claim that every person who had spoken to Michael or Silas was corrupt. Felix separated confirmed facts from questions that needed investigation.
The main request was simple.
The authorities needed to examine how two men who were supposedly being held in custody had continued to receive information, communicate with outside parties and access spaces that should not have been available to them.
The financial evidence attached to the IRS submission focused on the same issue from another direction. It showed transactions connected to people interacting with Michael and Silas while they were under investigation.
Dayo read the final drafts before Felix sent them.
"Send both."
Felix hesitated.
"Once it’s gone, we can’t take it back."
"I know."
"You still want to?"
Dayo looked at the screen.
"Yes."
Felix sent the first package.
A few seconds later, the second followed.
Both men sat quietly after that.
There was no celebration.
Nothing had happened yet.
The evidence was simply somewhere else now.
Felix closed the laptop.
"What now?"
Dayo leaned back in his chair.
"Now we wait."
"For their response?"
"Not just that."
Dayo looked toward the files still covering the table.
"I want to see how the system reacts when somebody finally points at the part that’s broken."
Felix didn’t answer.
Outside, traffic continued along the street.
Inside the house, the table remained covered with records that had taken months to collect.
Dayo looked at the phone beside him.
There were still no new messages from Luna.
He didn’t send one.
She had already told him what she wanted.
He had told her he would do things differently.
Now he had to prove it.
Felix stood and gathered the remaining documents.
"I’ll keep working through the other material."
"Do that."
"We still have a lot."
"I know."
Felix paused at the doorway.
"You really don’t want to release the rest yet?"
Dayo shook his head.
"Not yet."
"Why?"
Dayo looked back at the table.
"Because I want to know what happens when they think this is all we have."
Felix understood.
This was only the first test.
Dayo watched him leave before turning back toward the files.
Michael and Silas still believed they had time.
The people protecting them probably believed the same thing.
Dayo was going to give them a little more.
For now.
Then he sat down and waited for the first response.