A Warrior's Second Chance (Faye and Alexander) novel Chapter 542

Chapter 539

JASON

For a long moment after the investigator finished speaking, neither of us said another word.

The photographs remained spread across my desk.

My eyes drifted from one image to the next, but wasn’t really looking at them anymore.

I was thinking.

Trying to fit another piece into a puzzle that seemed determined to grow larger every day.

The missing shipments.

The explosion.

Now a murdered guard.

None of it felt isolated anymore.

Every new discovery only strengthened what I had begun to suspect.

Someone wasn’t simply causing problems for Silver Hollow.

Someone was working toward something far more deliberate.

The investigator quietly gathered a few of the photographs into a neat pile but left the most important

ones in front of me.

He seemed content to let me think.

I appreciated that.

Too many people rushed to fill silence with unnecessary words.

He understood that sometimes silence was where the real work happened.

Eventually, I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my jaw.

“What did he know that made him worth killing?” I asked.

The investigator remained thoughtful.

“That’s exactly the question I’ve been asking myself,” the investigator replied.

“If he really was silenced, then whatever he knew must have been important enough to eliminate him

before the explosion.”

I slowly nodded.

“And then they destroyed the warehouse,” I said quietly.

<Chapter 539

“Yes,” the investigator replied without hesitation.

The office fell quiet again.

I looked down at the guard’s face in the photograph.

He hadn’t deserved this.

He had been one of my wolves.

Someone who had trusted Silver Hollow enough to wear its colors.

Whether he had been guilty, innocent, or somewhere in between…

He deserved the truth.

And so did I.

After a brief silence, the investigator spoke again.

“Alpha…” the investigator began.

I looked up.

“I’d like your permission to take this investigation further.”

I frowned slightly.

“In what way?” I asked.

He opened the folder again before answering.

Claim

“Right now, we’re looking at him only as one of the casualties connected to the explosion,” the investigator explained. I don’t think that’s enough anymore.”

I remained silent, allowing him to continue.

“I want to investigate him,” the investigator continued.

“The man himself.”

I leaned forward slightly.

“Go on,” I said.

“I’d like to search his quarters,” the investigator explained.

“If he kept journals… letters… personal records… anything that might tell us what he’d been doing before

he disappeared, I want to find it.”

That made perfect sense.

He continued before I could respond.

“If he has surviving family, I’d like to speak with them,” the investigator said.

A

<Chapter 539

“They may know whether he’d been acting differently. Whether he’d mentioned concerns. Whether he’d seemed frightened. Whether he’d been meeting with anyone unusual.”

He paused briefly.

“Sometimes the smallest detail ends up being the one that solves everything,” the investigator added.

I slowly nodded.

He wasn’t wrong.

“Neighbors, friends, anyone he spent time with,” the investigator continued.

Claim

“I’d like to speak to all of them. If someone threatened him… If he discovered something.. If he’d started behaving differently…Someone may have noticed.”

I folded my hands together.

The more he spoke…

The more convinced I became that this was exactly the direction the investigation needed to take.

Up until now, we’d been chasing an explosion.

Perhaps…

We should have been chasing a man.

I looked back down at the photographs once more.

If the guard had truly known something…

The answers wouldn’t be lying inside the ruins of a warehouse.

They would be hidden somewhere in the life he had been living before he died.

His room, his belongings, his relationships.

His routine.

Every person leaves traces behind.

The question was whether we could still find them before whoever killed him realized where we were

looking.

“Do it,” I said.

The investigator met my eyes.

“Search everything. I don’t care how insignificant it seems. If he wrote something, I want to read it. If he

hid sornething, I want it found. If someone knew him, I want them questioned.”

I paused before adding firmly,

“Leave absolutely no stone unturned.”

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<Chapter 539-

He gave a respectful nod.

“Yes, Alpha,” the investigator replied.

“I’ll begin immediately”

I wasn’t finished.

“And don’t limit yourself to his quarters,” continued.

“If he has a family home, go there. If he rented another place, search that too.”

The investigator nodded again.

Claim

“I already intended to,” the investigator replied “I simply wanted your authorization before expanding the

investigation.”

“You have it,” I said. “Whatever this man knew…I want to know it too.”

The investigator’s expression remained serious.

“I believe we’ll find something,” the investigator said.

“I don’t know what yet… But people rarely disappear from their own lives without leaving questions

behind.”

His confidence wasn’t misplaced.

Neither of us believed this investigation would end with an empty room and polite conversations.

There would be something.

There had to be.

Even if it was only one overlooked detail.

One forgotten conversation.

One piece of paper tucked away where no one had thought to look.

Sometimes…

That was all an investigation needed.

The investigator slowly closed the folder and stood.

“I’ll report back as soon as I have anything,” the investigator said.

I rose from my chair as well.

“Good,” I replied.

“I don’t care what time it is. If you find something…call me immediately.”

He inclined his head respectfully.

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Chapter 539

“Understood,” the investigator replied.

Claim

Without another word, he gathered the photographs, tucked the folder beneath his arm, and made his way toward the office door.

He paused only long enough to offer a final nod before opening it.

Then he disappeared into the hallway.

The door clicked shut behind him.

Once again…

I was alone.

”

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