The investigation began with the motorcycle. State forensic specialists examined the rusted Shovelhead in a controlled facility, documenting the condition of the frame and every visible alteration before removing anything. The misshapen metal object proved consistent with a fired bullet that had struck and lodged in a reinforced mounting bracket, later hidden beneath filler and paint. The damage could not be explained by a simple road collision. The lab did not immediately identify who fired the weapon, and the investigators said so rather than claiming more than the evidence could bear.
The vest provided another trail. Its original name patch and hand-repaired seams matched photographs the club had supplied from years earlier. The strange memorial inscription had been added after Dominic disappeared, with stitching unlike any work his friends recognized. A specialist comparing photographs of the vest before the disappearance and its recovered condition confirmed that the strip was a later addition. Why anyone would hide a memorialized garment inside a motorcycle supposedly lost forever remained an open question.
Records from the salvage yard gave investigators a starting point. The towing company had received an ordinary roadside recovery request for a motorcycle found in a shallow ditch off Route 58. But the dispatcher's original note described a tarp-covered vehicle placed near the ditch by an unidentified flatbed late the previous night. Traffic cameras and toll records did not solve the entire mystery, but they gave investigators vehicles and time windows worth examining. The recovered bike had been deliberately moved, not simply uncovered by weather after three years.
Within a week, investigators located a storage building connected to a shell company whose listed address matched the warehouse receipt Chloe remembered from Richard's kitchen. Rental records showed payments from accounts associated with the now-suspended deputy and another county employee. An inspection of the building revealed a rectangular clean patch on an otherwise dusty concrete floor, oil stains, and tire marks consistent with a heavy motorcycle having stood there for a long time. The room itself did not prove a homicide, but it made Richard's explanation about the bike vanishing into a gorge increasingly difficult to sustain.
The sheriff's department announced that Richard Croft was on administrative leave while state and federal authorities reviewed allegations of misconduct. Reporters called it an unusually fast development. Chloe knew better than to confuse speed with safety. Richard had spent years proving that official statements could be made and forgotten, and she had no intention of relying on his department's assurances alone. With Marisol's help she obtained information about a protective order and the procedures for reporting any attempt to contact or threaten her.
The sheriff, Walter Briggs, issued a statement saying he had no knowledge of any criminal activity connected to his deputy. Within days investigators found messages suggesting that Briggs had approved unusual patrol restrictions around the freight stop in question. A separate records search revealed discrepancies between the original missing-person investigation and the report eventually released to Dominic's family. Names had been removed from witness lists, and a search team had been recalled without the reasons being documented. Vargas ordered the missing records preserved before anyone had another opportunity to alter them.