Chapter 6
Forgotten Souls
Following Ridgeway's obscure hints, Angela and her team begin a painstaking search, digging through old archives and neglected evidence logs. They uncover obscure reports, missing persons cases that were never officially linked to Ridgeway, girls who simply vanished. Each discovery is a gut punch, a reminder of the lives lost and overlooked. These forgotten souls become a new focus, their stories a tragic testament to the scope of Ridgeway's original crimes. Angela feels a profound connection to these lost individuals, their plight mirroring her own mother's unknown fate. Her personal quest for answers becomes inextricably linked to bringing justice to these neglected victims.
The sterile air of the evidence vault clung to Angela like a second skin, thick with the dust of forgotten years and the metallic tang of decay. Rows upon rows of cardboard boxes, each a tomb for a life, stretched into the dim fluorescent light. This was where the ghosts of the past resided, and Angela was determined to shake them awake. Ridgeway’s words, a venomous whisper in the sterile confines of his cell, echoed in her mind: “They weren’t all found, Detective. Some just… faded. Like smoke. But smoke leaves a trace, doesn’t it?”
Faded. Smoke. Trace. The words gnawed at her. She’d spent weeks poring over the official Ridgeway case files, the ones that had consumed her mother’s life and ultimately, seemingly, her own. But Ridgeway, in his twisted game, had pointed her away from the well-trodden path, towards the periphery, the footnotes, the cases that had slipped through the cracks.
“Anything, Detective?” Detective Davies, his face etched with fatigue, leaned against a filing cabinet, the fluorescent light casting harsh shadows on his weary features. He’d been her shadow for the past two days, a silent, unwavering presence.
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