Chapter 14 - The Betrayal at the Table
Vance called me into the command office just after midnight.
The chain of custody on one of our critical exhibits had a gap.
Not a large one.
Nine minutes.
Long enough for a defense attorney to question whether the file had been altered.
An internal review showed that a member of our own evidence team had accessed the sealed drive without a recorded witness.
The technician, Warren Pike, admitted copying a directory.
He said Yates threatened to ruin his brother's career unless he complied.
Pike's fear did not excuse him.
His confession did explain why Yates kept anticipating our next step.
There had been a leak inside the investigation.
Vance immediately separated Pike from the evidence, notified the proper authorities, and initiated a clean reconstruction from independently preserved copies.
I watched one week's work become vulnerable because of a nine-minute mistake.
“This is what Richard wants,” I said.
“He wants us angry enough to cut corners.”
Vance nodded.
“Then we don't.”
At sunrise, a second betrayal emerged.
Michael Rowan had met privately with Kessler months earlier without telling me.
He claimed he was attempting to recover Eleanor's documents.
When confronted, he admitted he had promised Kessler discretion in exchange for an old notebook.
“You should have told us,” I said.
“I was afraid you'd stop trusting me.”
“You've never given me a chance to trust you.”
I left before he could explain further.
That morning, Richard's staff released photographs of Rowan entering the investigative building.
The caption accused me of coordinating with a disgraced former intelligence officer.
Richard still did not know what the photographs proved.
He only knew they could hurt me.
As the story spread, our team's authorization to approach one class of records was temporarily challenged by legal counsel.
We respected the pause and pursued independent documents that were plainly within scope.
At the same moment, Ana's mother arrived with a sealed packet her daughter had left before disappearing.
Inside was an affidavit, signed and dated, describing the scheme.
The final paragraph named the person who had ordered the destruction of Eleanor's files.
It was not Richard.
May you like
It was Michael Rowan.
