Chapter 5 - THE RED FOLDER
Hale's house looked as if someone had searched it with patience instead of rage.
Nothing obvious was smashed.
Nothing valuable was taken from the living room.
The television remained mounted to the wall.
A laptop sat untouched on the dining table.
Cash inside a kitchen drawer had not been disturbed.
Only one room had been opened with force.
Hale's study.
Mara stood in the doorway while a police officer photographed the damaged lock.
Metal splinters glittered on the carpet.
Nia remained close behind her.
Leila had refused to come.
She had already broken one agreement by meeting them and said she would not let Meridian know she was involved until she had legal protection.
Mara understood.
She also hated how effectively fear had trained everyone connected to Meridian.
Hale pointed toward an empty lower cabinet.
"The files were there."
Officer Morales, the same officer who had taken Mara's earlier report, looked up.
"How many?"
"Nine folders."
"What kind of records?"
Hale hesitated.
Mara watched him choose between protecting himself and telling the truth.
"Copies of academy incident reports."
Morales stopped writing.
"Why were academy records in your home?"
"Because I believed some of them might be altered or destroyed."
"Did you have authorization to remove them?"
"No."
Morales studied him.
"How long have you had them?"
"Some for years."
Mara felt another flare of anger.
Years.
Not days.
Not since Trent choked her.
Years.
Hale caught the look on her face but did not defend himself.
Morales continued.
"Who knew these files were here?"
"No one was supposed to."
"That isn't what I asked."
Hale rubbed the back of his neck.
"My ex-wife knew I kept work papers in the office, but not what they were."
"Anyone at Meridian?"
"Not specifically."
Mara spoke.
"Trent knew Hale kept something about Caleb Rourke."
Morales turned toward her.
"How do you know?"
Mara repeated what Trent had said at the diner.
Hale's jaw tightened.
"He could have been guessing."
Mara looked at him.
"Was he?"
Hale did not answer.
Morales wrote it down.
"Anything else missing?"
Hale walked to the desk.
He pulled open a drawer.
"A flash drive."
"Contents?"
"Scans of the same records."
Nia exhaled sharply.
"So they got the paper and the backup."
Morales looked at her.
"We do not know who 'they' are."
Nia nodded, but her expression said she had already decided.
Hale stared into the empty drawer.
Mara saw shame settle across his face.
"You had everything in one house?"
"I had another copy."
Mara stepped closer.
"Where?"
Hale's eyes lifted to hers.
"Meridian."
Nia stared at him.
"You hid evidence inside the building run by the people you thought were altering evidence?"
"They were not looking for what they believed had already been destroyed."
Mara folded her arms.
"Where is it?"
Hale glanced at Morales.
"In an archive space beneath the old equipment room."
"Can you get in?"
"Not if they deactivated my access badge."
Mara thought of the academy's older basement corridor.
Few students used it.
The wing had once held offices before the renovation.
"Is there another entrance?"
Hale looked at her.
"There is a mechanical door from the parking garage."
Morales closed her notebook.
"Nobody is going there to retrieve anything without permission."
Hale nodded.
"I understand."
Mara did not like the answer.
If Meridian had already changed Caleb's report and somebody had just stolen every original Hale kept at home, waiting for permission felt like watching a fire spread while discussing the ownership of the hose.
Morales seemed to sense the frustration.
"If you believe evidence relevant to a crime is inside the academy, give me the exact location and description."
Hale did.
"Can you get it tonight?" Mara asked.
"I cannot promise that."
"By tomorrow it could be gone."
"I understand."
"Do you?"
Morales held Mara's gaze.
"Yes."
Her voice was calm.
"But if I enter private property without legal authority and seize records, whatever we find may become harder to use."
Mara looked away.
She hated that Morales was right.
After police left, Hale sat on the edge of his desk.
"I should have moved them months ago."
Mara's anger returned.
"You should have turned them over years ago."
Hale nodded.
"Yes."
"Stop agreeing with me."
His eyes lifted.
"Would you prefer I lie?"
"Apparently you were good at it."
Nia stepped between them before Hale could respond.
"Fighting each other is exactly what Meridian wants."
Mara looked at her.
Nia continued.
"Raymond made terrible choices."
"I know."
"But somebody broke into his house to steal records after Trent followed us."
Hale's voice was quiet.
"She's right to be angry."
Nia turned on him.
"And you need to stop acting like guilt is useful."
Hale blinked.
"If you want to help, give us facts."
Mara almost smiled despite herself.
Nia pointed at the empty cabinet.
"What exactly is in the Meridian backup?"
Hale straightened.
"Copies of the original Rourke report."
"Leila's original incident statement."
"Two complaints against Trent that never made it into the formal archive."
"Emails from Celeste."
"And one folder I never opened."
Mara frowned.
"Why not?"
"Because it wasn't mine."
"Whose was it?"
"Gavin's."
The room went quiet.
Hale walked to a bookcase and removed an old photograph from between two manuals.
It showed Meridian's original staff standing in front of the old building.
Gavin Voss stood near the center.
Celeste was much younger.
Hale stood at the end of the row.
Someone had circled a narrow office door behind them in red ink.
"Before the renovation, Gavin used that office whenever he came to the academy."
"After he moved upstairs, maintenance cleared the room."
"A locked red folder was left in a filing cabinet."
Nia raised an eyebrow.
"And you stole it?"
"I relocated it."
Mara stared at him.
"You stole it."
Hale sighed.
"Fine."
"I stole it."
"Why?"
"Because Caleb was hurt two weeks earlier, and I no longer trusted anything around Gavin."
"What was in it?"
"I told you."
"I never opened it."
Nia looked incredulous.
"For eight years?"
"The folder had a tamper seal with Gavin's initials across it."
"I thought if I opened it, he would know someone had taken it."
Mara looked at the photograph.
"Where did you hide it?"
"Behind a false panel in the old records room."
"And it is still there?"
"Unless someone found it."
Mara's phone buzzed.
An email from Celeste appeared.
The subject line read: FINAL NOTICE.
Mara opened it.
Meridian demanded return of all confidential records by 9:00 a.m. the next day.
Failure to comply, the email warned, could result in civil action and referral to law enforcement.
Nia read over her shoulder.
"They are threatening to call the police on us while someone is breaking into Raymond's house."
Mara scrolled farther.
A list of specific documents appeared near the bottom.
Caleb Rourke report.
Elena Park report.
Julian Reese report.
Leila Grant settlement material.
Mara stopped.
"They know what was in Hale's envelope."
Hale stepped closer.
"How?"
Mara looked at him.
"You tell me."
Hale's face went still.
The envelope had never been inside Meridian after he gave it to Mara.
Only Mara, Nia, Hale, Leila, and the police had seen the documents together.
Mara's stomach tightened.
Then Nia pointed at one line.
"Wait."
Mara followed her finger.
The demand listed one item Hale had never given Mara.
Red Voss file, archive storage.
Hale's face drained of color.
"They know about it."
Mara looked toward the broken study door.
The burglary suddenly made more sense.
The thief had not found the red folder in Hale's house because it was not there.
Now Meridian knew exactly where to look.
Hale grabbed his keys.
"They're going to the basement."
Nia stepped in front of him.
"The police told us not to go."
"If we wait until morning, there will be nothing left."
Mara's phone rang.
Officer Morales.
She answered.
"Officer?"
Morales spoke quickly.
"Do not go to Meridian."
Mara looked at Hale.
"Why?"
"A silent alarm just triggered in the academy's lower level."
Mara's pulse jumped.
"Is someone there?"
"Units are responding now."
Then Morales added another sentence.
May you like
"The alarm was triggered from inside the archive room."
