Chapter 18 - Every Badge Became a Question
No one left the conference room.
Detective Susan Ortega quietly closed the blinds while Officer Marcus Hale disconnected the conference phone. Every detective present instinctively glanced at the badge clipped to the person beside them. The atmosphere had changed completely. A few hours earlier they had been hunting corruption inside the courthouse. Now they had to consider the possibility that someone inside their own department had been feeding information to the people they were investigating.
The digital forensics analyst projected the access logs onto the large monitor again.
"The unauthorized login using Officer Hale's credentials happened at 2:13 a.m.," he explained. "At that exact moment, Hale's key card was used to enter the police gym."
Hale frowned.
"I was there."
"You were. Security cameras confirm it."
"So someone cloned my credentials."
"That appears to be the only explanation."
Detective Ortega folded her arms.
"Who has access to credential cloning equipment?"
The analyst answered immediately.
"Only the Information Systems Division."
Silence filled the room.
There were fewer than a dozen employees with that level of access.
Hale picked up another report.
"What else was opened besides the Carter file?"
The analyst typed rapidly.
"A witness protection schedule."
Rachel looked confused.
"Witness protection?"
"Hannah Pierce."
Everyone froze.
Someone had viewed Hannah's temporary protection assignment nearly twenty minutes before she was abducted from the parking garage.
The room suddenly felt colder.
Officer Brooks quietly muttered, "They knew exactly where she would be."
Detective Ortega stared at the monitor.
"No."
She pointed at another line in the access log.
"They knew before we even finalized the escort."
Rachel looked at Hale.
"How is that possible?"
He answered honestly.
"Because someone inside the investigation told them."
No one spoke.
Every detective at the table silently replayed the last several hours in their minds, trying to remember every conversation, every phone call, every face.
Then Officer Brooks noticed another timestamp.
"Marcus..."
Hale leaned over.
"What?"
"The unauthorized user downloaded another file."
"Which one?"
Brooks clicked the entry.
The file name appeared on the screen.
Rachel Carter – Residential Address History
Rachel's face went pale.
"They weren't just trying to win custody."
Hale looked directly at her.
"They've been tracking everywhere you've lived."
Before anyone could continue, the lights flickered once.
Then again.
The building briefly lost power.
Emergency lights activated across the hallway.
May you like
Someone had just interrupted electricity to Police Headquarters.
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