Ryan nodded.
That advice stayed with him.
Later that afternoon, investigators discovered another camera.
A security camera mounted on a private warehouse across the river.
It faced the maintenance facility.
The footage showed trucks entering the restricted area between midnight and three in the morning.
One vehicle appeared repeatedly.
It belonged to Riverfront Facilities Management.
But on one night, a police cruiser was visible behind it.
Ryan froze when he saw the recording.
He recognized the cruiser.
It belonged to Victor Hale.
Investigators requested the dispatch log.
Hale had reported being elsewhere.
His report claimed he was responding to a noise complaint.
The dispatch record showed no such call.
Ryan watched the footage again.
The patrol vehicle stopped near the maintenance building.
A person got out.
The person entered the building.
Thirty minutes later, the cruiser left.
Ryan didn't know what had happened inside.
But the contradiction was undeniable.
Then Damon arrived.
He carried another memory card.
"Found this."
Ryan looked at him.
"What is it?"
"Backup footage."
"From where?"
"Our camera."
Damon handed it over.
"Why didn't you give this to investigators yesterday?"
"Because we wanted to verify something first."
Ryan inserted the card.
The video showed the maintenance building.
Time stamp: 1:43 a.m.
A worker exited the building.
Behind him came another man.
The camera angle was poor.
The man's face was partially hidden.
But his uniform was visible.
Police uniform.
Ryan leaned toward the screen.
Then the man turned.
For one second, his face became clear.
Ryan stopped breathing.
It was Victor Hale.
The room went silent.
Damon looked at Ryan.
"Do you know him?"
Ryan swallowed.
"Yes."
"Who is he?"
Ryan stared at the screen.
"My training officer."
Hale denied everything.
He said the video was misleading.
He said he had been at the facility because the contractor had requested police assistance.
He said he had forgotten to document the visit correctly.
He said the missing body-camera footage was a technical problem.
One explanation after another.
Investigators listened.
Nobody interrupted.
But the evidence continued to accumulate.
The contractor's vehicle records placed company employees at the site.
Financial records showed unusual payments to a consulting company.
The consulting company was connected to a relative of a city employee.
And the police reports had been repeatedly closed without meaningful investigation.
Still, none of that proved exactly what Hale had done.
Ryan understood that.
Evidence had to be established, not assumed.
Meanwhile, Damon and Kelvin provided their complete archive.
Every photograph.
Every timestamp.
Every call log.
Every unanswered email.
Every sample.
Their records allowed investigators to construct a timeline.
The timeline revealed something important.
The environmental damage had begun months earlier.
The two men hadn't created the investigation.
They had simply refused to stop documenting it.
One evening, Ryan met Damon outside the station.
"I owe you another apology."
Damon smiled slightly.
"You've already apologized."
"I wasn't finished."
Damon waited.
Ryan said, "When I first saw you, I decided you were suspicious before I knew anything about you."
Damon looked toward the street.
"That happens."
"It shouldn't."
"No."
Silence followed.
Then Damon asked, "Why did you become a police officer?"
Ryan thought about the question.
"Because I wanted to help people."
"Do you still?"
Ryan nodded.
"Yes."
"Then remember that."
Ryan looked at him.
Damon continued.
"The badge isn't supposed to protect the person wearing it from accountability."
Ryan absorbed the words.
"You're right."
"No."
Damon shook his head.
"That's not what I mean."
Ryan waited.
"The badge should make accountability more important."
The next morning, the investigation took another turn.
A city auditor discovered that the environmental hotline complaints had been electronically deleted from the public system.
Not lost.
Deleted.
Investigators traced the access logs.
Someone had used an internal account.
The account belonged to a supervisor.
That supervisor reported directly to the police department's administrative division.
Ryan felt sick.
This wasn't one officer.
It wasn't one contractor.
It was a chain of decisions.
But investigators still needed proof.
Then Kelvin remembered something.
"There's one thing we didn't give you."
Ryan looked at him.
"What?"
Kelvin opened his laptop.
"Audio."
He played a recording.