Lieutenant Hart lowered the radio slowly.
Dana’s voice became very quiet. “Marcus, are you still there?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me exactly what she just said.”
I repeated it.
Dana did not answer right away. On the other end of the line, I heard papers moving, then a chair scraping across a floor.
“Dana?”
“I’m here.”
“What is it?”
“I need you to listen carefully. I’m looking at the access log for the missing complaint.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“What did you find?”
“The file was not removed by a precinct clerk.”
The street seemed to hold its breath.
“Who removed it?”
Dana inhaled slowly.
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because the access log shows a user ID that should not exist.”
Lieutenant Hart turned toward me. “What is she saying?”
I looked at the folder in her hands, the forged signature, and the envelope containing Leonard’s complaint.
Dana continued.
“The user ID was created after the complaint disappeared. It was used once to access Leonard’s file, once to access the Rivergate property records, and once to open your personal foundation file.”
My voice came out lower than I intended.
“When?”
“The first access was three weeks ago.”
“And the last?”
Dana stopped speaking.
I could hear a faint alarm sounding somewhere in her office.
“Dana.”
“The last access was today.”
My eyes moved to Officer Price.
He was no longer looking at the folder.
He was looking at my sedan.
More specifically, at Eli.
Eli had gone completely still beside the open rear door.
Dana’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Marcus, do not let Eli leave with that car.”
I turned toward him.
Eli’s hand was already inside his coat.
And on his face was an expression I had never seen in nine years.
Part 3
“Take your hand out of your coat,” I said.
Eli looked at me through the open rear door of the sedan. For nine years, he had been the person who noticed danger before anyone else did. He had driven me through protests, board disputes, hostile inspections, and one memorable night when a drunk contractor followed us for twelve blocks.
He had never looked afraid.
Now he did.
“I’m reaching for my phone,” he said.
“Do it slowly.”
Eli withdrew his hand and held up a black phone between two fingers. The screen was lit with a message from Bell Meridian’s security system.
VEHICLE THREE: EMERGENCY OVERRIDE ACCEPTED.
BELOW IT WAS A SECOND LINE.
AUTHORIZED BY: ELI TURNER.
Aaron stepped closer to the sedan. “What did you authorize?”
“Nothing,” Eli said.
Officer Price smiled.
It was not a relieved smile. It was the expression of a man who had just found a door he believed he could force open.
“Put the phone on the hood,” Lieutenant Hart ordered.
Eli placed it beside the edge of the open door.
The message had arrived less than a minute earlier. The timestamp glowed at the top of the screen. So did a location marker showing that the command had been issued from the same block where we stood.
Dana was still on speaker.
“Marcus, ask him what the override controls.”
“What does the override control?” I asked.
Eli swallowed. “The vehicle lock, the ignition, and the recording system.”