Briggs handed him the envelope.
Voss opened it, glanced inside, and immediately closed it again.
Then he removed a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
He gave it to Briggs.
The officer unfolded the note.
Read it.
And looked directly toward the street where Marcus would arrive thirty minutes later.
Marcus felt the room become strangely distant.
“Aaron,” he said, “can you enlarge that?”
The technician magnified the recording.
The writing remained difficult to read.
But the note contained a printed photograph.
A man wearing a black bomber jacket.
Marcus recognized the photograph.
It was him.
He stared at the screen.
Briggs had not simply chosen a stranger to humiliate.
Someone had shown him exactly whom to intercept.
And the person giving the instruction was the man Marcus had trusted for nearly three decades.
Aaron spoke nervously.
“Commander?”
Marcus rose slowly.
“Preserve this recording separately under the evidence hold.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then contact the external investigations division.”
Aaron looked surprised.
“You’re reporting Deputy Chief Voss?”
Marcus watched his former mentor disappear from the screen.
“I’m reporting what the evidence shows.”
He reached for his phone.
Before he could dial, a message appeared.
It came from an unknown number.
THE WOMAN IN THE GREEN COAT HAS THE ORIGINAL RECORDS.
A second message arrived moments later.
IF VOSS FINDS HER FIRST, FORTY-NINE PEOPLE WILL LOSE THEIR LAST CHANCE TO CLEAR THEIR NAMES.
Marcus read the words twice.
Then he looked toward the headquarters entrance.
What had begun as an assault outside his own department was becoming something far more dangerous.
Someone had planned to stop him before he ever reached his office.
And he was beginning to understand why.