Thomas Reed: "Sometimes. Other times, the instructions came through internal messages."
Emily Carter: "Do you still have those messages?"
Thomas Reed: "Some of them."
Emily Carter: "Have you deleted any?"
Thomas Reed: "No."
Emily nodded.
Emily Carter: "That is important. Please do not alter or delete them. We will arrange for the original records to be preserved."
Thomas looked relieved.
Thomas Reed: "I was worried that I might be blamed for the changes."
Captain Mitchell: "If you followed an instruction in good faith, we will examine the circumstances. What matters now is that we establish exactly what happened."
Thomas opened his notebook.
Thomas Reed: "There is one more thing. On October 22, I was working late. I received a request to print a transfer summary for the evidence room."
Emily looked at the photograph.
Emily Carter: "Was the request connected to this date?"
Thomas studied the image.
His eyes widened slightly.
Thomas Reed: "Yes. That's the night I received the request."
Emily leaned forward.
Emily Carter: "Do you recognize the person in the photograph?"
Thomas looked carefully.
He did not answer immediately.
Then he lowered his voice.
Thomas Reed: "I think I do."
Captain Mitchell looked at him.
Captain Mitchell: "Who is it?"
Thomas glanced once more at the photograph.
Thomas Reed: "I believe it's someone from the department's administrative office."
Emily kept her expression neutral.
Emily Carter: "Can you identify him with confidence?"
Thomas Reed: "Not from this image alone. But I remember seeing someone wearing a similar jacket that night."
Captain Mitchell: "Who?"
Thomas closed his notebook.
Thomas Reed: "Lieutenant Collins."
The room fell silent.
Mitchell slowly looked toward Emily.
Emily did not react immediately.
She had expected Collins' name to emerge, but hearing it from a records technician who had no apparent reason to invent the connection made the situation considerably more serious.
Emily Carter: "Mr. Reed, I need you to be very precise. Are you saying you personally saw Lieutenant Collins near the evidence storage area on October 22?"
Thomas Reed: "I saw him in the corridor outside the records unit. I didn't see him enter the storage room."
Emily Carter: "Did you speak with him?"
Thomas Reed: "No. He was carrying a folder. I was leaving the office, and he walked past me."
Emily Carter: "What time was that?"
Thomas Reed: "A little before midnight."
Emily wrote down the time.
Emily Carter: "Did you tell anyone?"
Thomas Reed: "No. At the time, I didn't think it meant anything."
Captain Mitchell rubbed his forehead.
Captain Mitchell: "Thomas, is there anything else you remember about that night?"
Thomas hesitated.
Thomas Reed: "Yes. The next morning, one of the transfer records had been changed."
Emily looked up.
Emily Carter: "Which record?"
Thomas opened his notebook and found a page.
Thomas Reed: "The receipt for the digital storage devices. The original record listed one receiving officer. The updated record listed another."
Emily Carter: "Do you remember the original name?"
Thomas Reed: "I wrote it down because I thought the change was unusual."
He turned the notebook toward her.
The name was Michael Grant.
The same detective who had denied receiving the devices.
Emily looked at Captain Mitchell.
Captain Mitchell: "Can you show us the original entry?"
Thomas Reed: "I believe I can locate it in the archived system."
Emily Carter: "Do not access it yet. We need the technical team to preserve the system first."
Thomas nodded.
Emily stood and walked toward the window.
The pieces were beginning to form a pattern.
A questionable transfer.
An unauthorized visit to the evidence storage area.
A changed receipt.
A senior officer's name appearing on the transfer documentation.
And a technician who had been warned not to ask questions.
But Emily still needed the original records.
Without them, the investigation would remain vulnerable to denial, confusion, and competing explanations.
She turned back toward Thomas.
Emily Carter: "Mr. Reed, would you be willing to provide a formal statement describing what you have just told us?"
Thomas Reed: "Yes."
Emily Carter: "You should include only what you personally observed or what you can verify through the records. If you are uncertain about something, say so."
Thomas nodded.
Thomas Reed: "I understand."
Captain Mitchell stood.
Captain Mitchell: "I'll arrange for an independent officer to take the statement."
Emily Carter: "And please make sure Mr. Reed is not left alone with anyone who may be involved in the records being reviewed."
Mitchell agreed.
Thomas stood up, gathered his notebook, and prepared to leave.
Before he reached the door, Emily spoke again.
Emily Carter: "Mr. Reed, one more question. Has anyone recently asked you to remove or replace an original document?"
Thomas stopped.
He looked down at the notebook.
For a moment, he seemed unsure whether to answer.
Then he turned around.
Thomas Reed: "Yes."
Emily waited.
Thomas Reed: "Yesterday afternoon, someone asked me to locate the original transfer receipt for the September case. They said the department needed to correct an administrative error."
Captain Mitchell: "Who asked you?"
Thomas looked at the captain.
Thomas Reed: "The request came through Lieutenant Collins' office."