Evelyn and Judge Whitmore returned to the conference room, where Deputy Director Hayes had arranged for a secure video connection with the investigative team's technical specialist, Nina Patel.
Nina was an experienced digital forensic analyst who had spent years examining electronic evidence in corruption and organized-crime investigations. She was known for being patient, precise, and unwilling to claim certainty before the data supported it.
The photograph appeared on the wall-mounted screen.
“Don't zoom in on the original yet,” Nina instructed. “First, I need the unaltered file and its metadata. Any modification could affect the examination.”
Evelyn transferred the image through the approved secure channel.
Nina studied the file.
“The photograph was received at 2:17 p.m.,” she said. “The embedded metadata is incomplete, so we cannot rely on it alone to establish when the image was taken. However, the lighting and the vehicle's position are consistent with the garage's recorded footage.”
“Can you identify the person in the reflection?” Hayes asked through the connection.
“Not from this image alone. The reflection is too distorted.”
“Can you improve it?”
“I can examine the available pixels, but enhancement cannot recover details that were never captured. I'll compare the image with the security recordings.”
Nina requested the garage footage.
Within minutes, the relevant sequence appeared on the screen. The camera showed the black sedan parked beside a concrete pillar. A person wearing a dark jacket stood near the elevator, holding a phone at chest level.
The figure moved out of view shortly before Mercer entered the garage.
Evelyn leaned forward.
“Can we see the person's face?”
Nina adjusted the playback.
The figure turned briefly toward the camera.
A partial profile appeared, but the image remained unclear.
“No reliable identification yet,” Nina said. “We can compare clothing, movement, and timing with other recordings, but we should not identify someone based on a vague resemblance.”
Judge Whitmore nodded.
“Continue.”
The video advanced.
At 2:21 p.m., Mercer entered the garage. He walked directly toward the sedan without appearing to inspect the surrounding vehicles. He then approached Evelyn and began issuing commands.
Hayes leaned toward his camera.
“Stop there.”
Nina froze the image.
“What do you see?” Evelyn asked.
“Look at the entrance.”
The video showed Mercer passing the security kiosk. He did not pause to speak with the attendant, and he did not appear to receive any instructions from anyone nearby.
Hayes considered the footage.
“Does the recording show him looking at his phone?”
“Not clearly,” Nina replied. “The angle is poor.”
“Can we compare it with the dispatch record?”
“I've requested the available communications logs.”
Evelyn watched the frozen image.
“Something else stands out. He didn't appear surprised to see me.”
Judge Whitmore turned toward her.
“Explain.”
“He approached with a specific objective. He immediately demanded that I put my hands on the vehicle, then escalated when I asked questions. He didn't ask whether I owned the car, whether I was authorized to be there, or whether someone had reported suspicious activity.”
“That could reflect poor judgment rather than prior knowledge,” Hayes said.
“Agreed. I'm not saying it proves he knew who I was. But it is consistent with someone approaching the vehicle with an expectation that I would be there.”
Nina spoke again.
“There is another recording worth examining.”
She opened a second camera view showing the elevator lobby.
At 2:13 p.m., the person in the dark jacket appeared near a wall-mounted directory. The figure looked toward the vehicle area, then took out a phone.
A few seconds later, the person walked toward the exit.
The image did not establish the person's identity, but it showed something the first recording had not captured.
A visitor badge was attached to the jacket.
Nina enlarged the frame as far as the image quality allowed.
“The text is not readable,” she said. “But the badge appears to have a white background with a dark stripe.”
Marcus Reed, who had joined the meeting to explain the garage system, leaned toward the screen.
“That resembles the temporary visitor badges issued by the courthouse administration.”
Judge Whitmore looked at him.
“Can those badges be issued without an appointment?”
“Normally, visitors need to be registered. However, staff members can occasionally receive temporary access passes for maintenance or administrative work.”
“Who issued passes that afternoon?”
Marcus checked the visitor log.
“I'll need to compare the records.”
Hayes gave a short instruction.
“Do that, but preserve the original log before making any changes.”
Marcus nodded.
The investigation was beginning to develop several possible leads, but Evelyn remained concerned about the anonymous message. Whoever had placed it in the folder had known about the missing files.
She opened the evidence inventory on her laptop and reviewed the documents she had carried from the judge's office.
One page contained a list of missing records. Another outlined the sequence of unauthorized archive accesses. A third listed several individuals who had been interviewed during the preliminary inquiry.
The names were familiar.
Three belonged to government procurement officials. Two belonged to private contractors. One belonged to a former records administrator named Paul Bennett.
Bennett had disappeared six weeks earlier.
He had not been declared dead, and investigators had not established that a crime had occurred. He had simply stopped appearing at work, abandoned his apartment, and failed to contact his family.
Before disappearing, he had reportedly told a colleague that someone was altering official records.
Evelyn pointed to his name.
“Paul Bennett may be connected to the person who sent the message.”
Hayes nodded.
“We've been trying to locate him. His disappearance could be unrelated, but the timing warrants further examination.”
Judge Whitmore looked troubled.
“Bennett was scheduled to provide additional information about the archive irregularities. His interview was postponed when he failed to appear.”
“Did anyone know about the rescheduled interview?” Evelyn asked.
“A limited number of people.”
“Who?”
The judge listed the authorized individuals. Hayes added the members of his investigative team.
The list was short.
Evelyn examined it carefully.
“Then we need to determine whether any of those people had contact with the courthouse visitor system or the police registration database.”
Hayes agreed.
Nina continued examining the garage footage.
“I've found a second event. At 2:19 p.m., approximately two minutes before Officer Mercer arrived, the same figure returned to the elevator lobby. The person appeared to look toward the sedan, then left through the eastern exit.”
“Can you track the person beyond the garage?” Hayes asked.
“Not with the footage currently available. We would need recordings from adjacent buildings or the street.”
Judge Whitmore looked at Evelyn.
“Request them through the appropriate channels.”
Evelyn began making notes.
Then Nina spoke again.
“There's something else. The person did not appear to use the elevator. They were standing near the control panel, but the doors never opened while they were there.”
“Why does that matter?” Marcus asked.
“Because the person may not have been waiting for a ride. They may have been using the lobby as a place to observe the vehicle without standing directly beside it.”
The room fell silent.
Evelyn returned to the original photograph and examined the reflection.
The figure's right hand was raised near the chest.
Something metallic caught the light.
“Could that be a badge?” she asked.
“Possibly,” Nina replied. “But the image isn't clear enough to say.”
Judge Whitmore folded her hands.
“Then we have a person who may have monitored my vehicle, an anonymous threat connected to missing evidence, and an unexplained database search performed before the confrontation.”
She looked toward Hayes's image on the screen.
“We must investigate every lead without allowing the most dramatic possibility to distract us from the facts.”
“Agreed,” Hayes said.
Evelyn's phone vibrated.
A new message had arrived from an unknown number.
No greeting. No explanation.
Only a photograph.
This time, the image showed the courthouse's private conference room door.
Beneath it were six words.
YOU ARE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE.
Evelyn immediately showed the screen to Judge Whitmore.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Hayes's voice came through the speaker.
“Do not respond. Preserve the message and notify courthouse security immediately.”
Evelyn followed his instructions.
The message did not prove that the sender was inside the courthouse. It could have been taken earlier, copied from an existing image, or transmitted by someone with access to security information.
But its arrival suggested that the sender knew which investigation was underway.
Judge Whitmore rose from her chair.
“We are moving to a more secure location.”
The security team began preparing the transfer.
As Evelyn collected her notes, she noticed a detail in the photograph that she had initially overlooked.
The conference room door had a narrow metal nameplate beside the handle.
The plate displayed the room number.
And below the number was a small label identifying the office responsible for its maintenance.
Facilities and Records Management.
Evelyn looked at Hayes's list of people with authorized access to the missing-file investigation.
Then she looked at Paul Bennett's name.
The missing records administrator had worked in the very department responsible for maintaining the courthouse's internal record systems.
For the first time, she wondered whether the missing files had never left the building at all.
Perhaps someone had hidden them in a place everyone assumed was secure.
And perhaps the person sending the threats wanted them to discover that fact before someone else did.