But Claire noticed that his concern seemed to extend beyond Daniel's behavior.
His eyes kept moving toward the locked evidence corridor.
CLAIRE BENNETT: Chief Mercer, I need the narcotics evidence storage area secured immediately.
CHIEF WARREN MERCER: Of course.
CLAIRE BENNETT: Nobody should enter or remove anything until my federal team arrives.
CHIEF WARREN MERCER: Naturally.
CLAIRE BENNETT: I also need the original inventory ledger, transfer logs, destruction certificates, and all associated access records.
The chief nodded.
CHIEF WARREN MERCER: We'll cooperate fully.
Claire looked at him for several seconds.
CLAIRE BENNETT: I hope so.
She glanced toward the corridor once more.
The officer who had disappeared was still missing.
And the more she considered the timing of his departure, the more certain she became that her arrival had triggered something.
Her phone vibrated.
A secure message appeared on the screen.
It came from the federal financial investigation team.
The message contained a short update.
A NEW EVIDENCE TRANSFER HAS BEEN INITIATED FROM NORTH RIVER.
Claire read it twice.
The timestamp was less than five minutes old.
Someone was moving evidence while she was standing inside the building.
She raised her eyes toward the chief.
CLAIRE BENNETT: Chief Mercer, where is your evidence administration supervisor?
CHIEF WARREN MERCER: His office is down the hall.
CLAIRE BENNETT: Contact him.
CHIEF WARREN MERCER: Certainly.
CLAIRE BENNETT: And ask him why an evidence transfer was initiated five minutes ago.
The chief stopped moving.
CHIEF WARREN MERCER: What transfer?
Claire showed him the message.
The chief examined the screen.
His expression changed.
CHIEF WARREN MERCER: That's impossible.
CLAIRE BENNETT: Is it?
CHIEF WARREN MERCER: No evidence transfer should be taking place without my authorization.
CLAIRE BENNETT: Then we should find out who approved it.
Daniel had stopped smiling.
Gabriel looked toward the evidence corridor.
And somewhere behind the locked doors of the narcotics storage area, a machine began printing a new transfer receipt.
Claire closed her phone.
She looked directly at the chief.
CLAIRE BENNETT: I believe we need to have a much more serious conversation.
The chief did not answer.
Because he had just recognized the authorization number displayed on Claire's screen.
It belonged to an account that should have been inactive for nearly three years.
And only three people in the entire department knew how to reactivate it.
THE POLICE OFFICER GRABBED A FEDERAL AGENT AND MOCKED HER BADGE. HE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT SHE HAD COME TO UNCOVER.
The North River Police Division was already crowded when Claire Bennett walked through its glass entrance on Monday morning.
Rows of computer monitors illuminated the operations room. Officers moved between desks carrying paperwork, while dispatchers answered emergency calls and administrative employees struggled to keep up with the growing number of reports.
The building looked ordinary.
Nothing about its appearance suggested that something deeply disturbing had been happening behind its locked evidence-room doors.
Claire was forty-one years old, with straight blonde hair falling just below her shoulders. She wore a dark navy business suit over a white blouse and carried a slim black leather case.
Her appearance was professional but deliberately understated.
There was no reason for her to attract attention before she had examined the records.
She was a Special Agent with the Federal Office of Inspector General, assigned to a joint federal investigation into irregularities involving narcotics seizures and evidence management.
For the previous six weeks, she had been reviewing reports from several police departments participating in a regional narcotics task force.
Most departments had submitted accurate records.
North River had not.
According to federal documentation, approximately sixty-four kilograms of narcotics had been transferred into the local task force's custody during the previous eighteen months.
However, the department's own inventory showed a considerably smaller quantity.
The difference was substantial.
Several kilograms had supposedly been destroyed, but the destruction certificates did not contain the required federal authorization.
Other quantities had been recorded as transferred to different storage facilities, yet there were no corresponding signatures from the receiving officers.
Even more concerning, several evidence identification numbers appeared twice in the department's records.
The same packages seemed to exist in two different locations.
Claire had spent days comparing the figures, examining financial reports, and interviewing individuals who had previously worked in the evidence department.
Three days before her visit, an anonymous envelope had arrived at her federal office.
It contained photocopies of narcotics inventory records, several handwritten evidence numbers, and a short message.