Rachel stared at him.
"That is not a normal traffic stop face."
Marcus almost smiled.
"Apparently, my face wasn't the problem."
"What does that mean?"
He handed her the incident number.
"An officer stopped me on the highway. Things escalated. Another officer intervened, and the situation is being documented."
Rachel read the first page of his preliminary statement.
Her expression grew serious.
"Did he know who you were?"
"No."
"Did you identify yourself?"
"Only after the second officer verified my credentials."
Rachel closed the folder.
"Good."
Marcus raised an eyebrow.
"Good?"
"Yes. If you had announced your position immediately, the officer might have changed his behavior because of your title. Now we have an opportunity to examine what happened before he knew anything about you."
Marcus nodded.
"That's how I see it."
Rachel glanced at the bruise again.
"Are you hurt?"
"Nothing serious."
"That's not what I asked."
He paused.
"My shoulder is sore. I'll have it checked."
"Do that."
She opened the conference room door.
"We have another problem."
Marcus followed her inside.
A large screen displayed a series of transactions, names, and dates. Several files were marked confidential. At the center of the presentation was a company called Westbridge Security Solutions.
Westbridge had won several public contracts over the previous five years.
On paper, the company provided equipment, training, and logistical support to local law enforcement agencies.
The contracts appeared ordinary.
The payments did not.
Investigators had identified transfers to several intermediaries whose businesses had little apparent connection to public safety. Some payments had been divided into smaller amounts. Others had passed through consulting firms that seemed to exist primarily to receive money.
Three witnesses had agreed to cooperate.
Two had withdrawn their statements.
One had disappeared.
Marcus took his seat.
"What's changed?"
Rachel pointed to a new entry.
"An internal source confirmed that a local officer may have been sharing information about our investigation with someone connected to Westbridge."
Marcus studied the name.
Daniel Whitmore.
For several seconds, the room seemed to grow very quiet.
Rachel noticed his expression.
"You know him?"
"I met him this afternoon."
She stared at Marcus.
"Where?"
"On the highway."
He explained what had happened, keeping his account factual and avoiding speculation about Daniel's motives.
When he finished, Rachel leaned back in her chair.
"That's quite a coincidence."
"Maybe."
"You don't think so?"
"I think coincidences happen. I also think we should verify the facts before deciding what they mean."
Rachel turned back to the screen.
"Whitmore's name appeared in a preliminary records review three weeks ago. He accessed a restricted incident file connected to one of our witnesses."
"Was he authorized to access it?"
"That's what we're trying to establish."
Marcus studied the transaction chart.
"Did he access it before or after the witness withdrew his statement?"
"Two days before."
Marcus felt a familiar tension settle over him.
He remembered Daniel's urgency on the highway, the way he had insisted on controlling every answer, and his reaction when Marcus mentioned documenting the encounter.
None of that proved a connection to the larger investigation.
But it was enough to justify a closer look.
"Don't put the traffic stop into the corruption case just because the same name appears," Marcus said. "Keep the records separate until we have evidence linking them."
Rachel nodded.
"Agreed."
"And make sure the local department preserves his dispatch communications, body-camera footage, vehicle-camera recordings, and incident reports."
"Already requested."
Marcus looked at the screen again.
"Then let's find out what he was doing in that file."
For the next two hours, the team reviewed the existing evidence.
Westbridge had received several contracts after submitting bids that were unusually close to the winning amounts. In some cases, competing bidders had withdrawn shortly before deadlines. In others, technical evaluations had been changed after initial scoring.
A municipal purchasing officer had claimed that senior officials pressured her to approve a contract despite missing documentation.
A former accountant had provided records suggesting that some of the payments were routed through shell companies.
And a confidential witness had told investigators that certain law enforcement personnel were being compensated for information about ongoing inquiries.
The witness had described a meeting in a parking garage.
He had not provided a complete list of names.
He had, however, identified a vehicle registered to the same county department where Daniel worked.
The evidence was incomplete.
It was also serious.
Marcus spent the remainder of the evening reviewing the witness statement.
At one point, he stopped at a paragraph describing an officer who had warned the witness that cooperation would make his life difficult.
The statement included a phrase that caught Marcus's attention.
"You don't know who you're dealing with."
He read it twice.
The phrase was common enough.
It could mean nothing.
Still, he wrote it down.
Then he closed the file and looked out the conference room window.
Night had fallen over the city.