than the photograph.
Ask who told Vance you were coming.
Maya had already asked that question. The transition schedule had been
distributed to senior staff. The mayor’s office had announced her
appointment. The precinct knew a new chief was expected. None of that
explained why the dispatch call had described her as a suspicious woman
with a concealed package.
She asked Dana to treat the message as a separate lead, not as proof of
anything. Then she went to the command office with Captain Brooks and
the digital-evidence specialist. Harlan had been relieved of access to
the office while the review continued. His desk was sealed, and the
computer had been copied.
The office was neat to the point of appearing unused. A framed
photograph of the precinct’s first graduating patrol class sat beside a
row of commendations. A calendar marked the mayor’s arrival. A printed
copy of Maya’s transition schedule lay in an open folder.
Brooks pointed to the schedule. “This was sent to the command staff
three days ago.”
Maya studied it. “It says I would arrive at eight and meet the
supervisors in the conference room.”
“That’s all most people knew.”
“Who had the unabridged version?”
Brooks checked the distribution list. The full transition packet had
gone to Harlan, Brooks, the mayor’s chief of staff, and the
administrative assistant. It included Maya’s professional biography,
appointment letter, and the location of her first meetings. It did not
include the fact that she planned to arrive early.
“Someone knew I was coming,” Maya said. “Someone knew I would be at this
entrance, or someone saw me and made a call after I arrived.”
“The call was six minutes before Vance approached you,” Brooks said.
“Which means the caller either saw me or had prior information.”
The digital specialist opened the network log. The command-office
terminal had been active before the call, but several users had signed
into the shared account during the previous week. The department’s old
system did not require individual credentials for every administrative
action. That made it difficult to identify who had initiated a
particular command.
Maya looked at Brooks. “How long has the system been configured this
way?”
“Years.”
“Who approved it?”
“It’s in the technology replacement plan. The request has been postponed
twice.”
“By whom?”
Brooks looked at the screen. “Harlan signed the postponement.”
The specialist found a second record. The shared account had been used
to export several complaint summaries the night before Maya’s arrival.
The exports had gone to a removable drive. The drive was not in the
sealed office.
“Was the export authorized?” Maya asked.
“No,” the specialist said. “Not under the current evidence hold. But it
happened before the hold was issued.”
“Can we identify the device?”
“We have a device identifier. It was last connected to a workstation in
the records room.”
Brooks’s face tightened. “That room is accessible to supervisors.”
“And records staff,” Maya said. “We need the access log.”
The records room was small, crowded, and poorly lit. Filing cabinets
lined one wall. Two workstations sat beneath a bulletin board covered
with shift notices. The staff member assigned to records, a woman named
Patricia Lowe, looked alarmed when the team arrived.
“I didn’t export anything,” Patricia said before they asked.
“We haven’t accused you of doing anything,” Maya replied.
Patricia looked from Maya to Brooks. “People are saying this is about
Harlan. I don’t want to be pulled into something I don’t understand.”
“Then tell us what you do understand,” Dana said.
Patricia explained that supervisors often asked her to print complaint
summaries or retrieve old reports. Sometimes they asked for copies
without submitting the standard request. She had objected once, and
Harlan told her that command staff did not need to follow the same
process as ordinary employees.
“Did you see anyone use the removable drive?” Dana asked.
Patricia hesitated. “I saw Officer Vance in here last Thursday. He said
he was helping with a training presentation.”
“Did he connect a drive?”
“I think so. He was at the second workstation. I didn’t ask.”
“Did he have permission to access complaint files?”
“I don’t know. He said the deputy chief had approved his project.”
Maya thanked her and asked her not to discuss the interview. Patricia
looked relieved but still frightened.
The team reviewed the workstation logs. The removable drive had been
connected to the records-room computer at 6:18 p.m. on Thursday. It had
copied several complaint summaries, including Denise Walker’s file and
two others involving Vance. The drive’s identifier matched a device
assigned to Vance for training materials.
The copied files did not prove that Vance had placed the dispatch call.
They did show that he had collected records involving complaints against
himself shortly before Maya’s arrival. The timing could indicate
preparation for a training presentation, but the selection was too
specific to ignore.
Dana requested the training project file. The official folder contained
a presentation on officer safety and suspicious-person response. It
included general guidance on assessing calls, approaching vehicles, and
communicating with dispatch. The presentation had been approved by
Harlan.
But the file metadata showed that a different document had been created
and deleted from the same folder. The title was “Carter Arrival—Risk
Notes.”
Maya felt the room tighten around her.
“Can it be recovered?” she asked.
The specialist nodded. “Possibly. We need a forensic image first.”
They waited while the device was copied. The recovered document
contained only a few lines. It listed Maya’s name, her expected arrival
time, the side entrance, and a note: “No advance introduction to patrol.
Observe response. Do not allow unplanned access to vehicle area.”
The note was unsigned.
Maya read it twice. “This could be a security instruction.”
“It could,” Dana said. “But why would the officers receive a
suspicious-person call instead of a normal access notice?”
“Maybe the call was intended to test them,” Brooks said.
Maya looked at her. “A test that involved a weapon, a slap, and
handcuffs?”
Brooks did not answer.
The document contained another line: “Package description to be
confirmed by responding unit.” That phrase was not a standard security