Detective Bennett met him in a small interview room. She was in her forties, with short brown hair and a direct, unhurried manner.
She did not begin by asking whether Daniel believed someone had killed his brother.
He spoke about the tournament, the opponent replacement, the argument, and the official explanation he had been given. He described the moment he learned that Michael had suffered a catastrophic injury. He explained why the shortened footage had bothered him.
"I can't tell you who entered the override command," he said. "I can't tell you who made every decision that night. I won't pretend I can."
"That's useful to hear."
"Useful?"
"People often come into investigations with a conclusion and expect us to find evidence that supports it. You're telling us where your knowledge ends. That helps us identify what still needs to be established."
"I want the truth. Even if it turns out some of what I believe is wrong."
"Then we'll work from the evidence."
For the first time in six years, Daniel felt that someone was asking about Michael without expecting him to defend a predetermined story.
When the interview ended, Detective Bennett told him that additional witnesses would be contacted and that the original system records would undergo independent technical examination.
Daniel called Sarah.
"They've opened a formal investigation."
"And?"
"They're going to examine everything."
"How do you feel?"
He looked across the street at people entering a bakery, carrying shopping bags, arguing about parking.
"Afraid," he said. "But not alone."
That evening, he returned to Blackstone Combat Academy.
The gym was nearly empty. A few students practiced footwork while Raymond Shaw sat near the ring, watching them.
Raymond rose when he saw Daniel.
"I heard you met with the investigators."
"I did."
"Good."
Then Raymond looked toward the ring.
"I used to think keeping the gym open was the most important thing I could do. I told myself that if I protected the academy, I could protect everyone who depended on it."
"I understand now that an institution isn't protected by hiding its failures," Raymond continued. "It's protected by admitting them before someone else pays the price."
Daniel studied the old coach's face.
"That doesn't give Michael his life back."
"No," Raymond said. "It doesn't."
"But it might stop someone else from being treated the way he was."
"That's what I'm hoping."
For the first time since the investigation began, Daniel did not feel the urge to accuse the man standing before him.
Forgiveness was not something he was ready to offer. Trust was even further away.
He walked toward the ring and rested a hand on the top rope.
Michael had once stood in this room, full of energy and impatience, eager to prove that he belonged.
Daniel could almost hear his laugh.
The room remained.
So did the pain.
But the truth was moving, and Daniel was finally moving with it.
The independent technical review began three days later.
Samuel Price arrived at the county investigations office with two external drives, a collection of printed system reports, and the exhausted expression of a man who had spent too many nights worrying that something important had been lost.
He had preserved the timing-system logs years earlier, but preservation was not the same as verification.
The investigators needed to establish where the files had come from, whether they had been altered, and whether the system's internal timestamps could be trusted.
Samuel understood the stakes.
"If the records aren't reliable, I don't want anyone treating them as proof," he told Detective Bennett. "I saved what I could. I can't promise the system was perfect."
"That's why we're examining the system as well as the records," she replied.
The review team compared the preserved logs with backup records, maintenance notes, server access histories, and the available broadcast files.
They reconstructed the timeline as carefully as possible.
At 9:41 p.m., Michael and Brent had entered the decisive exchange.
At 9:42, the referee had begun moving toward them.
At 9:43, the timing display registered a manual override associated with Victor Sloane's account.
Shortly afterward, the broadcast footage available to the public jumped past part of the exchange.
The official report had treated the sequence as continuous.
That finding alone did not establish why the override occurred. Nor did the account identifier prove who physically entered the command. Someone could have used Victor's credentials, or the account could have been accessed through an authorized terminal.
The investigators refused to bridge that gap with speculation.
Instead, they mapped the access points and interviewed the people who had been near them.