“Nothing?”
“Not anymore.”
Cole removed a photograph.
“This was inside.”
It showed a small digital recorder.
Marcus frowned.
“Where is it?”
“Gone.”
“Who took it?”
“I don't know.”
“You're asking me to believe someone hid a recorder inside a missing compartment, removed it, and then ordered you to destroy the container?”
Cole nodded.
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds like you were involved.”
“I was.”
Marcus stared.
Cole's voice cracked.
“I signed the transfer. I lied in the report. I let them believe the container was empty.”
“Why?”
“Because my brother was arrested six months ago.”
Marcus said nothing.
“Warren knew. He told me that if I wanted my brother protected, I would follow instructions.”
“That doesn't explain Ranger.”
Cole looked at him.
“Ranger ruined their plan.”
Marcus felt a chill.
“How?”
“During the seizure, everyone thought Ranger was detecting narcotics. But he kept returning to the rear wall.”
“Because of the compartment.”
“Yes.”
“He knew.”
Cole nodded.
“And someone realized he knew.”
Marcus remembered the warehouse.
The falling container.
The missing footage.
Ranger's scream.
“They targeted him.”
Cole looked away.
“I think so.”
Marcus stood.
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was trying to find the recording first.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“You could have come to me.”
Cole laughed bitterly.
“I didn't know who I could trust.”
Marcus understood that more than he wanted to.
Cole reached into another cabinet.
He removed a folded document.
“There's one more thing.”
Marcus opened it.
It was an old equipment purchase order.
The damaged container had been modified six months before the Harbor Street seizure.
The contractor name was unfamiliar.
But the approval signature wasn't.
Warren.
Marcus looked up.
“This proves preparation.”
“It proves someone planned to use that container.”
“For what?”
Cole shook his head.
“We need the recording.”
A noise came from outside.
Both men froze.
Footsteps crossed the gravel.
Cole switched off the lights.
A vehicle door slammed.
Marcus whispered, “How many?”
“Unknown.”
The footsteps approached.
Someone tried the side door.
Cole reached for his weapon.
Marcus raised a hand.
The handle moved.
Then stopped.
A voice came from outside.
“Cole.”
Marcus recognized it.
Captain Porter.
Cole opened the door.
Porter entered alone.
She looked at Marcus.
Then the evidence bag.
“You found it.”
Marcus stared.
“You knew.”
Porter closed her eyes.
“I knew enough to be afraid.”
“Tell us everything.”
Porter looked at the two men.
“Then we need to move.”
“Why?”
She looked toward the window.
“Because Warren knows I took copies too.”
They moved to Porter's farmhouse outside the county.
She locked every door before sitting at the kitchen table.
For the first time, Marcus saw the captain without her uniform.
She looked tired.
Not physically tired.
Defeated.
“I should have stopped this earlier,” she said.
Marcus waited.
Porter placed a folder on the table.
“Daniel Reese came to me before he resigned.”
She opened it.
“He said Ranger had detected a concealed compartment during training. He believed someone was using modified containers to move evidence.”
“Evidence of what?”