She thought about the camera indicator and the form in Ethan's hand and the exact sequence of the radio transmission and the window through which she had watched him choose not to open the directory. She thought about how much of it had been observed. She thought about whether the secondary system had captured audio before the override. She thought about Patricia Morgan at the clerk station who had looked down at her folders. She thought about Jonathan Carter in the lobby who had not looked away.
The internal review process began formally that afternoon, assigned to Rachel Bennett, who had been doing this kind of work for 7 years and had a reputation for being meticulous in a way that could feel to some people almost cold. She did not rush to conclusions. She wrote down what she could confirm, and she clearly marked what she could not. She distinguished observation from assumption in every paragraph. She interviewed Camille first.
Camille's account ran to six typewritten pages chronologically organized with specific times where she was certain of them and estimated ranges where she was not. She noted the credential failure, the directory request, the refusals, the lobby contact, the escort, the camera, the form, the baton, the control panel. She noted what she had not been able to directly observe, what Ethan had said on the radio, what the form contained when he first wrote it, the exact mechanism of the camera override. She noted what she had observed, that the indicator had not been active when she entered the room, that the indicator had flickered at approximately 8:27, that the door had been secured automatically, that Ethan had returned from the panel with a different quality of stillness than he had left with. "Is there anything you're uncertain about in this account? " Rachel asked.
The times within the room. I didn't have a watch. I was counting seconds. Anything else? Whether Patricia Morgan at the clerk station was present for the lobby portion from the beginning or arrived partway through.
Rachel noted that. Then she went to interview Jonathan Carter, who handed her his legal pad and his phone showing the email he had sent himself at 8:23 a.m. And 41 seconds. She read through his notes twice. She noted that he had begun writing at 8:19 before the physical contact was fully resolved and that his first entry was officer physical contact subject arm no visible resistance.
She noted that he had documented the control panel access at 8:27. She noted that his timeline matched Camille's account at every point where they overlapped. She interviewed Patricia Morgan. Patricia's statement was brief. She had been at the clerk's station.
She had seen the initial interaction. She had not been close enough to hear specifics. She had not recognized the woman at the screening area. Rachel sat down the page. She looked at Patricia.
You've worked here for 22 years. Yes. In that time, how many Superior Court judges have you interacted with directly? Patricia was quiet for a moment. A number of them.
Would it be accurate to say you're familiar with many of the sitting judges in this building? I know many people in this building. Did you recognize the woman at the screening area? Another pause. Patricia's hands were folded in front of her on the table.