Every reason to let the grievances pile up until they buried Alice the same way they'd buried her the first time. Alice clenched her fists at her sides, then slowly released them. If the chain of command wasn't going to protect her, she'd have to build her own case brick by brick, the same way she'd built her career from nothing. After leaving this building the first time, she turned and walked back toward her office, already making a list in her head of the old personnel files she needed to pull. If this precinct had a pattern, she was going to find every piece of it herself.
Alice stayed late that evening, long after most of the precinct had cleared out for the night. The building was quiet, except for the hum of the vending machine down the hall and the occasional crackle of a dispatch radio somewhere near the front desk. She sat alone in her office, pulled up the personnel database on her computer, and began digging through years of old records. As captain, she had access to files that had been locked away from her the first time she wore this uniform. Complaint histories, disciplinary records, personnel transfers going back over a decade.
She started with Corbin's file. It was thinner than she expected for a man who'd worked the same shift for over 10 years. A few commendations, a couple of routine performance reviews, nothing that hinted at the man who had once held scissors to her hair while laughing about tradition. But buried in the transfer records, she found something. Two names, two women, officers who had worked Corbin's shift years apart from each other, both filing internal complaints.
Both complaints closed within days with almost no explanation. Both officers had requested transfers shortly after. Both had resigned from the department entirely within a year of that transfer. Alice pulled up the first name, Officer Renee Castell, and read through what little remained of her file. The complaint description was vague, redacted in places, but the shape of it was familiar enough to make Alice's stomach turn.
Hostile environment, uncomfortable incident involving Sergeant Corbin. Case reviewed and resolved. Resolved. The same word Osmar had used with Alice years ago right before handing her a transfer order. The second name, Officer Paula Landell, told almost the same story.
Different year, different specific complaint, same pattern. Filed, reviewed, resolved, transferred. Gone within the year. Both files had been reviewed and closed by the same person, Deputy Chief Priya Osmar. Alice sat back in her chair, staring at the screen, feeling the pieces click into place one by one.
This wasn't one bad joke that had gotten out of hand in a breakroom 6 years ago. This was a pattern repeated at least three times now, maybe more. Every single time buried by the same woman sitting two floors above Alice's office right now. The haircut cutting wasn't an isolated incident. It was routine.
Alice's hands were shaking slightly as she printed the files, gathering the pages into a folder she planned to keep somewhere far safer than the department's own computer system. She needed someone who understood exactly how deep this coverup went. Someone who had been inside the system when her own complaint disappeared. She picked up her phone and called Lieutenant Logan Fenwick, now working two precincts over, the same man who had logged her complaint all those years ago, and watched it vanish before her eyes. Fenwick answered on the third ring, sounding surprised to hear from her.
"Captain Vincent," he said. "It's been a while. I need your help," Alice said. And I need to show you something in person. They met the next evening at a small diner outside the city, away from prying eyes and department gossip.