Alice felt something steady settle into place inside her. The same feeling she used to get right before walking into a dangerous call. That clear, focused calm that pushed fear aside and left only purpose behind. "This changes everything," she said. But it's not enough yet.
What do you mean? Fenwick asked. This proves the original cover up. It proves what happened 6 years ago, Alice said. But it doesn't prove what she did this week.
The forged signature, my suspension. If we bring the commission the old evidence without connecting it to what's happening right now, Osmar will just say it's ancient history unrelated to a current review that's still technically following procedure. Fenwick sat back considering that you need something showing she's still doing it right now in real time. I do, Alice said. She thought back to the hallway outside Osmar's office, the small red light blinking steadily above the doorway, recording everything happening inside that building since the day Alice mandated it departmentwide.
The body cameras, Alice said slowly. I installed them in every hallway, every office corridor, including outside Osmar's own door. Fenwick's eyes widened slightly. You think there's footage of her ordering the setup against you? I think there might be.
Alice said if she said anything incriminating near that hallway or if anyone else did on her behalf. It's sitting in that system right now waiting to be pulled. How do we get access? Fenwick asked. You're suspended.
You don't have clearance anymore. Alice thought of Dove Whitlock. Still inside the building, still trusted, still quietly watching everything happening around her exactly the way Alice had asked her to. "I know someone who does," Alice said. She gathered the metadata papers carefully, sliding them into a folder alongside Fenwick's original notes.
"Thank you, Logan," she said. "I mean that. This is the piece that ties everything together. There's still one piece missing. " Fenwick said. "I know," Alice said, standing up from the booth.
"And I know exactly who's going to help me find it. " Dove Whitlock waited until the night shift thinned out before slipping into the small records room near the back of the precinct. Her badge still worked. Nobody had told the system to lock her out of anything because nobody suspected she'd been helping Alice all along. She sat down at the terminal and logged into the body camera archive. The same system Alice had installed months earlier, back when cameras were just supposed to mean modernization and accountability.
Nothing more. Dove typed in the date range Alice had asked her to check. The week of the forged signature. The week Alice got suspended. She started with the hallway camera outside Osmar's office, scrolling slowly through hours of quiet footage.