The camera captured his face clearly when he looked up.
Granger.
No uncertainty.
No bad angle.
No mistaken identity.
Philip stopped the video.
Nobody moved.
Captain Miller looked toward the sealed narcotics bag Detective Cross had removed from Rosalind’s briefcase.
Then at the video.
Then Granger.
His voice was barely above a whisper.
“Mitch.”
Granger’s breathing became faster.
“This doesn’t prove what was in the bag.”
Rosalind answered before anyone else could.
“No.”
She folded her hands.
“It proves you entered my private chambers at 1:43 in the morning, opened the exact drawer police were told to search today, and placed an object inside.”
Granger snapped:
“She moved it!”
Everyone turned.
Rosalind’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
Granger realized too late what he had said.
He tried to recover.
“I’m saying if the drugs were found in the briefcase and the video shows something in a drawer, then somebody moved whatever I placed there.”
Captain Miller stared at him.
“Whatever you placed there?”
Granger went silent.
Cross moved one hand toward his cuffs.
Miller stopped him.
“Not yet.”
Rosalind respected that.
Anger did not replace procedure.
Even now.
Especially now.
Miller looked at Philip.
“Keep going.”
The footage continued.
Granger did not leave immediately.
He crossed toward the filing cabinet.
Opened nothing.
Touched nothing.
Then walked back to Rosalind’s desk and checked the drawer again.
Almost obsessive.
Satisfied, he left at 1:45.
The room remained empty until 6:18, when Rosalind’s judicial assistant, Elaine Porter, entered carrying coffee and case files.
Elaine worked at the desk for nearly twenty minutes.
At 6:37 she opened the bottom right drawer.
Paused.
Reached inside.
Removed the pouch.
The officers in the chamber tensed.
Granger’s head snapped up.
“There,” he said quickly. “She’s involved.”
Rosalind did not react.
Philip kept playing.
Elaine held the pouch toward the camera for several seconds.
Then set it on the desk.
She took out her phone.
Dialed someone.
No audio.
Then Rosalind herself appeared on screen at 6:41.
She entered wearing the same dark coat she had hung near the door that morning.
Elaine showed her the pouch.
Rosalind did not touch it.
The video showed Rosalind take out her own phone.
Make a call.
Then point to the camera.
Captain Miller frowned.
“You knew?”
Rosalind looked at him.
“At 6:41 this morning.”
“And you didn’t call us?”
“I did.”
“Who?”
“Not your department.”
Granger looked up sharply.
Rosalind continued.
“I called courthouse security director Howard Bell.”
Philip nodded.
“I got a call from him at 6:44.”
Captain Miller’s face tightened.
“And the pouch?”
Rosalind answered:
“Stayed where it was until security documented it.”
“But the drugs we found were in your briefcase.”
“Yes.”
Miller stared.
That created a new problem.
If the pouch Granger planted had been discovered before the warrant team arrived, how did narcotics end up in Rosalind’s briefcase?
Rosalind looked toward Detective Cross.
“That is the question you should be asking.”
Cross slowly turned toward the search log.
He picked it up.
Then looked at the evidence bag again.
His forehead creased.
“Who first touched the briefcase?”