Maya saw it on her phone while waiting for coffee. She set the cup down so abruptly that hot liquid spilled across the counter, and the barista asked if she needed help. The photograph showed Olivia looking exhausted and damp beneath fluorescent lights, her expression caught between anger and disbelief. Maya knew her sister's face too well to mistake that look for guilt.
Her editor, Henry Walsh, called as she hurried toward her car. "Maya, I need you to stay off this story," he said. "There's an obvious conflict."
"My sister is being framed."
"That's a claim, not something we've established. I'll assign somebody independent to cover it. You can pursue records as family, but you don't get to publish accusations without verification."
Maya gripped the steering wheel. Henry had been her editor for six years, and he had defended her reporting when city officials complained. She wanted him to abandon caution, but she also knew caution was exactly what her father and Olivia had taught her to demand of herself. "I understand," she said after a moment. "Then find somebody who will ask about the missing video."
He promised that he would. Maya did not know whether to believe him, but she was grateful he had not pretended the department's press release settled the question. She called the public defender's office, learned that Elaine Mercer was trying to arrange counsel, and drove to the courthouse without waiting for breakfast. She had not seen Olivia since the brief visit over noodles a week earlier. The distance between those two ordinary evenings seemed impossible to measure.
At the same time, Captain Reed stood before cameras in the precinct's press room. A banner behind him displayed the department's community safety motto, and two officers posed beside him with their hands clasped respectfully at their belts. Reed expressed disappointment that a member of the legal profession had allegedly become involved in narcotics distribution. He reminded reporters of his department's recent crime reduction figures and described the arrest as proof that nobody was above the law.
When a reporter asked whether Olivia had been investigating police misconduct, Reed sighed as though forced to discuss something unpleasant. "Miss Turner has made numerous accusations that never survived review," he said. "We have always treated those complaints seriously, and the evidence in this case will speak for itself."
He did not mention that he had personally participated in several of those reviews. He did not mention the lost recordings, the earlier traffic stops, or the women and men whose complaints were listed in Olivia's files. The speech was short enough for local television to replay in full, and by noon half the town had heard him explain the arrest without hearing Olivia explain anything at all.