The news filled Maya with hope and resentment at once. If investigators had been watching Reed, why had Olivia been left exposed to his retaliation? Davis did not deflect the question or promise that every decision had been wise. She explained that knowing corruption might exist was different from having lawful grounds for arrests, and that oversight failures would need examination after immediate threats were addressed.
"We may have waited too long to protect her," Davis said. "That possibility is not lost on me."
Later that evening Foster arrived to give a formal statement. His transfer from Chicago three months earlier had been part of an eleven-month joint inquiry that began after irregular narcotics from several jurisdictions appeared to move through the same distribution network. He had accepted an assignment in Milfield under ordinary departmental procedures, and only a limited number of outside investigators knew the real reason he had come. He had met Olivia after her arrest because he feared the case would be pushed rapidly toward a plea before evidence could be preserved.
"You looked like another officer asking her to trust a stranger," Maya told him.
"I was," Foster said. "And she was right not to trust me just because I used the right words."
His statement described specific discrepancies he had observed and identified several records that investigators could obtain independently. Harris had now agreed to cooperate as well, and Davis was arranging a separate interview so his admissions could be fully documented. Neither man was promised that cooperation would erase personal responsibility. Their usefulness depended on what they could verify, not on how convincing their regret sounded.
Maya listened as Foster named Lieutenant Phillips as a person of particular concern. Phillips oversaw internal complaints, held authority over evidence-integrity reviews, and had signed off on explanations that contradicted underlying logs. The existence of a compromised internal affairs unit helped explain why repeated complaints had failed, but investigators still needed to distinguish knowing participation from negligence. The review would be expensive and politically explosive either way.
The most immediate new information concerned Westside Storage Unit Seventeen. Harris had seen schedules indicating unusual activity there late Sunday night, involving goods that appeared connected to the narcotics-diversion inquiry. The outside task force had already begun planning a lawful surveillance and interception operation, subject to judicial authorizations and the safety of people living nearby. Maya felt an urge to join them until Davis looked at her across the table.
"Your sister needs you alive and available to testify," Davis said. "This is not an assignment for reporters or relatives."
"I'm not planning to rush a warehouse," Maya replied.
"Then don't become an accidental witness whose presence changes what the suspects do. You have more useful work. Find the legitimate, independent records surrounding the stop."
Maya thought of the dark storefront across from Olivia's Honda. The memory returned with startling clarity: a gas station a little farther down the block, its canopy angled toward the curb, and a small security-camera dome above the entrance. She had passed it twice without stopping because Reed's department claimed there were no relevant commercial recordings. She wrote down the address and arranged to go the next morning with a colleague who could document the visit.