Lena studied the file dates. Some source recordings appeared older than the corresponding versions in the official archive. That did not by itself prove misconduct; source and processed files often carried different timestamps. But it offered a path for finding recordings that had vanished from the department's normal evidence interface.
"Search the index for Nathan Cole," Maya said.
Owen searched the available metadata. Several results appeared, including the official export Lena had already shown them. Another file carried the identifier from her handwritten notebook, the one she had copied when the uninterrupted recording was still visible in the ordinary archive. Lena leaned closer. Her finger rose toward the screen but stopped short of touching it.
"That's the source identifier," she whispered. "The one I wrote down."
"Don't play the live file," Maya told Owen. "Preserve it first, then examine a working copy."
The team documented the original entry, created a controlled forensic copy, and verified that the copy corresponded to the source. Only then did they open it on an isolated workstation. The camera showed the same municipal entrance and the same young contractor waiting beneath the overhang. An officer asked Nathan to set his tool bag down. Nathan complied, looking irritated but not threatening.
The search proceeded through his wallet, keys, phone, work badge, gloves, and other ordinary belongings. The officer checked the outer pockets of his work bag and asked two questions about his access authorization.
Then the search ended.
There was no restricted municipal access card in the recording. No officer lifted one from Nathan's possessions. No discovery preceded the end of the original sequence. The video continued long enough to show Nathan collecting his belongings and asking whether he was free to leave. Whatever happened afterward, the uninterrupted source did not support the official description of a card found during that search.
Nobody spoke for several seconds after the playback stopped. Lena sat slowly in a chair beside the workstation. She had hoped the missing file would answer the question, but hearing the ordinary texture of the real encounter had affected her more than expected. She saw a young man trying to finish a workday and an official record turning his routine belongings into the basis for a detention.
"The card isn't there," she said.
"Not in that search," Maya answered. "Preserve the complete source and the official file separately. We need to establish how the later segment entered the record, who introduced the card, and whether any other search occurred that has not yet been recovered."
Mercer came closer. "This doesn't prove an officer planted anything."
"Correct," Maya said. "It shows the official archive presented an assembled recording as an original continuous source and that its description of the initial search does not match the recovered source. Those are facts we can document."
Elise compared the two files side by side, noting differences in source identifiers and processing characteristics. The later clip in the official record had been created in a separate session, then attached to the case in a way that concealed the break from ordinary viewers. There was no proper conversion history explaining the substitution. It had entered after Nathan's detention, and the report relying on it was finalized afterward.