Mercer had been moved away from the terminals. His operational authority was suspended pending administrative and federal review. He did not argue as a city representative explained the temporary command arrangements. Rebecca's access had also been suspended, and the department's legal and oversight personnel were receiving the initial preservation notices. The station was not being shut down. Patrol officers who had nothing to do with the technology project continued their work, and callers still reached dispatch without interruption.
At the secure federal interview location, Nathan arrived without further incident. He walked into a plain conference room with his attorney and sat before two agents who were waiting with a recorder, water, and the documentation needed for an accurate statement. Maya spoke to him briefly by telephone before the interview began.
"We recovered additional information about the source recording," she told him. "The later segment in the official evidence file came from a different sequence. The initial search does not show the restricted card among your belongings."
"So they changed the video?" Nathan asked.
"The available evidence supports that the official presentation was assembled from different source material. We still need to establish who created it and why."
"What happens to my case?"
"It receives a review based on the original evidence, not an altered presentation. Your attorney will be able to address the consequences of the earlier report through the appropriate procedures."
Nathan looked at the recorder waiting on the table. He thought of the supervisor who had refused to put him back on the schedule, of friends who had become uncomfortable when he mentioned the police, and of his mother asking the same questions so many times that eventually he had stopped explaining. He was not certain whether the discovery would return the months he had lost. It could not undo the experience of being told that an official file mattered more than his memory. But it meant he no longer had to stand entirely alone against that file.
"That's all I wanted in the beginning," he said. "For somebody to look at the whole thing."
"Now the source record is preserved," Maya answered. "We'll follow it wherever the evidence leads."
Back at Asheford, the federal supervisor handed Maya a preliminary referral summary. It identified possible grant fraud, inaccurate completion certifications, obstruction, attempted destruction of evidence, unauthorized transfer of surveillance information, alteration of official evidence, and issues concerning Nathan's detention. Each was a subject for further investigation, not an announced finding of guilt. Maya read the list carefully and requested legal review before any formal public characterization of responsibility.
She also instructed the team to follow the financial records beyond the station. The fact that millions had been paid for a technology project whose physical inventory did not match its certified completion required examination of bank records, purchase histories, invoices, and the contractor's actual work. The presence of commercial recipients in the surveillance transfers required independent identification and review of authorization. Nathan's case required interviews with the officers who had searched him and the people who had handled the later file. No one discovery could stand in for all the others.