Deputy Beckett, who handled that camera after it came into this building? Deputy Toiver had it on the roadside. It came through intake here. Later, Captain Puit accessed the record. Preserve the access history, too. Yes, sir.
Cara had felt every eye in the room land on her when she answered. Puit looked at her across the room, and she held his gaze for almost two full seconds before she looked away. Lennox saw it. He didn't comment.
A few minutes later, Russell Puit closed the door of his office and sat down alone. He went back through it in his head piece by piece. The memory card was in a bin. The seal was confetti.
The pages were shredded. The report was signed. The man was sheriff now.
That changed who could ask the questions. But a title couldn't bring back what was already gone. By the time his breathing slowed, Puit had almost convinced himself that was true.
Special Agent Renata Soulberg of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation arrived at 20 minutes to 1. She was unhurried and spoke as if every sentence were going straight into a court transcript. With her came a physical evidence investigator and a quiet digital specialist named Theo Marchetti, who looked like he hadn't slept since Thursday.
Agent Soulberg, I'm the complaining party. I took office 40 minutes ago and I won't be directing any of this. Good. That keeps the lines clean. He did not set foot in the evidence room. He stood outside the glass with Naomi and watched.
The first hour was slow and tedious. Logs were copied. Bags were photographed. After 20 minutes, the physical evidence investigator looked up from the black case. There were gaps in the numbering.
Page 14, 15, then 19. Captain, where is the original seal? The packaging was compromised. That wasn't my question. I don't know. She wrote something down and didn't look up.
Meanwhile, Theo Marchetti had picked up the Bentley's dash camera. He read the model number. He looked at the broken memory card in its bag. Then he frowned like a man who had just been handed the wrong tool. Why are we looking for the memory card?
What do you mean? This model doesn't depend on the card. The card's only local backup. The units enrolled in a secure fleet system. It encrypts every completed segment and uploads it offsite the moment it has a signal.