"Good. Keep those copies untouched for now. Our team will arrange collection."
Shaw stood beyond the window speaking into his telephone. Voss waited several feet away, watching him. Then both men moved toward the rear of the building where the electrical service equipment was housed.
Officer Keene, who had been reviewing her written observations by the patrol car, noticed them as well. She began walking toward the rear entrance, but Shaw turned and told her to return to the service lane. Her face tightened. She appeared to consider arguing, then reached for her radio and called in her position and the captain's instruction.
At 10:31 a.m., the store lights flickered.
Leah looked up. "That shouldn't happen. The power company just replaced the main feed."
The ceiling lights went out. The refrigerator motors wound down, the registers went dark, and a sharp electronic chime sounded from the diesel island. For two or three seconds the entire station seemed to hold its breath. The backup lighting switched on, washing the aisles in a dim emergency glow.
"Don't touch the equipment," Ortega said quickly. "Let me document what happens when power returns."
Danielle could hear Voss shouting outside. Somewhere behind the office wall, a cabinet door slammed. The lights came back a few seconds later, then flickered again before settling. Leah's camera rebooted. Ortega's forensic device remained powered by its own battery, but its connection to the recorder had been interrupted.
The progress bar vanished.
"Did we lose it?" Leah whispered.
"I don't know yet," Ortega replied. "The copy was interrupted. The original media may still be intact. Give me a moment."
He checked the recording device. Its file index was empty. A storage warning appeared where the archive menu had been. Leah took a step backward and pressed both palms against the counter.
"No. No, I saw them. You saw them."
"We did," Danielle said. "And we documented what we reviewed. The index can fail without every underlying file disappearing. We'll treat the hardware as evidence and have the lab examine it."
Leah shook her head. "If the footage is gone, he'll say I made it all up."
"You have copies at home," Danielle reminded her. "You kept a notebook. The fleet vendor has records. And our own team has evidence from the inspection. This is a problem, not the end of the case."
Shaw walked in as though he had simply been waiting for the lights to return.
"Old buildings," he said. "Electrical faults can be rough on computers. I hope nobody lost anything important."
He looked toward Ortega's dark screen. The pause was subtle. Danielle saw it all the same.
"The station security system is having trouble after the outage," she said.
"Unfortunate. A reminder that evidence has to be collected properly."
"It was being collected properly. We'll investigate the cause of the outage, including access to the electrical service area."
Shaw's lips narrowed. "You're not going to accuse the police of every technical problem in this county, are you?"
"No," she answered. "Only problems the evidence connects to someone."