"You don't have to decide his guilt," Torres said. "Just tell us what you saw."
"I watched him point at pump six before the federal agent did. He kept asking when the general's trucks would be there, like he was trying to calculate something. When I offered to call CID, he told me to leave it to the captain."
Danielle made notes. She suspected that Keene's simple testimony would be especially persuasive because it did not sound rehearsed or dramatic. She had attempted an ordinary verification and been overridden by a colleague who later proved to have reasons to avoid it.
A rumble of disagreement sounded outside. Voss had approached a technician carrying a sealed evidence bag and demanded to know whether the black module had been taken from the pump. He was close enough that Keene could hear the exchange through the door.
"It's federal evidence," the technician said. "Please step away."
"That machine belongs to the business. You've got no right to take it."
"The seizure is authorized under the warrant."
"Warrants don't mean you can just steal equipment!"
Shaw appeared and pulled Voss aside. The two men argued in low voices. Danielle and Torres exchanged a look. Their remaining options were narrowing, and neither man seemed capable of accepting that fact.
The call from the commercial transport company arrived just after noon. Owen Pritchard had been located at a diner near the state line, where he agreed to speak with agents once he learned they were investigating false government billing rather than a traffic violation. He said he had made deliveries from the station to a storage yard for months under dispatch orders bearing the name Mercer Fleet Services. He had signed receipts for the fuel that reached the yard, but the paperwork returned to him listed different quantities and different customers.
"He kept copies," Torres said after taking the call. "Not because he thought he was saving evidence. He thought someone was shorting him on his hauling fees."
Danielle almost laughed. The investigation had repeatedly turned on people keeping ordinary records for ordinary reasons: Navarro trying to account for fuel, Leah trying to balance a register, a driver trying to get paid for his miles. Criminal operations liked to depend on complicated explanations, but simple records had a way of refusing to cooperate.
Pritchard described a conversation he'd had with Voss outside the station three months earlier. The officer had advised him to use the rear lane when collecting fuel after midnight, saying it was part of an approved security plan. Once, Pritchard had asked why no military trucks were present if the invoices referenced Army accounts. Voss told him not to ask questions about federal billing, and Shaw later reinforced that instruction. Pritchard had continued driving because he needed the contract. His financial problems did not excuse any wrongdoing he might have committed, but they helped explain why he had looked away from the warning signs.