“Yes.”
A murmur began.
Simone raised one hand slightly. “But the record should first establish which people knew the answer before anyone in this room had lawful access to it.”
Voss’s expression changed.
Barely.
But enough.
Simone opened the slim black case Margaret brought into the chamber.
She removed a sealed envelope bearing the Superior Court of Georgia seal.
The commission clerk accepted it.
“I request the court authorization be reviewed under seal before I continue.”
The chair examined the certification.
Then passed it to commission counsel.
Silence filled the chamber.
Finally, the chair looked up.
“The authorization is valid.”
She looked toward Cedar Hollow’s lawyers. “It predates the East Marlow stop.”
Another pause.
“The Lamborghini’s vehicle identification number was entered into a restricted state investigative file.”
She looked at Simone. “No Cedar Hollow police officer was authorized to access it.”
Boone turned toward Graves.
Graves looked toward Voss.
Simone faced the room.
“My name is Dr. Simone Carter.”
Her voice remained calm.
“I am an automotive cybersecurity forensic specialist serving as a confidential consultant to the Georgia State Office of Inspector General.”
The gallery erupted into whispers.
She continued.
“My assignment involved suspected misuse of restricted vehicle-identification and financial data inside Cedar Hollow.”
“The Lamborghini was part of that examination.” Another pause. “No Cedar Hollow officer was told to stop it.”
“No officer was authorized to search it.”
Voss leaned toward his microphone. “So you deliberately drove an instrumented vehicle through the city.”
Simone looked at him. “I drove a legally registered vehicle on a public road.”
“You expected someone to react.”
“I expected restricted state information to remain restricted.”
She turned toward Boone.
“Officer Boone identified a hidden electronics location before any lawful city alert existed.”
Then Graves.
“Lieutenant Graves knew the same panel.”
Then Sloan.
“Detective Sloan arrived with the specific connector required to access the concealed module.”
She faced the commission again.
“That knowledge did not come from anything I said.”
A silence settled over the room.
Simone continued. “The plate did not lead them to the module.”
She looked toward Voss. “Somebody inside Cedar Hollow gave them restricted information.”
Boone’s attorney placed a hand on his arm before he could speak.
Simone removed another device from the black case.
It looked almost identical to the seized module but carried a clear demonstration label.
“This is not the seized unit.”
She connected it to a small laptop.
“The Carter Token never contained a corruption ledger.”
Sloan stared at her.
“No secret bank accounts.” Another sentence. “No list of guilty officials.”
Graves’s expression shifted.
Simone continued. “Its primary function was to identify whatever device read it.”
The main screen displayed a diagram.
“Reader serial.”
“Account credentials.”
“Network route.”
“Copy activity.”
“Export path.”
She looked toward the officers.
“And depending on the credentials used, it presented different decoy material.”
Three folder names appeared.
GRAVES LEDGER.
SLOAN EXPORT.
BOONE SETTLEMENT.
Sloan went pale.
Simone pointed toward the first.
“Detective Sloan saw material suggesting Lieutenant Graves maintained a complete private ledger.”
She looked at Sloan. “He copied it to a personal drive.”
“Then sent a portion to Nathan Crowley.”
Sloan stared at his attorney.
Simone pointed toward the next folder.
“Lieutenant Graves saw material suggesting Detective Sloan was preparing to cooperate with investigators.”
She turned toward Graves.
“You restricted Sloan’s permissions.”
Another pause. “Then rewrote your report to make the reader connection his independent decision.”
Graves leaned toward his lawyer.
Simone moved to the third.
“Officer Boone saw material suggesting Graves and Sloan planned to sacrifice his career.”
Boone looked openly toward Graves now.
“You preserved radio traffic.”
“Photographed internal documents.”
Another sentence. “And recorded your lieutenant telling you reports are not diaries.”
Boone froze.
Graves’s attorney turned toward him.
Simone displayed the access timeline.
The commission could see each login.
Each folder opening.
Each export.
Each report revision.
Graves finally spoke. “Those files were fabricated.”
“Yes.”
The room went quiet.
Simone nodded. “They were false.”
She looked directly at him.
“Your reactions were not.”
Margaret remained completely still beside her.
Simone continued.
“The Carter Token did not order Detective Sloan to copy evidence.”
“It did not order Lieutenant Graves to alter a report.”
“It did not order Officer Boone to record his supervisor.”
Another pause. “It did not force anyone to contact Nathan Crowley.”
She looked across the three officers.
“It gave each of you information designed to test what you did when you believed your partners had betrayed you.”
Simone’s voice stayed level.
“It did not trap you.”
“It gave you choices.”
Nathan shifted in his seat.
Simone changed the display.
Four nearly identical financial files appeared side by side.
“To the eye, these documents look the same.”
She enlarged a technical field. “They are not.”
“Each carries a different invisible marker.”
She pointed to the first. “Nathan received this one from Sloan.”
The second. “He sent a modified version to Graves.”
The third. “Another to Boone.”
Then the fourth.
“And this one to a Cedar Hollow financial-administration account.”
Nathan leaned toward his attorney. “I was verifying information.”
“You sold different interpretations to different people.”
“I was protecting myself.”
Simone looked at him. “You did not stand between competing truths.”
She paused. “You sold each person the lie most useful to him.”
The commission chair leaned toward her microphone. “Who controlled the fourth account?”
Simone looked toward Franklin Voss.
“Deputy City Administrator Franklin Voss.”
Voss’s attorney stood immediately. “Administrative accounts can be compromised.”
Simone nodded. “Correct.”
The attorney hesitated.
“That is why we did not rely on copied access logs.”
Claire lifted the locked county evidence case.
The clerk collected the sealed drive and connected it to an isolated commission machine.
Original roadside footage filled the screen.
Sloan’s phone became visible.
USE MUNICIPAL READER. NOT EVIDENCE SYSTEM.
Simone enlarged the authentication information.
“This instruction originated from the financial-administration terminal assigned to Mr. Voss’s office.”
Voss kept his expression controlled.
“It traveled through his certificate.”
Voss’s attorney said, “Certificates can be stolen.”
“Yes.”
Simone changed screens. “So we examined surrounding activity.”
Another timeline appeared.
The account accessed the restricted state vehicle identification record.
It passed the VIN to Cedar Hollow personnel.
It created the municipal financial alert after Boone stopped the Lamborghini.
Then it instructed Sloan to avoid the approved evidence reader.
Voss leaned toward the microphone. “That does not establish I personally used the terminal.”
Simone nodded.