“I read the arrest record.”
“That’s not the same.”
“Did my father plant drugs?”
Helen stared.
“No.”
Adam looked surprised.
She continued.
“I don’t know who physically put the bag in Evan’s car.”
“But you think my father—”
“I think your father signed a report saying the evidence chain was clean when records showed it wasn’t.”
Adam looked away.
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
Helen leaned forward.
“Different is not innocent.”
He stared at her.
Helen continued.
“Your father was captain when Thomas brought him evidence discrepancies.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I have Thomas’s letters.”
“Letters.”
“And copies of internal logs.”
Adam shook his head.
“My father spent thirty-five years—”
Helen interrupted.
“So did my husband.”
Adam went quiet.
She looked at him.
“Good people can protect bad systems.”
His face hardened.
“You don’t know him.”
“You’re right.”
Helen nodded.
“I knew the man he was twelve years ago.”
Adam turned toward the door.
“Officer.”
He stopped.
“Where is the bag?”
“In secure intake.”
“Who signed it in?”
“I did.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
“Because if Sergeant Pike asks you to move it anywhere else tonight, say no.”
Adam turned.
“You think he planted it.”
“I think somebody did.”
“You think it was Pike.”
“I saw him alone beside my passenger door before you searched.”
Adam’s face changed.
Helen had not actually seen his hand enter the vehicle.
She would not claim more.
She said exactly what she knew.
“He was there.”
“Why didn’t you say that roadside?”
“You had me in handcuffs.”
“That didn’t stop you talking.”
“No.”
For the first time, Helen almost smiled.
“That’s fair.”
Adam remained near the doorway.
Helen asked, “When you first looked beneath my seat, did you see anything?”
His expression answered.
She did not push.
“Write it down.”
“What?”
“Whatever just happened inside your head.”
Adam frowned.
“My husband used to say fear gets more powerful every hour it goes undocumented.”
He looked at her.
“Your husband was a cop?”
“Evidence supervisor.”
Adam’s face shifted.
“Thomas Ward.”
“Yes.”
He knew the name.
Good.
Helen leaned back.
“Write it down before someone explains it to you.”
Adam left.
At 1:22 a.m., Investigator Mara Santos entered the station with two state officers and an assistant attorney general.
Sergeant Pike tried to stop them at the front desk.
That lasted approximately forty seconds.
Helen heard raised voices.