Maya stepped between the conversation before it became personal: "His statement belongs to him."
Rebecca looked at her. "He works for this department."
"That doesn't make his memory department property."
Rebecca's expression hardened. "People depend on each other here."
Maya answered, "They should."
Rebecca waited.
Maya continued, "But loyalty that asks someone to erase what they know is only fear wearing a uniform."
Rebecca said nothing else and walked away.
Ben exhaled slowly.
Maya turned back to him: "Finish your statement. Don't improve it, and don't protect anyone. Just tell them what happened."
She returned to the main work area. Despite the federal investigation, Asheford Police Department was still functioning: an older couple waited at the front desk to report checks taken from their mailbox; a city employee dropped off permit envelopes; two patrol officers reviewed paperwork before leaving on another call.
Maya watched for a moment. She had already told her team that the department was not to be treated as a single guilty unit: most of the people in the building had nothing to do with the technology contract. The investigation would follow decisions, not uniforms.
Lena called her back into the evidence office. "I found something."
On one monitor was the department's building plan; on another was a utility report.
"What am I looking at?" Maya asked.
"Electrical consumption."
Mercer and Rebecca joined them a moment later. Lena pointed to the basement section of the plan. "According to this drawing, the main server room and the evidence office should account for almost all continuous technology load in this part of the building."
"And they don't?"
"No." She opened a second chart. "There's another steady draw from the basement utility corridor."
Mercer leaned closer. "HVAC?"
"I checked."
"Emergency equipment?"
"Also checked."
Rebecca asked, "How much power are we talking about?"
"Enough for equipment that isn't shown on this plan."
Maya looked at the building diagram. "Any network connections in that section?"
Lena brought up another record. "One." She enlarged the image.