"Get it."
"Caldwell is pushing back."
Harland finally looked at her. "Then remind the hospital this is connected to an active investigation."
Dana hesitated. "We still haven't written what investigation."
Cole heard that. Harland's eyes shifted toward him before returning to Dana. "We'll document it when we know what we have."
Cole frowned. "That sounds backward."
Harland turned. "Excuse me?"
"If we're holding a man and searching his property, we should already know what we're investigating."
Dana stepped in quickly. "Sam, this is above us."
Cole looked at her. "Apparently not above you. You're the one searching his things."
Dana's face tightened; Harland spoke before she could respond. "Officer Cole, if you're uncomfortable with the assignment, you can return to the front corridor."
Cole held his gaze for a moment. "I'm fine."
"Good. Then act like it." Harland picked up the blue flash drive they had found earlier. "Open this again."
Dana looked confused. "We already did."
"I want the file history."
She inserted the drive into the hospital police workstation. The screen populated with familiar folders: engineering coursework, class schedules, spreadsheets, lab reports, and project files. A directory labeled *Transportation Systems* opened into maps and traffic flow calculations. Dana clicked another folder: nothing.
Harland leaned closer. "What date was the last file modified?"
"Yesterday."
"Any hidden folders?"
"Not that I can see."
Cole watched from several feet away. Harland was not behaving like a lieutenant trying to establish whether a piece of property belonged to a suspect; he was behaving like a man terrified that the wrong file might suddenly appear on the screen.
Dana removed the drive. "It's definitely his."
Harland stared at the blue casing. "Then the black one is somewhere else."
Cole caught the words. "What black one?"
Neither Harland nor Dana answered immediately. Cole took one step closer.
"You said we'd know what we were looking for when we saw it. Now you know the color."
Harland's expression hardened. "It was part of information received before the stop."
"From who?"
"That isn't relevant to your assignment."