Almost every document.
There was one folder she had never digitized.
A brown accordion file containing notes she had made after noticing something buried in the arrest reports.
Three names.
Three teenagers.
Three cases.
All prosecuted by Daniel Hensley.
“Mom, listen to me.”
“I am listening.”
“When the police arrive, do not let anyone move anything in my room.”
“Harper, what is going on?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“That answer is not good enough.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
Her mother became silent.
Harper could hear traffic through the phone.
Then Maya asked the question Harper had hoped she would not ask.
“Does this have something to do with your case?”
Harper looked toward the courthouse doors.
Through the glass, she saw Daniel Hensley walking through the lobby with two men in suits.
He was no longer red-faced or embarrassed.
He looked furious.
“I think my case has something to do with something bigger.”
Harper ended the call twenty seconds later and headed back toward the courthouse.
The reporters surged toward her immediately.
She raised one hand.
“Not now.”
Something about her expression made them stop.
Inside the courthouse, Hensley had disappeared.
Harper walked toward the clerk’s office.
The same clerk who had verified her bar status looked up from behind the counter.
Her nameplate read MARIA SOTO.
“Miss Freeman.”
“Harper is fine.”
Maria smiled nervously.
“I suppose congratulations are appropriate.”
“Maybe later.”
Harper lowered her voice.
“I need to look at three public case files.”
Maria reached for a notepad.
“Case numbers?”
Harper recited them from memory.
Maria stopped writing after the second number.
Her expression changed.
“You know these cases?”
“Yes.”
Maria looked toward the hallway.
Then back at Harper.
“Why?”
“They were referenced indirectly in my discovery.”
Maria’s fingers tightened around the pen.
“I can request the files from archives.”
“How long?”
“Normally twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
“I need them today.”
“Harper, there is a process.”
“I know.”
Maria stared at her.