Chapter 13 - The Officer Who Looked Away
"I wasn't on duty that night," Rourke said.
Maya didn't accuse him. She asked the one question that mattered. "Where were your credentials?"
"In a secure account. I was at a medical conference in Virginia."
"Do you have travel records?"
"Yes. And three hundred people who can place me there."
He looked at me. "Nora, I never saw an alert."
I wanted to believe him. I also remembered signing forms in hospitals while heavily medicated, trusting people who seemed certain. Trust had cost me almost everything.
"You signed the initial finding against me," I said.
He didn't deny it. "I signed a summary I should have checked. I was told the logs were verified. I let a convenient explanation replace my judgment."
"Eli died. Ben died. My family stopped calling because strangers kept calling me a killer."
"I know."
"No. You know a line in a report. I know what it feels like to wake up reaching for someone who's buried."
His eyes filled, but I wasn't ready to comfort him.
Maya ordered an audit of the account. Within an hour, analysts found the acknowledgment had come from a command terminal at Red Mesa while Rourke was documented on the other side of the country. A batch of officer credentials had been duplicated during a Cinderline software update.
"They used both our names," Rourke said.
"And now they can claim either of you was responsible," Maya replied.
That evening I sat outside the field office with Atlas's head in my lap. He startled whenever a truck passed, then settled when I pressed my hand to the scar behind his ear.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me," I whispered.
Tessa came out carrying two cups of coffee. She handed me one without speaking.
After a moment she said, "I was wrong about you. I hated you because it was easier than believing Eli died for somebody's paycheck."
I blinked hard. "I never stopped trying to bring him home."
"I believe you now."
May you like
My phone rang. Maya's name filled the screen.
"Federal agents just entered Cinderline headquarters," she said. "Miles Voss is missing. And Sloane has reported Atlas stolen. He's issued an order for the dog to be seized on sight."
