Chapter 13 - The Investigator's Initials

Mara looked at Elise. "Tell me there is another E.W."

"There probably is," Elise replied, too quickly.

Celia slid the ledger away from her. "Thomas said an investigator helped build the payment system before she turned against them. He never told me who."

Elise set her palms on the table. "My initials aren't evidence. The bank records matter."

The suspicion between Mara and Elise created a silence neither could fill with easy reassurances. Mara wished trust were a switch she could turn on again. Instead it was a record of choices, assembled slowly, and every choice now had to withstand scrutiny.

"Then give me an independent investigator," Mara said. "One who doesn't report to you."

For the first time since they met, Elise looked hurt. "You think I betrayed your brother?"

"I think whoever did this is very good at making everyone look innocent."

Mara called a protected contact in the Army Criminal Investigation Division and asked for a new team, separating the witnesses while the financial records were authenticated. Elise did not interfere. She volunteered her devices for examination.

Over the next six hours, forensic accountants traced the four-million-dollar transfer to an escrow account titled Eastwood Waterworks, a defunct municipal contractor. The letters E.W. were the account initials, not Elise's.

Mara apologized privately. Elise accepted it without pretending the suspicion had not wounded her.

"Keep questioning me," Elise said. "Just don't stop at my initials."

The account had made two payments that mattered: one to an equipment-leasing company and another to a private medical warehouse outside town. The warehouse had received refrigerated blood-storage units reported missing from Army inventories.

Ruiz called with another development. He had obtained a sworn statement from a cafeteria employee. Before the confrontation, General Vale's aide had instructed staff to keep the serving-line cameras off for a "network update."

"Then why do we have the reflection footage?" Mara asked.

"Because they forgot the soda dispenser has its own security camera."

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Ruiz paused.

"And, ma'am? General Vale is holding a press conference in one hour. He's going to say you assaulted a civilian official."