Chapter 15 - Smoke at the Motel
The motel fire was small, but it was enough to force everyone out into the parking lot. Police moved Quinn away from the building while firefighters searched for the source. Investigators later found the alarm had been pulled deliberately.
I was at the hospital when Grant called with the update. Quinn had inhaled smoke and twisted her ankle. She was otherwise alive. More importantly, she wanted to talk.
"Then let her," I said.
"We will, when her attorney arrives."
Quinn spoke the following morning from a secure conference room. I watched part of her recorded statement with permission. Her voice was flat, as though she'd repeated the truth to herself a thousand times and still couldn't bear hearing it aloud.
"I falsified delivery acknowledgments," she said. "I knew government supplies were being diverted. I thought it was financial fraud. Then I heard the rescue call. Shaw ordered me to record the convoy as stationary for security inspection."
"Did you hear Colonel Price?" Grant asked.
"Yes. He said, 'Nothing moves until we recover the Northline cargo.'"
Quinn began to cry. "I signed the time change. I helped make it look as though the medical team had never requested extraction."
A tear slid down my cheek. I didn't wipe it away.
Quinn explained that she'd spent the last month collecting records after Shaw ordered her to destroy old dispatch backups. When she arranged to meet the auditor, Ralston threatened her. She went into hiding and left clues, hoping someone would reach the evidence before Shaw did.
"Why didn't you come forward two years ago?" Grant asked.
Quinn stared at the table. "Because I wanted to keep my job more than I wanted to live with myself."
I knew that answer would haunt her forever. It should.
Later, Bell met me outside the room. She had formally recused herself, but she'd returned to provide a witness statement about the convoy and accept review of her own conduct.
"I'm sorry, Nora," she said.
"I hear a lot of that lately."
"You should."
Grant emerged holding a phone. A federal judge had authorized arrests based on the expanding evidence. Ralston had been taken into custody. Shaw, however, was missing.
"And Price?" I asked.
"He's being relieved of duty pending proceedings."
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For the first time, I felt the weight shifting away from my chest. Then the hospital front desk received an envelope addressed to me. Inside was Liam's second dog tag and a handwritten warning:
SHAW ISN'T RUNNING. HE'S GOING BACK FOR THE ORIGINAL RECORDING.
