Chapter 9 - The Woman in the Video

"That's you," I told Bell.

She stared at the frozen frame. Her uniform was different, her hair shorter, but there was no mistaking her face. She didn't deny it.

"I was the legal liaison assigned to the convoy," she said. "My presence was omitted from the unclassified report."

"You told Liam not to film the crates."

"I did. I'd been ordered to protect the operation's location. I thought he was putting the mission at risk."

"Did you know what was in those trucks?"

"Not then."

Owen stood. "You were at the roadblock. You heard me call for help."

Bell's voice cracked. "I heard an incomplete transmission. Price told us the route was compromised and the recovery vehicle couldn't enter. I believed him. By the time I learned what happened, the logs had been altered."

"And you never came to my family?" I asked.

"I tried to raise it through command channels. My complaint disappeared. Then I let them send me somewhere else." She swallowed. "That was cowardice, and you're right to be angry."

I stepped back. "You've been investigating yourself."

She looked at the evidence bags, then reached for her phone. "You're right about that too. I should have disclosed this at the start. I'll recuse myself and notify the independent investigative office today. Everything I've touched will be audited."

It wasn't the answer I wanted. I wanted my brother back. I wanted one person in uniform to have done the right thing without being forced.

An hour later, Special Agent Harper Grant of Army CID arrived. She was a civilian investigator with dark braids, steel-rimmed glasses, and no apparent interest in rank.

"From now on," Grant said, "no one in Price's command gets advance notice of investigative steps."

She watched the rest of Liam's recording. The clip continued after Bell spoke. Liam said, "Then ask why the clinic's emergency kits are being moved to Northline's private buyer."

The camera turned toward a partially open shipping box. Inside were surgical supplies stamped PROPERTY OF U.S. GOVERNMENT.

Grant paused the video. "That's a federal fraud case at minimum."

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Then the lab technician called her aside. Someone had attempted to remotely access the evidence server using credentials assigned to a person who had died six months earlier.

The name on the account was Liam Whitcomb.