Chapter 2 - The Basement
The city facilities supervisor opened the stairwell under Maya’s direction.
Harris was required to remain in the briefing hall with Reed and the other officers.
No one handcuffed him.
No one needed to.
Every person in the room was watching.
At the bottom of the stairs, Maya found Emily inside an old records office behind a second maintenance door.
She was exhausted but conscious.
Stacks of archived payroll boxes surrounded her.
A battery-powered radio sat on the desk.
Maya wrapped her coat around Emily’s shoulders.
“Can you walk?”
Emily nodded.
Then she looked toward the staircase.
“Is Harris still up there?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t let him leave with the memorial ledger.”
Maya helped her into the briefing hall.
The officers who had stood beneath Emily’s portrait now watched the living woman walk past it.
Harris stared at her as though he were seeing a ghost he had personally buried.
He recovered quickly.
“Officer Carter suffered an emotional episode and entered a restricted archive.”
Emily looked at him.
“You locked the outer door.”
“I secured an unsafe area.”
“You took my department phone.”
“You were under administrative review.”
“You told everyone I disappeared voluntarily.”
Harris raised his voice.
“She is confused.”
The familiar strategy arrived immediately.
A lower-ranking woman discovered something dangerous.
The commander called her unstable.
Maya placed the brass key on the table.
“Why was this in your pocket?”
Harris looked toward Reed.
“It has always been assigned to command.”
Reed slowly shook his head.
“No.”
“That key was retired after the basement flooded.”
Emily reached into Maya’s coat and removed a sealed black ledger.
“The basement didn’t flood.”
May you like
She placed it beneath her memorial portrait.
“They sealed it because this proves the department stole from the families of dead officers.”
