Chapter 13 - THE FILE THAT DISAPPEARED
The next morning, the Ruiz case file vanished from the shared archive.
Not moved.
Deleted.
Maya sat beside the IG investigator, Ms. Lena Park, while the system administrator searched backups.
“Who had permission?” Maya asked.
“Too many people,” Park said.
“Can you see who deleted it?”
“We can see whose credentials were used.”
The administrator turned his monitor.
The username belonged to Captain Cole.
Maya stared.
Park’s expression did not change.
“Where is Captain Cole?”
“At battalion,” Maya said.
Park stood. “Call him.”
Cole arrived twenty minutes later and looked genuinely stunned.
“I didn’t delete anything.”
“Your credentials did,” Park said.
Cole pulled out his access card.
“It’s been with me all day.”
Maya remembered something.
“Yesterday, you left your office during the medical incident.”
Cole nodded slowly.
“For maybe five minutes.”
“Was your computer locked?” Park asked.
Cole’s silence answered.
The administrator restored the deleted file from backup.
Inside was a document Maya had never seen.
A supplemental witness statement dated three years earlier.
The witness was Eli Ruiz.
He had written that Dalton was not acting alone.
Another NCO had been in the room and had ordered the training to continue.
Name: Owen Rourke.
Maya read the line twice.
Rourke had not hated her because she ruined his friend’s career.
He hated her because the old investigation had almost reached him.
“Why wasn’t this in the final report?” Maya asked.
Park’s face tightened.
“That is now part of the investigation.”
Maya’s phone buzzed.
A text from Tessa.
COME TO THE BARRACKS. NOW.
Maya called her.
No answer.
Another text appeared.
DON’T CALL. SOMEONE IS IN YOUR ROOM.
Maya stood so fast the chair rolled backward.
Captain Cole reached for his phone.
“I’m calling the MPs.”
Maya was already moving toward the door.
Because the last time someone entered her room, they stole paper.
May you like
This time, the person inside knew investigators had found the missing statement.
And Maya had no idea what they were looking for now.
