Chapter 17 - The Thing in His Pocket
We met Detective Grant inside the station, where Malcolm could make a statement without Dorsey standing over him. He placed the flash drive on her desk like it was hot.
"I copied the original security export before he ordered me to replace it," he said. "I thought if I kept proof, I wouldn't be the only one blamed."
He spoke in bursts, as if he might lose his courage between sentences. Dorsey had been warned about the stars after Ava's incident. Dana had insisted the promotion was safe because the pieces were "too cute for kids to swallow." Malcolm had removed the age warnings from display cartons. He had told staff to hand out the charms anyway. Every choice had a name and a date.
"Why didn't you tell the police when they first came?" Grant asked.
"Because he paid my mortgage while my mom was sick. I thought I owed him."
"You owed the children better," I said.
Malcolm lowered his head. "I know."
The original recording showed the whole diner from two angles. Leo taking a star from Dana. Me arguing about pie. His hands rising to his throat. My swat. Jax stepping into the aisle, his face sharpening with recognition. The rescue. The tiny red star on the floor. The owner taking the jar away.
It also captured a private conversation by the counter after the paramedics left. Dorsey was telling Malcolm to cut the file down to the part showing the biker's shove.
"Make the big guy the problem," Dorsey said. "Everybody already wants him to be the bad guy."
Grant paused the video. No one in the room moved.
"There is more," Malcolm whispered. "A customer called after the first choking scare. Calvin told her the product was gone. It wasn't. We ordered another six boxes."
"Did you sign the order?" the detective asked.
"Yes."
He looked at me as if expecting me to forgive him.
I couldn't. Not yet.
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Outside the interview room, Grant received a call from the county licensing office. A public hearing had been scheduled, and Dorsey's lawyers were demanding that the video remain sealed.
But the hearing was only forty-eight hours away.
