Chapter 14 - The Cost of Speaking
By morning, the story had escaped the compound.
A thirty-second video of the final had been posted online.
It showed Briggs kicking at my knee.
It showed me taking him down.
Some called me brave.
Some called the match staged.
Some said Briggs had been set up.
Some said I should have been removed from training before the final.
I turned off my phone.
Captain Ward did not have that luxury.
“Vance has counsel now,” she said. “Briggs too.”
“Good.”
She looked at me. “Why good?”
Ward nodded once.
Owen Reed was having a harder time.
He found it at noon.
“Leave it,” I said.
He looked embarrassed. “Why?”
“Because investigators need a photo.”
His face fell.
“I’m tired of being evidence.”
That sentence stopped me.
I sat on the step beside him.
Then Reed said, “I keep thinking if I had talked after Carter got hurt, maybe none of this happens.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know I stayed quiet.”
“So did a lot of people.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
I did not lie to him.
Sometimes comfort is just another way of refusing to respect somebody’s guilt.
“You should’ve spoken,” I said.
His eyes dropped.
“So should others.”
I pointed toward the door.
He swallowed.
Then he nodded.
That afternoon, Ward called me into another interview.
“From?”
She did not answer.
She did not have to.
“Will that kill it?”
“Not if I can stop it.”
“How?”
Ward slid a document toward me.
A sworn statement.
“You saw Vance pressure your team in Virginia.”
“Yes.”
“You kept the original inspection records?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
I hesitated.
“In a personal archive.”
Ward’s eyes sharpened.
“I need them.”
I opened my laptop.
The folder was there.
But when I entered the password, the archive returned an error.
Corrupted.
I tried again.
Same result.
Then a notification appeared.
May you like
REMOTE LOGIN DETECTED — 03:12 A.M.
Someone had accessed my account while I was inside the investigation room.
