Boyd had answers for everything.
Not good answers.
Practiced ones.
Then Ortiz placed a photograph on the table.
White box truck.
Boyd looked.
“What?”
“You signed the intake authorization.”
“Maybe.”
“There was no traffic citation.”
“Mechanical tow.”
“No driver statement.”
“I don't write every form.”
“Why was a Fort Redmond communications truck held at your brother’s yard for seventeen hours?”
Boyd’s face remained still.
“Ask the driver.”
“We did.”
That was bluff.
Boyd did not know.
His eyes moved.
Small.
Enough.
Ortiz continued.
“He says you ordered him out of the cab.”
Boyd’s lawyer intervened.
“Unless the government intends to charge my client—”
Sarah left the observation room.
Walked into the interview.
The lawyer objected immediately.
“General Hayes is a complaining witness.”
Sarah remained standing.
“I have one question.”
Boyd looked up.
His earlier confidence returned slightly.
He still resented her most.
Good.
Anger made people careless.
Sarah placed the matte-black communication device on the table.
Boyd stared.
“This device records unauthorized biometric contact.”
His lawyer looked at him.
Sarah continued.
“It registered your fingerprints during booking.”
Boyd shrugged.
“I handled evidence.”
“Yes.”
“It also activated proximity detection.”
Boyd’s eyes changed.
The second sentence was partly misleading.
The device did have environmental sensing, but not in the way Sarah implied.
“What does that mean?” Boyd asked.
“It means when you threw it into your evidence tray, it detected another secure military transmitter within approximately thirty feet.”
Silence.
His lawyer looked toward him.
Sarah leaned closer.
“You told the Pentagon you knew nothing about a military case.”
Boyd said nothing.
“The transmitter was inside your evidence room.”
Still nothing.
Sarah lowered her voice.
“How long has it been there?”
Boyd looked away.
His lawyer said:
“Do not answer.”
Sarah nodded.
“Good advice.”
She picked up the device.
Then paused at the door.
“One more thing.”
Boyd looked.
“The signal inside that military case isn't ours.”
His face changed.
There.
Fear.
Not of Sarah.
Of whoever had placed it.
Sarah left.
Behind the glass, Ortiz smiled.
“Nice.”
Sarah shook her head.
“He's scared of his supplier.”
“Can we use that?”
“We're going to.”
9
At 1:13 a.m., Boyd asked to speak without his brother present.
At 1:29, he asked what federal protection looked like.
At 1:44, his attorney told him to shut up.
At 2:02, Boyd ignored the attorney.
The first name he gave was Everett Shaw.
Sarah knew it.
Everyone in defense logistics did.
Colonel Everett Shaw.
Retired.
Former deputy commander for logistics security at Fort Redmond.
After retirement, Shaw became a consultant for Atlas Meridian Freight, a private carrier handling sensitive government cargo under subcontract.
Respectable.
Connected.
Frequently invited to Pentagon industry meetings.
Sarah had shaken his hand twice.
Boyd said Shaw approached Nolan three years earlier.
At first the arrangement involved ordinary commercial cargo.