“I don’t remember the real name.”
“Nickname?”
“Rabbit.”
Naomi knew it.
Her stomach tightened.
Rabbit appeared in reimbursement files twelve times after supposed deactivation.
Grant continued:
“Keller controlled him directly.”
“That unusual?”
“For a lieutenant?”
“Yes.”
Naomi wrote.
“What did Rabbit provide?”
“Narcotics intelligence.”
“Gang locations.”
“Storage units.”
“Dealers.”
“Did it check out?”
“Sometimes.”
The answer mattered.
Naomi looked up.
“Sometimes?”
Grant nodded.
“A few hits were perfect.”
“Too perfect.”
“What does that mean?”
Grant leaned forward.
“Like police already knew what would be there.”
Naomi stopped writing.
“Explain.”
“One warehouse.”
“We had source intelligence saying fentanyl shipment.”
“Search warrant.”
“We hit it.”
“Drugs exactly where the informant said.”
“Quantity nearly exact.”
“So?”
Grant swallowed.
“Packaging had evidence tape residue.”
Naomi stared.
“What?”
“Old adhesive.”
“On two bricks.”
“Like they’d been inside evidence before.”
Naomi felt the room shrink.
“When?”
“Fourteen months ago.”
“Who saw?”
“Me.”
“Anybody else?”
“Pike.”
Naomi wrote the detective’s name.
“You report it?”
Grant looked away.
“To Keller.”
Of course.
“What did he say?”
“That seized narcotics sometimes get repackaged by distributors.”
Naomi almost laughed.
“He said that?”
“Yes.”
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
Grant’s voice cracked slightly.
Naomi let the silence remain.
Grant continued.
“My daughter was applying to the academy.”
“Keller chaired recommendations.”
There it was.
Not simple cowardice.
Leverage.
Naomi asked:
“Your daughter join?”
“Yes.”
“Different department.”
“Good.”
Grant’s eyes filled.
“I should’ve said something.”
Naomi replied:
“You’re saying something now.”
“That doesn't erase it.”
“No.”
Grant looked at her.
Naomi continued:
“But it changes what happens next.”
That became the beginning.
By noon, Pike requested a meeting.
By two, an evidence technician asked for whistleblower protection.
By four, Naomi had three new names, two storage locations, and one internal email chain nobody in federal review had previously seen.
Fear was beginning to move.
Not disappear.
Move.
Keller understood the danger.
At 4:23, his attorney arrived.
At 5:10, Keller left the building on administrative leave.
He passed Naomi near the elevators.
No shove.
No insult.
No smirk.
Just a stare.
His attorney touched his elbow.
“Don’t.”
Keller stopped.
Naomi said nothing.
The elevator doors opened.
He entered.
Before they closed, he looked at her.
“This unit will hate you.”
Naomi finally spoke.