Mara looked at Colter.
“Your evidence system.”
Colter frowned.
“What about it?”
“They may need my credential to authorize access to something only a federal officer can open.”
Benton shook his head.
“Then why attack you?”
Mara looked toward the booking room.
“Because they wanted the sheriff to make a mistake.”
Colter's face tightened.
“You think I was part of it.”
“No.”
She paused.
“I think you were useful.”
That hurt him more.
Not because she accused him of corruption.
Because she told him he had been predictable.
They returned to the booking room.
The red telephone had stopped ringing.
Evan looked at it.
“Why did they call us?”
Mara answered.
“To make sure the arrest was noticed.”
Evan frowned.
“Why would they want that?”
“Because the arrest created a record.”
Colter stared at her.
“A record that could later be used to claim I authorized her detention.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“Then someone could say the sheriff personally took custody of a federal officer.”
Colter understood.
“My name becomes the authorization.”
“Exactly.”
Evan looked sick.
“So this whole thing was designed to frame the sheriff.”
Mara shook her head.
“Not exactly.”
She looked at Colter.
“It was designed to make him look guilty while someone else used his authority.”
Colter sat down.
For the first time that night, he looked old.
His shoulders dropped.
The uniform suddenly seemed heavier.
Mara stood across from him.
“You have two choices.”
He looked up.
“What?”
“You can spend the next hour defending yourself.”
“And the other?”
“Help me find who used you.”
Colter stared at her.
“What happens if I help?”
“You answer for what you did.”
He nodded slowly.
“And if I don't?”
“You answer for that too.”
Colter looked at the floor.
Then he stood.
“Let's find him.”
The next hour changed everything.
They pulled dispatch logs.
They reviewed access records.
They checked patrol vehicle GPS data.
They compared timestamps.
They found dozens of irregularities.
A prisoner transfer entered at 4:12 p.m. had never happened.
An evidence-room access record at 6:03 p.m. had been fabricated.
A patrol unit had supposedly stopped at a gas station at 7:14 p.m., but the vehicle's GPS showed it was three miles away.
Then they found the strangest entry.
At 8:17 p.m., a command authorization had been entered under Colter's credentials.
Mara stared at the screen.
“What was this?”
Evan opened the attached file.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Mara.
Standing beside her government sedan.
Taken less than an hour earlier.
Colter stared.
“Who took that?”
Mara leaned closer.
“Someone who knew exactly where I was.”
Evan enlarged the image.
A reflection appeared in the sedan window.
A dark SUV.
Mara's expression became hard.
“I saw that vehicle.”
“Where?”
“On County Road 18.”
Colter looked at Evan.
“Find the plate.”
Evan did.
The plate was obscured.
Mara looked at the image again.
“That's not an accident.”
“What do you mean?”
“The photographer knew how to avoid identification.”
Colter stared at the screen.
“Can we trace the image?”
Evan checked.
“It was uploaded through our network.”
Mara looked at him.
“When?”