The woman hesitated.
“Someone sent him a photograph.”
The investigator became still.
“What photograph?”
“A picture of a small silver security key used by Lattice Integrity.”
The investigator looked toward her colleague.
Then asked, “Who sent it?”
The supervisor shook her head.
“I don't know.”
She looked down.
“But the manager said it came from someone inside the city.”
The room became quiet.
The investigator considered the statement.
Then asked another question.
“What did he plan to do with the device?”
The supervisor looked frightened.
“He said if they got it before the report was submitted, the company would have trouble proving the records were real.”
The investigator nodded slowly.
That theory was technically questionable.
Lattice Integrity's evidence didn't depend solely on one physical object.
But the people arranging the interception apparently didn't understand the company's systems well enough to realize it.
They believed a small piece of hardware could be seized, destroyed, or used to discredit the audit.
The investigator looked toward the woman's notes.
Then asked, “Did anyone mention police officers?”
The supervisor hesitated.
Finally, she nodded.
“The operations manager said he had friends who could handle the car.”
The investigator waited.
The woman swallowed.
“He said the owner would be too embarrassed to complain once they finished.”
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then the lead investigator asked, “Why did you decide to tell us?”
The supervisor looked toward the table.
Her eyes filled.
“Because that health aide came to our office crying.”
The investigator remained quiet.
The woman continued.
“She'd paid the fees. She had the receipt. She just wanted her car.”
Her voice broke.
“And my manager told her she should've paid sooner.”
She wiped her face.
“I knew that wasn't what happened.”
The investigator waited.
The supervisor looked up.
“I kept thinking about my mother.”
She took a breath.
“My mother still drives an old car. She works at a grocery store. She couldn't afford to lose it.”
Her hands trembled.
“I realized we'd built a system where ordinary people could lose their property because somebody with access to a computer decided the records should say something different.”
The investigator nodded.
The woman continued.
“And then three police officers tore apart another woman's car because someone told them to find the proof.”
She looked toward the investigator.
“I couldn't keep pretending I didn't know.”
The investigation now had three separate sources pointing toward the same operation.