“What?”
Rachel pointed.
“The store’s digital incident report was created at 12:07.”
“After my arrest.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe they called first.”
“Dispatch record currently shows no incoming call from Maison Arquette before officers contact you.”
Evan leaned forward.
“Then why were police there?”
Rachel looked at him.
“Exactly.”
Malcolm added:
“Harlan’s report says officers responded to store complaint.”
Nia stared at the timeline.
“So he lied.”
“Possibly.”
Rachel’s voice remained controlled.
“We still need complete dispatch records.”
Nia looked toward the arrest video.
“What about the bracelet?”
Rachel opened another document.
“Maison Arquette says they are checking inventory.”
Nia laughed in disbelief.
“Checking?”
“A twelve-thousand-dollar bracelet supposedly disappeared and they need to check whether they ever had it?”
“That's why I'm interested.”
Maison Arquette’s regional loss-prevention manager was named Thomas Keene.
Forty-seven.
Worked retail security for twenty years.
He filed the official theft report at 12:07.
According to his statement, a sales associate noticed an empty bracelet display after Nia left.
Keene reviewed internal video.
Believed Nia was suspicious.
Contacted police.
There was one major problem.
The sales associate he named said that never happened.
Her name was Lydia Chen.
She was twenty-six.
She was the employee who had spoken with Nia about the green handbag.
When investigators interviewed her, Lydia said:
“No bracelet was displayed there.”
The investigator asked:
“How do you know?”
“I set the case that morning.”
“Could another employee have added one?”
“Not without logging transfer.”
“Was there a transfer?”
“No.”
“Did you report Nia as suspicious?”
“No.”
“Did anyone ask you about her before police arrested her?”
“No.”
Lydia became visibly nervous.
Then:
“Mr. Keene asked me later if I remembered her touching the jewelry case.”
“What did you say?”
“That she didn't.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked if I was sure.”
“Were you?”
“Yes.”
“He asked again.”
“And?”
“I said yes.”
The investigator wrote.
“Anything else?”
Lydia hesitated.
“He told me people remember things differently when they know someone has been arrested.”
That sentence changed the interview.
“What did you think he meant?”
“I don't know.”
But she did.
Everyone did.
The bracelet itself provided the next break.
The serial number engraved beneath the clasp did not match any Maison Arquette inventory record from the previous two years.
It did match something else.
A Brookhaven Police Department property record.
Case 21-4478.
Recovered stolen merchandise.
Two years earlier.
A jewelry-store burglary.
The bracelet had been seized from a vehicle during an unrelated arrest.
It remained in department evidence because ownership had been disputed between an insurer and retailer.
According to the property database, the bracelet was still inside Evidence Locker B-17.
Investigators opened B-17.
Empty.
The inventory system still showed it there.
No checkout.
No court release.
No transfer.
No destruction authorization.