"Pike knew that. He teaches the mobile data refresher."
The gas station recording played next. It showed Camille entering the lane at normal speed, stopping before either officer left the cruiser, and raising her empty hands. The camera had no usable audio, but it captured Pike returning to the passenger door while Van remained behind the Harley. It also showed Pike kick the registration folder beneath the motorcycle after Camille identified its location.
Jordan turned away from the screen. Camille reached for her, then stopped because the movement pulled at the burn. Jordan noticed and moved her chair closer.
Naomi paused the video. "The image supports compliance and opportunity, but it still does not show the terminal. I need Van's notebook, the tow intake, and a lawful interview with both officers."
"Sloan Recovery has not produced the inventory," Laya said. "They claimed the storm disrupted their upload."
Camille heard the excuse for what it was: time being purchased.
Laya's phone vibrated. She read the message, and color left her face. City Council had placed her on administrative leave for possible unauthorized access to confidential CAD audit data. At the same moment, Pike's union attorney sent Naomi a demand to exclude every file Laya had preserved. Pike had learned exactly where the first real threat to his story came from.
Eleven days after the stop, Camille entered a State Bureau conference room with her forearm wrapped and knee braced. Jordan still drove her to every appointment. The Harley remained behind Sloan Recovery's chain-link fence.
Laya sat across from Naomi with a city attorney beside her; she remained on paid leave. Naomi began with what the city could no longer dispute: a second certified CAD export produced under formal demand matched Laya's export byte for byte. The sequence was unaltered, and Laya had accessed it within her supervisory permissions while documenting a dispatch discrepancy.
"They can argue about why she preserved it," Naomi said. "They cannot argue that she invented it."
The city attorney stopped taking notes.
Camille studied a spreadsheet derived from the same CAD source and the Sloan intake records that had finally arrived. She had asked Naomi to examine a narrow question: How often had a clear state return been followed by a local caution and a high-value tow credited to Pike?
The answer was nine times in 14 months. Seven involved motorcycles. Every caution originated from Pike's session. Every vehicle went to Sloan Recovery, even when another company was next in rotation. Six owners paid substantial fees; two abandoned their bikes. Pike had claimed specialized overtime on each recovery. His application to lead the proposed interdiction unit cited all nine as proof of exceptional vehicle theft work.
"A pattern is not proof that every stop was fabricated," the city attorney said.
"Correct," Camille replied. "It tells us where lawful review is necessary. It does not authorize us to skip that review."
Naomi opened the intake file for Camille's Harley. The first photographs showed the waterproof registration folder inside the left saddlebag. A later inventory sheet marked the compartment empty. Sloan's original image timestamps had survived because the photographs were automatically attached to the city invoice before the inventory was edited. Victor Sloan claimed an employee had moved the folder and forgotten to document it. He denied coordinating with Pike and refused a voluntary interview. His refusal proved nothing by itself, but the conflicting records defeated Pike's claim that no ownership document had been found.
The final item on the table was Van's notebook, sealed after his attorney delivered it to Naomi. The bent page contained the plate number, the word "CLEAR" in capital letters, and a line written several minutes later: D.P. says local caution now possible clone. Beneath it, Van had recorded Camille's preservation requests at the hospital.
In a compelled administrative statement, Van admitted aiming his weapon, delaying medical care, and letting Pike alter the chronology. He placed Pike alone beside the terminal when the caution appeared. Naomi kept that interview separate from the criminal inquiry, while the independently created notebook and system records remained available to both paths.
"He is cooperating," the city attorney said.
"He is finally telling the truth," Camille answered. "That does not erase where he pointed his gun."