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“May I see the drive?” he asks.

Pierce pulls it from his pocket and hands it over.

Stephens examines it briefly before placing it on the table.

“I'm going to have our digital forensics people take a look at this. They'll preserve the original and examine a copy.”

“We've already opened it,” Pierce admits.

“On what?”

“Our personal laptop.”

Stephens makes another note. “I'll need the details of that computer, too. And I'll need to know exactly when and how you accessed the files.”

“Is it going to be a problem?” I ask.

“It's something we'll document. Doesn't mean the evidence is worthless.”

“We’ll get it to you right away,” Pierce says.

“Do you feel your witness is in danger?” he asks, looking between us.

“We’re not sure,” Pierce says carefully. “Mendes has been very adamant about finding her, and from the get go, we avoided bringing her in. However, he has been more quiet than usual, so we aren’t sure if he’s onto us or what.”

“And you said she was at the crime scene?”

“Yes, and her smell was very obvious.”

“Thankfully,” he begins, “We can’t hunt her down by scent, but if he’s onto you, he could be sniffing around. Be vigilant, and stop investigating this.” He points to the drive. “You don’t want to do anything that could tip him off. I’m going to put together a team to look into this immediately, and if it’s legit, we will take action.”

“Yes, sir,” Pierce says.

He looks between us for a moment.

“I'm going to be clear about something,” Stephens says. “From this point forward, you two need to step away from the Gendron investigation too.”

I straighten in my chair. “We've been working this case since the beginning.”

“And you've done the right thing bringing it here. But you're both personally involved with a key witness, and your commanding officer is a potential suspect. That's two significant conflicts that could cause a bigger shitshow that we don’t need. I’m sure you understand.”

I lean back in my chair, trying to stay calm.

I do understand, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

In fact, I hate it.

Not just having to hand over the case, but knowing how badly I misjudged Mendes. Pierce had been suspicious of him from the beginning, and I kept defending the bastard.

Worse, I spent those first few days convinced Rae had something to do with Tiger's murder.

Meanwhile, the man giving us orders was likely involved in the whole damn thing.

I should have seen it.

And now I have to trust someone else to finish what we started—what we couldn’t do.

Fuck, that really sucks.