Fifteen Christmases.
His nephew had spent them behind prison walls.
But Arvand also recognized that Helen had finally chosen to tell the truth.
He looked toward her.
“Can the recording be authenticated?”
Helen nodded.
“I still have the original storage device.”
Arvand took a slow breath.
“Then we need to make sure it’s handled properly.”
Because the recording contained something more important than a nickname.
It contained evidence that someone had been warned about Darius’s alibi.
And one of the men involved was still wearing a badge.
Chapter 6: The Officer Who Thought the Past Was Buried
Tommy Riker had spent fifteen years trying not to think about Darius Bell.
He told himself the confession had been legitimate.
He told himself the prosecutor had accepted it.
The jury had convicted.
The judge had imposed a sentence.
Whatever happened afterward wasn’t his responsibility.
That was the story he repeated until he almost believed it.
But the old recording threatened to destroy that explanation.
Riker was now forty-two.
He had never become a detective.
Several disciplinary complaints had slowed his career.
Colleagues described him as confrontational.
Supervisors occasionally criticized his handling of suspects.
But he remained employed.
He had recently been assigned to an aging police annex used for storage, administrative interviews, and evidence processing.
The building sat several miles from the main headquarters.
It had once been a busy station.
Now much of it was scheduled for renovation.
The old interrogation room was rarely used.
Its camera system had been disconnected.
The heavy steel door was still functional.
And access to the lower corridor was restricted to authorized personnel.
Riker liked the isolation.
He knew which employees worked late.
He knew when the building became quiet.
And he knew how easily an unexpected visitor could be overlooked.
When he learned that Arvand Burlington was helping attorneys examine the Darius Bell case, he became anxious.
Then he learned that the review included old department recordings.
He began asking questions.
He wanted to know who possessed the files.
What they contained.
And whether the original material could be authenticated.
His questions attracted attention.
But Riker believed he could still control the situation.
Then Arvand received a message requesting a meeting at the annex.
It appeared to concern verification of an old evidence-transfer record.
The message was not legitimate.
And by the time Arvand realized that, he was already inside the building.
