Investigators counted them.
There were twenty-two.
The missing bag was the one Briggs planted on Marcus.
Chief Keller stood inside the evidence room staring at the empty slot.
“This is impossible.”
Marcus looked at the access log.
Only four people had entered the room in the previous week.
The evidence custodian.
A prosecutor.
A narcotics detective.
And Deputy Chief Raymond Foster.
Foster was Keller’s second-in-command.
He had served twenty-nine years.
He also supervised Officer Briggs.
“Where is Foster?” Marcus asked.
Keller folded his arms.
“Home. Today’s his day off.”
“Call him.”
Keller hesitated.
Marcus noticed.
“Chief?”
“I said call him.”
Keller frowned at the tone.
Marcus did not care.
Fifteen minutes later, the call went unanswered.
A patrol car was sent to Foster’s house.
Nobody was there.
His personal truck was gone.
His department phone had been left on his kitchen counter.
By late afternoon, the story had reached local television.
A police officer accused of planting cocaine on a high-ranking National Guard general was irresistible.
The park video spread even faster.
Millions would eventually watch Briggs slip the bag into Marcus’s pocket, pull it back out, then throw the punch.
Marcus hated the attention.
Chief Keller hated it more.
At five that evening, Keller entered the conference room carrying a printed statement.
“We’re announcing Briggs’ immediate suspension.”
Marcus read it.
It described Briggs as a “single officer whose alleged actions violated department values.”
Marcus put the page down.
“You wrote this quickly.”
“The public needs reassurance.”
“The public needs facts.”
“The facts show Briggs acted alone.”
Marcus looked toward the empty evidence slot.
“No, they don’t.”
Keller’s jaw tightened.
“You’ve been here less than a day.”
“Correct.”
“You don’t know this department.”
“Also correct.”
“Then perhaps you should stop treating every administrative mistake like a conspiracy.”
Marcus stared at him.
“Somebody entered your evidence room.”
Keller said nothing.
“Somebody removed narcotics.”
Silence.
“Somebody gave them to Briggs.”
Still nothing.
“And somebody knew I was investigating him before I walked into that park.”
Keller pushed the statement away.
“What exactly are you suggesting?”
Marcus leaned forward.
“That your department has a leak.”
Then he paused.
“Or my investigation does.”
That possibility bothered him more.
Only four people had known Marcus planned to observe Briggs.
Marcus.
A state investigator.
The governor’s legal counsel.
And Colonel Nathan Ross.
Ross had served with Marcus for seventeen years.
He was more than a colleague.
He was the man Marcus trusted most.
Marcus dismissed the thought immediately.
He would later wish he had not.
Because before midnight, the elderly woman who recorded the park incident would disappear.
And the only person outside the police department who knew where she had been taken for protection was Nathan Ross.
