Chapter 5 — The Missing Evidence
1000 Words
The authorization to digitize the Crown Medical files arrived at 7:12 the next morning.
By 8:03, Olivia was back at the archive.
The same archivist met her inside the security doors. This time, the gray box was gone.
"Ms. Reed, I was about to call you."
"Where is CM-14?"
"It was placed under legal restriction overnight."
Olivia set the printed authorization on the desk. "Your counsel approved this forty-eight minutes ago."
"I know."
"Then bring me the box."
"I can't."
The answer was too practiced.
"Who removed it?"
The archivist glanced toward the entrance camera. "The physical materials were transferred to restricted custody at two eighteen this morning."
"By whom?"
"An emergency preservation request came from Crown Clinical Holdings."
The archivist turned the monitor enough for Olivia to read the filing. Merrick, Hall & Dorsey appeared as counsel of record.
Olivia knew the name. Crown Clinical Holdings had disappeared into mergers years ago, and the law firm had represented a Voss subsidiary in a licensing dispute.
The law firm on the request had represented a Voss subsidiary before.
Not Diana. Not Richard. Not even Kingstone.
Not proof of who had ordered anything.
But the box had moved hours after Sebastian called Albert, and that timing was now part of the evidence too.
"Show me the access log."
The archivist turned the monitor.
An outside legal custodian had entered secure storage at 1:54 a.m. The camera feed went dark four minutes later and returned at 2:17.
Twenty-three minutes.
"What failed?"
"Routine maintenance was entered."
"At two in the morning."
"I have already reported it."
"After the box left."
The archivist's cheeks flushed. Olivia did not press the embarrassment. The useful facts were already on the screen: a credential, a dark camera, and twenty-three minutes in which the box had changed hands.
A door opened behind them.
Sebastian walked in carrying his tablet. He took in Olivia, the access log, and the empty space where the box should have been.
"What happened?"
Olivia finally turned toward him. "You happened."
His gaze moved to the screen. "Explain."
"The box was moved under an emergency legal restriction after a twenty-three-minute camera outage. The request came through a Voss-connected firm."
Sebastian checked his phone. "I was notified at six thirty. Security filtered the message."
"How inconvenient."
He looked at her.
"Who did you call?" she asked.
The archivist started to step away.
"Stay," Olivia said. "You may need to document the answer."
Sebastian did not soften it.
"I called Albert."
Olivia had expected that.
Hearing it still tightened her grip on the authorization.
"What did you tell him?"
"Your name. The certificate. The archive. The missing page."
"And he told you?"
"To let the family handle it."
Olivia folded the paper once.
"You knew I told you not to call."
"Yes."
"You decided your loyalty mattered more."
"Yes."
"And now the only surviving archive box connected to my birth is gone."
"We don't know it was destroyed."
"We know someone moved it after your call."
His jaw tightened. "I'm not denying the consequence."
She waited for him to tell her Albert would never destroy evidence, or that he had only been trying to help, or that she had forced his hand by withholding information.
None of it came.
"I was wrong," he said.
It was the first useful thing he had given her that morning. Not because it fixed anything, but because he did not ask her to forgive the intention before they dealt with the result.
Olivia slid the authorization toward the archivist. "Preserve every log and the camera-outage record. Send copies to my counsel and to me."
"I'll notify legal."
"Do that."
Olivia turned toward the exit.
"Where are you going?" Sebastian asked.
"To the Kingstones."
He followed. "If someone inside that family moved the records, walking into their house alone gives them the advantage."
"They already have the advantage. You handed it to them."
"I can arrange security."
"No."
"At least let me—"
He reached toward her arm.
Olivia's shoulders locked.
Sebastian stopped before touching her.
His hand dropped.
The restraint repaired nothing. It kept him from making the same choice twice in the same minute.
Olivia faced him.
"If we work together again, you do not make calls with my name, move information, or arrange protection without asking me first."
"And if I think you're making the wrong choice?"
"Tell me."
"If the risk is immediate?"
"Tell me that too."
"What if there isn't time?"
"You still don't own the decision. An emergency is not a permanent transfer of authority."
The security doors unlocked with a buzz.
Sebastian looked at her for a long moment. "Albert may not be behind this."
"I know."
"You're treating him as if he is."
"I'm treating the consequence as real."
Her phone vibrated.
The message came from the Kingstone family office.
Richard Kingstone requested her presence at the Greenwich estate at four. He asked that she attend alone and bring the documents bearing his name.
A second line followed, colder than the first.
He would like her to explain why she was using the name of his deceased daughter.
Olivia read it twice.
Sebastian stopped close enough to see that her attention had changed, but not the screen.
"What is it?"
"A summons."
"From whom?"
"Richard Kingstone."
His expression changed. "You're not going alone."
The reflex came so quickly that Olivia almost laughed.
"You just finished admitting the problem."
Sebastian's jaw tightened. He did not repeat the order.
Olivia opened the reply.
Thank you for the invitation. I will attend at four.
She pressed Send.
"Yes," she said. "I am."
Sebastian looked as though he was already calculating ways to interfere.
Olivia walked through the doors before he could offer one.
She would enter the Kingstone house with Mara's documents, her own name, and no man beside her to translate either one. If Richard wanted an explanation, he would hear it from the daughter everyone had already learned to speak about without her.
- Writer
