He Saved His "Work Wife", I Saved Myself

Chapter 4

The case was about to be handed over to the prosecutor when a phone went missing from the evidence room. It held the text messages from the upstream dealer. Without it, the indictment was worthless.

Of course, the department's system had to crash that day. The evidence room was stuck using a paper sign-out log.

That morning, Internal Affairs called me into a conference room.

The log lay open on the table. The last entry for the evidence pull was signed "Chloe Bennett."

The handwriting looked like mine. But the final stroke had an extra loop.

"Ms. Bennett, did you enter the archives area yesterday?" the IA officer in the center asked.

"I did. Organizing old case files," I said.

"What about the phone?"

"I never touched it."

The three of them exchanged a look. The investigator on the left flipped open his folder. "Access card logs show you entered and exited the relevant floor yesterday afternoon."

Arthur pushed the door open. He nodded at the investigators, then pulled me out into the hallway.

He stopped in a corner and lowered his voice. "Elena has her promotion interview next week."

I looked at him.

"If this goes on her record, the last few years of her career are done. You're just civilian staff in the archives. Worst case, you get suspended pending review for a while. I'll find a way to make it up to you."

"So you know I didn't sign that."

Arthur didn't answer. He couldn't meet my eyes.

"Got it," I said.

Back in the conference room, the IA officer slid a sheet of paper across the table toward me. A temporary suspension notice.

I left and went to the archives room to pack up my things. A notification popped up in the corner of my computer screen: Weekly Surveillance Backup Reminder.

This was one of my routine responsibilities. The hallway footage was saved automatically. Every week, I ran the backup and sent it out.

I dragged the attachment into a new email. For the recipient, I typed the Internal Affairs public tip line address.

I gathered my things and left. I was almost at the elevator when I saw Elena standing there.

She spotted the box in my arms and hurried over. "Chloe, I'm so sorry. I just... I wasn't thinking straight."

I stepped around her. "Internal Affairs will sort it out."

Elena tucked her hair behind her ear. "Don't take it so hard. Arthur's already working on it. This will all blow over soon."

I didn't answer. I was done waiting.

Back at the apartment, I opened my laptop and found an unread email from three months ago.

The sender was the Maasai Mara Wildlife Rescue Camp in Kenya. The attachment was an acceptance letter for a photography volunteer position.

Arthur had said going to Africa to photograph animals was a dead end, that I'd starve. Staying at the department as civilian staff was the safest bet. The email had been buried at the bottom of my inbox ever since.

But it had been my dream.

I clicked the link in the email and submitted my application.

Right after I did, a message from Arthur popped up:

Arthur: Stop sulking. I'll come home early tonight. We'll have dinner together.

I deleted the contact.

That surveillance backup email was sitting in Internal Affairs' inbox by now.

The footage would show, with absolute clarity, exactly whose access card approached that door before the evidence disappeared.

I finished packing my bags.