“Was it logged?”
“No.”
Amelia’s grip tightened around her coffee. “Would you swear to that?”
He looked pained. “I can swear I saw him remove an object. I can’t swear what it was.”
“That may be enough to ask more questions.”
“Questions make people nervous.”
“Good.”
Ortiz gave her a sideways look.
For the first time, there was something like respect in it.
Back at the prison, Mitchell began his own quiet inquiry.
He reviewed staff schedules from five years earlier, comparing them to dates in the case file. Reed had taken unexpected leave the night of Martin Keller’s murder. Officially, he had requested two personal days due to “family matters.”
Mitchell knew Reed had no spouse and no children.
He requested archived entry logs from the county evidence facility. The response came back incomplete. Records from that period had been “damaged during storage.”
He called an old acquaintance in county administration and asked whether Reed had ever served in any law enforcement liaison role.
