Chapter 4 - The Locked Evidence Room
Emergency lights flickered on.
Dim red bulbs washed the booking room in shadow.
“Everybody stay where you are!”
Brooks’ voice cut through the confusion.
I remained beside Colonel Wallace.
Agent Monroe immediately checked the laptop.
Still there.
The flash drive was still connected.
Deputy Evans reached for his flashlight.
“Backup generator should’ve kicked in.”
Mercer said nothing.
That worried me.
“Where’s Briggs?” I asked.
Everyone looked around.
He was gone.
Monroe cursed.
“Rear hallway.”
Two agents moved quickly.
Evans followed.
Mercer stepped after them.
Brooks blocked him again.
“You stay here.”
“My deputy may be in danger.”
“Your deputy may be destroying evidence.”
Mercer’s face hardened.
“You have no proof.”
Then something heavy crashed behind the locked door.
We all heard it.
Evans shouted from the hallway.
“Evidence room!”
Monroe hurried after him.
I followed.
Colonel Wallace caught my arm.
“General.”
“I’m fine.”
“This could become unsafe.”
“It already is.”
The evidence room door was steel.
Smoke began seeping from beneath it.
Evans’ face went white.
“No.”
Monroe shouted, “Fire extinguisher!”
Elijah ran toward a wall cabinet.
Mercer suddenly yelled, “Everybody back!”
I looked at him.
Too quickly.
Too loudly.
Too desperately.
Evans found the emergency key panel.
“The override key is missing.”
Monroe turned toward Mercer.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I said I don’t know.”
The smell of burning paper grew stronger.
Elijah returned with an extinguisher.
“Can we break the door?”
Evans shook his head.
“Reinforced.”
Then a voice came from inside.
“Sheriff!”
Briggs.
Mercer closed his eyes.
Just for a second.
That was enough.
Monroe saw it.
So did I.
“What is he doing in there?” she asked.
Mercer didn’t answer.
Briggs yelled again.
“Sheriff, open it!”
Evans stared.
“He locked himself inside?”
Monroe stepped closer to Mercer.
“Key.”
“I don’t have it.”
She searched his face.
“Sheriff Mercer, if Deputy Briggs dies behind that door because you refuse to produce a key—”
Mercer reached into his pocket.
Everyone froze.
He slowly removed a brass key.
Evans looked sick.
“You had it.”
Mercer handed it over.
“He must’ve taken my other one.”
Nobody believed him.
Evans opened the door.
Smoke rolled into the hallway.
Briggs stumbled out coughing.
Behind him, several cardboard archive boxes were burning inside a metal cart.
Elijah blasted them with the extinguisher.
White chemical fog filled the room.
Briggs collapsed against the wall.
Monroe grabbed him by the shirt.
“What did you burn?”
“Nothing.”
She stared at the smoke behind him.
“Try again.”
“I was trying to move evidence away from an electrical fire.”
Evans laughed bitterly.
“There’s no electricity.”
Briggs looked at him.
Evans pointed upward.
“The power’s out.”
That ended the lie.
Brooks ordered everyone out of the evidence room until the fire department arrived.
Agent Monroe instructed her team to secure every exit.
Mercer started shouting about warrants.
Monroe finally lost patience.
“Sheriff, your deputy was caught inside your evidence room while county records were burning minutes after we uncovered financial irregularities.”
“I didn’t tell him to do anything.”
Briggs looked at him.
That sentence changed everything.
Mercer saw it too late.
Briggs stared.
“You didn’t tell me?”
Mercer’s face stiffened.
“I said nothing.”
Briggs laughed once.
A stunned sound.
“You’re really doing this?”
“Carl.”
“You told me to clean the old files.”
Mercer’s eyes widened.
“Shut up.”
Brooks stepped forward.
“Say that again.”
Briggs looked around.
Smoke hung in the hallway.
His hands were blackened from soot.
“You heard me.”
Monroe pulled out her phone recorder.
“When did Sheriff Mercer tell you to destroy files?”
Mercer shouted.
“Don’t answer that!”
Briggs turned on him.
“You said this was handled!”
Mercer moved toward him.
Brooks intercepted him.
Briggs kept talking.
“You said Evans was too scared to do anything.”
“Carl!”
“You said nobody was coming!”
Monroe’s gaze sharpened.
“Nobody was coming for what?”
Briggs suddenly realized how much he was saying.
He stopped.
Mercer gave him a murderous look.
Then the building’s main power returned.
Fluorescent lights flashed overhead.
For a moment, everybody squinted.
The red emergency telephone began ringing again.
Nobody touched it.
Finally, Evans answered.
“Bellridge County Sheriff’s Office.”
He listened.
Then looked at Monroe.
“State Bureau of Investigation.”
Monroe held out her hand.
Evans passed her the receiver.
She spoke quietly for almost a minute.
Then she hung up.
“What?” I asked.
“They’re sending a corruption unit.”
Mercer laughed.
It sounded desperate now.
“You all think you can walk in here and destroy thirty years of service because some woman got offended during a traffic stop?”
I looked at him.
“No.”
He pointed at me.
“This started because of you.”
“No, Sheriff.”
I stepped closer.
“This started years before I came through your county.”
His face reddened.
“You don’t know me.”
“I know exactly enough.”
I glanced toward Elijah.
“You hurt a man because you thought nobody would listen.”
Then Evans.
“You intimidated a deputy because you thought fear would keep him quiet.”
Then the smoking evidence room.
“And when people finally started looking, your records caught fire.”
Mercer’s lips pressed together.
I lowered my voice.
“My arrest didn’t create this.”
I held his eyes.
“It exposed it.”
The fire department arrived.
Then state investigators.
Within twenty minutes, the station was filled with people Mercer could not order around.
One of the state investigators approached Agent Monroe with a sealed folder.
They spoke privately.
Then both looked at Mercer.
Something about their expressions made him step backward.
“What?” he demanded.
Monroe opened the folder.
“We just received records from the county finance office.”
Mercer’s jaw tightened.
“What records?”
“Civil forfeiture deposits.”
“That’s public money.”
“Yes.”
She removed a page.
“Which makes it interesting that $218,000 appears to have been transferred into a private account associated with Mercer Land Holdings.”
Elijah whispered, “Lord.”
Mercer stared at Monroe.
“That’s my brother’s company.”
“Your name is on the incorporation documents.”
“It’s a family business.”
Monroe nodded.
“I’m sure we’ll discuss that.”
Mercer pointed toward the door.
“I want a lawyer.”
“You should call one.”
He looked at me.
For the first time, there was hatred in his eyes without confidence behind it.
“You think you won?”
I shook my head.
“This isn’t about winning.”
Then Agent Monroe’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed almost immediately.
“Where?”
She listened.
Then looked at Elijah.
“When?”
Another pause.
She slowly lowered the phone.
“Elijah.”
He stiffened.
“What?”
Monroe’s voice softened.
“They found Darnell Price’s original arrest video.”
Elijah stared at her.
“Where?”
“In an off-site storage server.”
Mercer stopped breathing.
Monroe continued.
“And according to the investigator watching it…”
May you like
She looked directly at Mercer.
“Darnell never assaulted anyone.”
