“Then why are you downloading it to a private tablet instead of logging it into evidence?” Vance asked.

The silence in the basement became heavy, punctuated only by the hum of the servers.

Harris took his hand off the rack and let it drop to his side.

His fingers hovered inches away from his service weapon.

“Vance, think about your career,” Harris said softly.

“I am thinking about my career, sir,” Vance said. “And I’m thinking about the law.”

“The law is what we make it in this town,” Harris said.

He took a slow step forward, his boot scraping against the concrete.

“Step back, Detective,” Vance said, raising his weapon slightly.

“You’re making a mistake,” Harris said. “A very expensive mistake.”

On my phone, the progress bar on the network app hit ninety-one percent.

I tapped the screen, initiating a local network freeze.

The blue lights on the server rack turned a sharp, blinking amber.

The screen of Harris’s tablet flashed red with a connection error.

“What did you do?” Harris snarled, his calm demeanor slipping.

“I cut the feed,” I said. “The data is locked.”