Chapter 11 - The Friendly Voice
Keller had retired two years after the operation.
At his farewell dinner, people had called him dependable.
He had shaken my hand after I left the hospital.
Told me the department owed me.
I remembered the softness of his voice.
That was what made me sick.
Ortiz explained that the archive access alone proved nothing.
Keller had been authorized to handle the records then.
They needed to establish what he copied, what he retained, and how any material reached Shaw.
“What if he already destroyed it?” Anton asked.
“Then we look for what he couldn’t destroy.”
Emails.
Payments.
Devices.
People.
Owen sat beside me.
“Do you remember the route change on the night of the raid?”
“The trucks were moved to Pier Eight.”
“Keller received that update before the field teams.”
I looked at Reyes.
He didn’t pretend not to understand.
“We’re reopening the leak question.”
For years, I had blamed Elena.
Not openly.
Never in a report.
But some bitter, private part of me had wondered whether our source had sold us out.
She’d disappeared before trial.
We had called it fear.
Some people called it guilt.
Now I wondered who had taught us to look at her.
My phone rang.
Keller.
His name was still saved.
I held it up.
Ortiz nodded toward the table.
“You don’t have to answer. If you do, don’t agree to meet him.”
I answered on speaker.
“Maya,” he said. “I saw the video. Hell of a thing.”
“What do you want?”
“To see if you’re okay.”
“I’m handling it.”
“I know you are. You always did.”
Same voice.
Same gentle patience.
“I hear people are pulling old files,” he continued. “That could get messy for everybody.”
Ortiz was writing.
“Why would it get messy for me?”
“Memory gets complicated. Undercover work blurs lines. You know that.”
I looked at Owen.
He was staring at the phone.
Keller sighed.
“There’s no reason to let some spoiled woman drag all of us through the mud.”
“All of us?”
“The unit.”
“I haven’t said anything about the unit.”
Silence.
Short, but real.
Then he recovered.
“Just think before you act.”
The call ended.
Ortiz set down her pen.
“Did you tell anyone outside this room we were reviewing the archive?”
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
May you like
Reyes stood slowly.
Someone was still telling Keller what we were doing.
