“She file charges?” Harlan asked, voice rough.
“Withdrawn,” I said bitterly. “Her statement disappeared."
"And Erin?" I asked Gray.
He sighed and then answered, "She got transferred. Quietly. No fanfare. No reason given.”
Jack swore under his breath. “She warned him. Or hell, maybe she set Rachel up from the start.”
“Either way, she had her hand in what happened to Rachel,” I said flatly.
By the fourth day, it felt as though the walls were closing in.
Gray hadn’t stopped digging. Every few hours, he’d come up for air with another file, another connection, another fucking lie we hadn’t seen coming.
“There’s another sealed case,” he said suddenly, eyes darting across the screen. “Different name, but…” He clicked open a transcript. “Remi gave testimony.”
I froze. “Not for Rachel?”
“No. Separate case. Lucas Morris. Accused of stalking and harassment. Victim’s name redacted, but Remi’s all over the witness list.”
Jack tilted his head. “Morris… that name…”
Gray opened a new file, eyes scanning rapidly. “Fuck... the son of Judge Everett Morris.”
Silence fell, thick and charged.
Gray looked up. “Judge Morris. That’s Erin’s stepdad. Lucas Morris is her stepbrother.”
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
Harlan stood slowly, hands braced on his hips. “That’s who’s protecting her. Why she thinks she's invincible.”
Jack crossed to the table, voice low and sharp. “So, Erin was having an affair with Rachel’s husband. Rachel finds out and gets hurt. Erin warns him, covers it up. Later, Remi testifies against her stepbrother. Erin gets promoted. The clinic starts getting flagged...”
Gray added, “She probably used her access to track Remi’s clients, to interfere with investigations. The raid wasn’t the beginning; it was the finale.”
“I don't think she’s done,” I said, the words thick in my throat. “She’s been trying to ruin Remi for years. She just finally got bold enough to do it in public.”
Harlan looked at each of us. “We need to finish connecting the dots. Every report. Every sealed case. Every shift record, badge check, missed logs... everything. If she made one misstep, we’ll find it.”
“We already have,” Gray said, turning his screen. “She used department resources to access sealed records. And I’ve got a list of emails that went to her stepfather’s clerk account.”
“That’s enough to raise hell,” Jack said.
“It’s not enough to take everyone connected down,” Harlan replied.
He turned back toward the table, eyes sharp. “I want it all. Every link, every leak, every string she pulled. We’re not just sending this to IA. We’re sending it to the FBI. And if they ignore it? We send it to every goddamn reporter with a spine.”
His voice softened, but the fire in it stayed.
“For Erin. For the people she hurt. For Remi. And for every case that woman tried to bury.”
By day five, I was a complete mess.
My phone finally buzzed.
I nearly dropped it.
