"Then preserving evidence will help clear it up."
Briggs frowned.
"You can't confiscate my equipment."
"We aren't confiscating anything yet."
Raymond looked at the body camera.
"Don't touch it."
Briggs lowered his hand.
Vanessa stood beside the wall.
Raymond looked at her wrist.
"You need medical attention."
"I can walk."
"That's not what I asked."
Vanessa sighed.
"My wrist is bruised. My shoulder hurts."
A marshal immediately contacted the courthouse clinic.
Briggs looked increasingly uncomfortable.
Then his eyes moved upward.
A security camera hung above them.
Its indicator light was dark.
Raymond noticed.
"Control room."
A voice came through his radio.
"Camera Four is offline."
Raymond frowned.
"Since when?"
"Still checking."
Vanessa looked at the ceiling.
"Camera Seven is offline too."
Raymond turned.
"Seven?"
"And Eleven."
Briggs said nothing.
Vanessa opened the silver folder.
"The technical report explains why."
Raymond stepped closer.
"What does it say?"
"The cameras were manually disabled."
"By whom?"
Vanessa looked at Briggs.
"The system logs identify the user account."
Briggs shook his head.
"No."
Vanessa continued.
"The cameras were disabled at 8:12 this morning."
"I wasn't in the control room."
"Your access card opened the control room at 8:09."
Briggs's face hardened.
"Someone stole my card."
"Then you'll want the logs preserved."
"Absolutely."
"Good."
Raymond nodded toward a marshal.
"Document everything."
Briggs suddenly understood something.
The woman he had shoved against the wall was not merely a judge.
She had been investigating the very system he was connected to.
And the folder he had tried to take contained the evidence.
The elevator doors opened.
Captain Adrian Walsh stepped out with two officers.
He was fifty-five, silver-haired, broad-shouldered, and accustomed to being obeyed.
"What happened?"
Briggs answered immediately.
"Unauthorized person entered a restricted corridor."
Walsh looked at Vanessa.
His face changed.
"Judge Cole."
"Captain."
For several seconds, Walsh said nothing.
Then he turned toward Briggs.
"What did you do?"
"I was removing her from the corridor."
Raymond stepped forward.
"You used force."
Walsh looked at Vanessa's wrist.
"I apologize, Judge."
Vanessa didn't respond.
Walsh continued.
"Officer Briggs did not know who you were."
Vanessa opened the folder.
"Would he have been permitted to shove a visitor into a wall?"
"No."
"Then my title is irrelevant."
Walsh hesitated.
Vanessa placed a document on the nearest table.
"Three cameras were disabled this morning."
Walsh looked down.
His eyes moved across the page.
He recognized the system.
He recognized the access codes.
And he recognized one of the authorization signatures.
His own.
"I approve technical requests all the time," he said.
"This one was marked as a privacy-control pilot."
"I don't remember it."
"Perhaps not."
Walsh looked at Raymond.
"This can be handled internally."
"No," Raymond said.
"Captain, this happened inside a federal courthouse."
Walsh's voice tightened.
"Briggs is my officer."
"That doesn't give you control over federal evidence."
Vanessa reached into the folder again.
"This is a preservation order."
Walsh stared at it.
"It was signed at 7:45 this morning."
The order prohibited anyone from deleting or altering courthouse records connected to the investigation.
Walsh's confidence disappeared.
Raymond held out his hand.
"Your phone and access card."
"You need a warrant."
"No. We need to prevent evidence from being destroyed while the preservation order is active."
Walsh looked at Vanessa.
"Judge, surely we can discuss this."
"We are discussing it."
Her voice remained calm.
"You are simply no longer deciding how it proceeds."