“Yes,” I replied, “but plenty more knew about the other evidence. They could have been trying for the coin, thinking it was expensive or rare, and didn’t even realize the drive was in there when they took the other evidence.”
Sydney placed her hand on my arm. I looked at her and she mouthed, “What happened?”
I held up my index finger.
“Does Doug know?”
“Doug was the one who discovered them missing.”
“What about the cameras in the station? Surely they picked up something.”
“Someone hacked the system. The cameras were down for about thirty minutes. Along with some of the cameras outside the station. And all the traffic cameras in a five-mile radius of the station were hacked into and turned off.”
Holy. Shit.
Roger paused for a few moments, and then I heard a door shut. “Mike, who in the hell has that sort of power to bribe someone in the department and then can hack into multiple security systems and turn them off?”
“Shit. Give me an hour or so, and then I’ll head in.”
“I’ll see what I can do on this end until you get here.”
“Right. See you in a few.”
Roger might have been a bit hotheaded at times, but he also recognized that I likely had more experience in this situation. It wasn’t like Salem was a super-small town and didn’t have any crime. It did. But breaking into the police department evidence room, stealing evidence, and disabling cameras so as not to be detected… that was not something you would expect in Salem.
“Mike, what happened?”
“Someone got into the evidence room and stole the coin, letter, and flash drive.”
She gasped. “What? Why would anyone take them?”
I headed back into the kitchen to take the French toast off the stove. There had to be a mole in the police department. But who? “I’m not sure. How did this person manage to get into different security systems and disable them all while they pulled this off? And was anyone helping them from inside the department?”
“Do you think someone in the department let someone into the evidence room?”
Shrugging, I replied, “I really don’t know.”
Sydney took her laptop and a file folder out of her bag and set them on the table before she quickly fed Maggie Maye.
“Let’s look and see what was on the drive. I printed it out but deleted the file from my computer. That might give us some answers.”
“Sydney, maybe I shouldn’t know what was on the drive.”
Her eyes locked with mine. “You don’t want to know?”
“I don’t know.”
Her brow rose. “How about if I read it first, and if I think it is something you won’t feel obligated to turn over, then you can read it. Or I’ll just tell you what’s on it so you aren’t technically seeing the files. It’ll be what I think is on the drive. For all you know, I’m reading random things I found online and printed out.”