"Get the tote."
Trooper Ellison's pen moved faster. Trooper Barnes's expression didn't change, but his eyes sharpened like a blade being honed.
"Do you still have that file?" he asked.
Martha slid the folder across the table with both hands. "My husband kept it."
Barnes flipped pages carefully as if the paper itself could bite. He stopped at the contract page. He looked at the logo. He looked at the date.
"This predates the tornado," he said.
"Yes," Martha replied.
Barnes closed the folder and set it beside his notepad. "We're going to make copies and log this into evidence. We're also going to request the county's emergency orders and the body camera footage."
Martha's laugh was short and bitter. "He didn't have a body camera."
Barnes's eyes flicked toward the open doorway, toward the riders' phones glowing in the night. "Then it's good you did."
Outside, Dean's phone buzzed again. He glanced at it, then spoke quietly to Barnes.
"Klein says we need to address Caleb first. They took him."
Barnes's expression tightened. "Who took him?"
"Deputy Rusk under Halverson," Dean said. "Curfew and interference."
Barnes nodded once. "We'll go to the station. We'll request immediate release pending review. If the detention was used as leverage, that's a problem."
Martha felt her throat close. "Please," she said, and hated how small it sounded.
Barnes looked at her. "Ma'am, I can't promise outcomes tonight. I can promise this. We are documenting everything, and this doesn't stay only in the county."
They left after midnight, troopers heading to the station, and Dean promising Martha two riders would stay on the road outside her lane, filming, visible, not on her property, just close enough that nobody could claim there were no witnesses if the county came back.
Martha didn't sleep. She sat on her kitchen chair in her raincoat, tin box on the table, folder beside it like a loaded weapon.
Every time her house creaked, she lifted her head. Near dawn, her phone rang.
"Dean."
"Caleb's out," he said, voice tight with held-back rage. "They released him after Barnes showed up. No charges filed, no paperwork, just... misunderstanding."
Martha closed her eyes. "They used him."
"I know," Dean said, "but listen. Halverson is doing an emergency meeting this morning, high school auditorium. He's calling it a community safety briefing. Pell's there. The relief desk is there. This is where they push buyouts and make you look unstable."
Martha's stomach sank because it made perfect sense. "They'll say I'm being influenced."
"They'll say we're threatening the town," Dean replied, "and they'll do it in front of everyone who's scared and tired."
Martha looked at the folder. "Then I show them paper."