"I know."
"Is this because of the note?"
"No."
She stared at him.
Daniel sighed.
"Partly."
"Are we in trouble?"
"No."
That answer felt dishonest even as he said it.
He looked across the parking lot.
Parents.
Teachers.
A yellow school bus.
A delivery truck.
Then he noticed a black sedan parked across the street.
Engine running.
Tinted windows.
No one exited.
Daniel's hand tightened around the steering wheel.
He walked Lily to the entrance.
Before she went inside, he crouched.
"Listen to me."
Her eyes widened.
"If somebody you don't know talks to you, what do you do?"
"Find a teacher."
"And?"
"Don't go anywhere with them."
"And?"
"Call you."
"Good."
Lily watched his face.
"What about you?"
"I'm fine."
"You're doing the lying thing again."
Daniel almost smiled.
"I'll be close."
She wrapped her arms around him.
He held her longer than usual.
Then she disappeared through the school doors.
Daniel stayed until they closed.
When he looked back across the street, the black sedan was gone.
His phone buzzed.
A message from Evelyn.
I need you at Dock 14.
Daniel called immediately.
She answered.
"Which Dock 14?"
"The old Grant Meridian facility on Bexley Industrial Road."
"Why?"
"Because I found the original records."
Daniel looked toward the school.
"So did I."
Dock 14 stood near the industrial edge of the city, where warehouses replaced office buildings and eighteen-wheelers outnumbered passenger cars.
By late morning, forklifts moved between steel loading bays while trucks rolled through security checkpoints.
Daniel found Evelyn near a side entrance.
She looked different without the ballroom around her.
Her hair was tied back.
She wore dark trousers and a white blouse with the sleeves folded slightly above her wrists.
Her suit jacket hung over one arm.
There was no makeup that Daniel could see.
She looked exhausted.
She held a tablet.
"I found the duplicate shipment records," she said.
"So did I."
Evelyn stopped.
Daniel handed her the printouts.
She scanned the first page.
Then the second.
Her eyes widened.
"What are these identifiers?"
"Template fingerprints."
"You found those in public files?"
"Old vendor exports. Whoever cleaned the reports removed most of the technical information, but not all of it."
Evelyn looked at the repeated code.
814-37C.
"They prove the reports were copied?"
"They prove the supposedly separate shipment records were generated from the same original template."
"From where?"
"Here."
Daniel pointed toward the warehouse.
Evelyn's expression changed.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because the database that created those records was destroyed five years ago."
Daniel watched her.
"Who told you that?"
She did not answer.
Instead she turned toward the building.