Mara Quill slides between Dallas and the open corridor, one hand near her holster, the other extended toward the records bundle. The file room feels smaller by the second, all ozone, dust, and old glue.
Mara Quill
Hand over the bundle, Fontaine. Official processing, now.
Elena Vane
Official? You mean burying it before Bell gets here.
Dallas holds position as the corridor silhouette stays back in the dark. Murderbone bristles at the threshold, low and silent. Quill does not look away from the folder in Dallas's grasp.
Mara Quill
If Bell reaches this room first, the evidence disappears. If Fontaine trusts me, I can still pull this clean.
Dallas Fontaine
The carbon copy slip is the weak seam. Quill wants it contained.
Elena tightens her grip on the records bundle, eyes hardening as she reads Quill's face. In the hallway, the far silhouette shifts deeper into shadow, waiting for an opening.
“Is Quill part of Bell's cleanup?”
NO (Likely, rolled 75)
Quill's eyes flicker toward the dark silhouette in the hall, her hand dropping away from her holster as she exhales a sharp, steadying breath. She is not here to bury the truth, but to salvage what remains of the department's integrity.
Mara Quill
I am not Bell's errand runner, Fontaine. I have been tracking his paper trail for months, and I need that bundle to make the charges stick.
“I ask Quill what Bell removed tonight”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled +0)
Dallas Fontaine
What did Bell take out tonight?
Mara Quill
The annex intake sheet. He came for the removal log, and the cleanup copy with the clerk initials.
Quill reaches into her coat and palms the empty sleeve of a file folder, like she can still feel the shape of what vanished.
Mara Quill
If Bell took the intake sheet, he knows exactly which drawer was touched and who signed it.
Elena Vane
And he does not leave paper behind unless he plans to burn the room with it.
Murderbone stays rigid at the doorway, nose angled toward the hall, while the shadow beyond the corridor shifts once, then stills.
Mara Quill
Bell removed the original tonight, before I got to it. But the carbon copy stayed in the bundle. That is why I am still here.
Quill slides the recovered copy toward Dallas, revealing a clerk stamp and a second handwritten time, later than the official pickup.
“I press Quill for Bell's cleanup route”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled -3)
Dallas lets the silence hang, then turns the copy so the late time catches the lamp. His questions come out flat and precise.
Dallas Fontaine
Walk me through the cleanup route, Quill. Who moves the paper, and where does Bell send it after the drawer is touched?
Mara Quill
North corridor to records intake, then the loading lift. Bell uses the service stair if he wants it out of sight. The file never goes to one place, it gets split.
Quill taps the carbon copy with one finger, tracing a short loop on the table like a map she has memorized by force.
Mara Quill
He tags the clerk log, strips the removal sheet, and hands the cleanup copy to whoever is waiting by the stairwell door.
Elena Vane
So the route is internal. Bell keeps it inside the annex until the handoff.
Murderbone shifts at the threshold, still staring into the hall. A shape deeper in the corridor slides once toward the edge of the light, then stops.
Mara Quill
If you want Bell in the open, the stairwell is where he favors. He will come through there when he thinks the room is already swept.
“I ask Quill who waits by the stairwell door”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled +0)
Dallas Fontaine
Who waits by the stairwell door?
Mara Quill
Bell's runner. Young, gray coat, left ear split. He takes envelopes and never asks questions.
Quill's eyes flick to the corridor, then back to Dallas. The carbon copy stays pinned under the lamp, its stamped time glaring like a bruise.
Elena Vane
You know him by sight?
Mara Quill
Enough to know he is not Bell, just the hand that carries Bell's orders.
From the hall, a shoe scuffs once, then stills. Murderbone lifts his head higher, body hardening at the threshold.
Mara Quill
If he came early, he heard enough to ruin the handoff. That means he is deciding whether to run or knock.