2025-09-30 18:20:02
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Chapter Five Hundred And Forty-six
His lawyer had him forward the message within minutes of his call to her and told him to do nothing until they had spoken with the prosecutor's office, which happened the following morning in a session that had a different quality from the previous ones — more guarded, more procedurally careful, as if the accumulation of complications had changed the institutional atmosphere of the investigation. The prosecutor received the message and asked several precise questions about when he had received it, whether he had responded, and whether he recognised any features of the communication method. He provided what he knew. She provided nothing in return."What I can tell you," his lawyer said, after the session, "is that the prosecution is now managing a situation where someone outside the official investigation has access to forensic information about the photograph alteration that should not be accessible outside the investigative team or the defence's formal forensics review.""There's a l
Chapter Five Hundred And Forty-five
He told his lawyer about the meeting the following morning, providing the documentation he had timestamped throughout, and she listened to the full account without interrupting, which was her habit when the information being provided required her to update her understanding significantly.When he had finished, she was quiet for a moment that had thinking in it rather than reaction."You're going to tell me I have to disclose this to the prosecutor," he said."I'm going to tell you that the prosecutor already has your initial information about Sofia's access and the forensics correlation. What you've added from the meeting is Sofia's own account of what she did and why, documented by you. The question isn't whether to disclose — you've already disclosed the underlying information. The question is what the prosecutor does with the full account of Sofia's reasoning, and specifically with her prediction about what that disclosure will produce.""Her prediction being that it derails the pr
Chapter Five Hundred And Forty-four
He told his lawyer about the message in the lobby, and she told him not to meet Sofia, and he said he understood why she was telling him that, and then he said he was going to meet her anyway, and he walked her through his reasoning."I've told the prosecutor what I know," he said. "The formal investigation will proceed regardless of what Sofia says to me tonight. What I'll gain from this meeting is her account of what she did and why, in her own words, which I can document and provide as additional information. That's something the prosecutor doesn't currently have.""The meeting could be construed as collaboration," his lawyer said."I'm not concealing it. I'm telling you about it now and I'll tell the prosecutor about it tomorrow. I'm treating it as an interview.""And if she offers you something in exchange for silence.""I'll document the offer and provide it," Lukas said. "Along with everything else."She used the expression she reserved for decisions she disagreed with and had
Chapter Five Hundred And Forty-three
He asked for the recess during the third hour of the session, and his lawyer, who had been watching him for the previous twenty minutes with the careful attention of someone who has observed their client long enough to register when their quality of presence has changed, supported the request without question and without requiring an explanation in the room.They went to a small consultation room adjacent to the main session room, and his lawyer closed the door and turned to him."What happened," she said."I need thirty minutes and access to my documentation files.""Lukas.""I have a suspicion I need to verify before I state it in a testimony session. I'm not going to redirect an investigation based on a pattern I identified four minutes ago while answering questions about something else. Give me the thirty minutes."She assessed this and accepted it. "I'll tell them you're reviewing documents for accuracy. That's true.""Yes," he said. "It is."He opened his documentation on his la
Chapter Five Hundred And Forty-two
The investigators moved quickly, as they had to, given that the access investigation had now become a specific criminal inquiry rather than a preliminary examination, and Lukas was called for his second formal session within forty-eight hours of the forensics finding being communicated.His lawyer had spent most of the intervening time reviewing the chain of custody documentation with the kind of thoroughness that he had come to understand was her way of preparing him for what a session was likely to contain, and she briefed him the morning before they went in."The trace goes to Elise's personal workstation credentials," she said. "Not the company's systems generally, not an account with broad access. Credentials that require her specific login to use. The investigators are treating this as significant.""It could be her credentials being used by someone else.""Yes. And Elise's lawyers are making exactly that argument, that her credentials were accessed without her knowledge or that
Chapter Five Hundred And Forty-one
His lawyer called at seven the following morning, which was two hours before he had expected her to call, which told him everything about how seriously the photograph challenge had escalated overnight."The prosecution's digital forensics team has confirmed the alteration," she said. "They had the photograph for twelve hours and they're in agreement with the defence expert's finding. The two men identified as enforcement specialists were inserted into the image. The alteration is sophisticated — professional-grade work — but it's there.""Henrik is certain the original was unaltered," Lukas said."I know. I spoke with his lawyer last night. His position is that the photograph was authentic when he deposited it and that whatever was done to it happened after the archive was retrieved. The investigators are examining the chain of custody from retrieval to the moment it was processed into evidence.""How many people had access.""That's the question." She paused. "You were present at the
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