I asked what document she meant.
She looked genuinely surprised.
Lorraine never told you about the city facilities contract, she said.
I shook my head.
Isabel’s expression tightened.
Graham Voss isn’t trying to protect only the old ambulance record, she said.
He’s about to turn the same system into a new citywide dispatch service.
The person who approves the building and equipment safety certification is someone who trusts you.
I thought of Rosa Chen, the library’s facilities director.
Isabel shook her head again.
Not Rosa, she said.
You.
Isabel refused to come inside.
She said staying visible would make it harder for anyone to claim she had been abducted, but she also wanted to avoid being isolated with a person who might be threatened into signing a false statement.
I called Munroe while she waited at the bottom of the steps.
He asked her to speak directly to him.
She took my phone, confirmed her identity, and agreed to meet officers at the well-lit gas station three blocks away.
A marked patrol car arrived before she finished her walk.
I watched from the porch until she climbed into the back seat willingly.
Then I went inside and searched my work email.
Three months earlier, the city had invited department facilities staff to participate in a technical review of a proposed emergency communications building.
I remembered receiving the invitation.
It had seemed routine.
My role was limited to assessing whether the equipment room had adequate ventilation, electrical capacity, fire separation, and backup power.
I had submitted a preliminary list of defects and asked for another inspection before signing the final acceptance.
The property belonged to a company linked to Graham Voss.
The city administrator had said the approval would allow the dispatch project to move forward before winter.
A meeting to approve the building was scheduled for Thursday morning.
I had put it on my calendar and forgotten it amid ordinary maintenance requests.
Suddenly I understood why someone might want me arrested or discredited on Tuesday.
If I failed to attend the meeting, a substitute reviewer might sign the safety certificate.
If my name appeared in an assault allegation, administrators could remove me from the review while determining what happened.
But Lorraine had attacked me, not the other way around.
My garage camera proved that.
So who expected the assault to keep me away?
The answer came in an email received at eight thirty-one that morning.
