Chapter 5 - The Promotion Score
Internal Affairs had begun investigating Mark six months earlier.
A detective examination administrator noticed that Mark’s score changed after the testing window closed.
The edit came from a dormant administrative account linked to Charles’s former command.
The account should have been disabled fifteen years ago.
Instead, it remained active through a private remote-access token.
Mark had renewed the token using department credentials.
He claimed it was for old case consultation.
But investigators found more.
Evidence logs altered after midnight.
Witness interviews removed.
Vehicle seizures reassigned.
Confidential case details sent to Bennett Security Consulting.
Charles had turned retirement into a private extension of his old power.
Mark gave him access.
In return, Charles cleared obstacles from Mark’s career.
Complaints disappeared.
Disciplinary records softened.
Test scores changed.
And when Mark mishandled evidence in a narcotics case, the evidence itself vanished before review.
Captain Ross had delayed the promotion ceremony because he suspected fraud.
Charles forced the issue by organizing the party publicly.
He invited senior officers, union representatives, and local officials.
He believed visibility would make the department too embarrassed to act.
Ross came anyway.
Not to celebrate.
To observe.
Ella’s call gave him probable cause to move sooner than planned.
Mark stared at the altered score report.
“You have no proof I changed it.”
Keene placed a printout beside it.
“Your biometric login approved the edit.”
“My credentials were stolen.”
“By your father?”
Mark said nothing.
Charles stepped toward Ross.
“You are destroying a good detective over paperwork.”
Ross looked at him.
“No. You destroyed him when you taught him the shield belonged to your family.”
Mark’s face hardened.
“I earned everything I have.”
Ella looked at Amanda’s file.
“Then explain why a dead woman’s evidence was in your bedroom.”
Mark’s confidence cracked again.
May you like
Because the promotion fraud could cost him his shield.
But Amanda’s file could cost him his freedom.
