Chapter 6 - THE LEDGER
Mason did not retrieve the ledger.
That was the first good decision he made after lunch.
He wanted to.
For fifteen minutes, he could see the kitchen office in his head.
Small locking cabinet beneath the food-service desk.
Red-bound manual ledger used when the dining system went down.
Late trays.
Field meals.
Emergency stock.
Cross knew it existed because Mason had once shown him how to account for contingency food during Iron Lantern.
Tuesday night's entry read:
6 x hot meal / B2 continuity / authorized M. Reed / verbal A. Cross
Mason remembered writing it.
Below that:
Return count: 5
One tray had never come back into kitchen inventory.
That mattered now.
Why five?
He had assumed one was lost downstairs.
Then the six trays came up.
All six.
Meaning somebody had found the missing tray somewhere else.
Mason told Shaw.
She called Grant.
Grant already had the ledger.
Of course.
“What does return count five mean?”
Grant asked.
Mason answered:
“Ethan picked up five trays Wednesday morning.”
“From where?”
“Kitchen loading shelf.”
“Who put them there?”
“I don't know.”
“You did not collect them?”
“No.”
“When did the sixth turn up?”
“I thought it hadn't.”
Grant placed a photograph on the table.
Tray six.
Unlike the others, its underside was clean.
The rest carried old dishwasher wear.
Tray six had dried red clay near one corner.
Not blood.
Soil.
Laboratory comparison matched soil from the rear service ramp outside Basement Two.
The tray had been outside.
Someone had carried a meal tray out through the rear door.
Rachel heard about that through her counsel and immediately said:
“Jonah.”
Maybe.
Grant would not commit.
Then investigators checked the tray for usable prints.
Too many partials.
Dishwashing.
Food service.
Handling.
One clear print on the underside.
Not Jonah Vale.
Not Mason.
Not Ethan.
Major Adrian Cross.
Mason stared.
“When did he touch it?”
Grant looked at him.
“That is what we're asking.”
Cross had told investigators he never entered Basement Two that night.
That was new to Mason.
“He was there.”
Grant said:
“Cross says he met you upstairs at 10:52.”
“No.”
“He says you informed him Echo Squad had already left.”
Mason almost stood.
“He came down.”
“Can you prove it?”
Mason stared.
“No camera?”
“Basement camera system was disabled.”
“When?”
“9:03.”
Mason frowned.
Before he brought the squad down.
“By who?”
Grant answered:
“Administrator session from training operations.”
Cross's section.
Not necessarily Cross personally.
Mason rubbed both hands over his face.
He finally understood something.
Cross was not simply allowing Mason to take the blame.
He was building a version in which Cross had never entered the basement at all.
Then Shaw asked:
“Any witness?”
Mason thought.
Captain Nolan Price.
He had come with Cross.
But Price was not answering calls.
He had departed Fort Merritt on emergency leave Wednesday morning.
Family issue.
Different state.
CID had already located him.
He would be interviewed.
Then Grant returned to the missing sixth tray.
“The soil.”
Mason looked at him.
“What about it?”
“Rear ramp exits toward an old commissary loading road.”
“So?”
“A traffic camera caught a white government van leaving at 10:29.”
Twenty-nine minutes before Cross supposedly arrived.
Grant turned a still image.
Plate blurred but readable enough.
Government fleet.
Training operations.
Mason's stomach tightened.
“That van belongs to Cross's section.”
“Yes.”
“Driver?”
“Can't see.”
“Passengers?”
“No.”
Then:
“Van returns at 11:06.”
Thirty-seven minutes away.
Mason looked at the service-door alarm.
10:21.
The van leaves 10:29.
Returns 11:06.
Cross's print on the tray.
Somebody from Basement Two had been moved before Cross's claimed arrival.
Mason remembered standing upstairs around 10:25.
He had left the elevator locked.
Cross had called him:
Stay in the canteen. I'm handling movement.
Mason thought “movement” meant Cross was coming.
Maybe Cross had already been there.
Then Grant asked:
“Who had the rear service key?”
Mason answered automatically.
“Kitchen facilities.”
“And?”
“Training operations kept one during Iron Lantern.”
“Specific person?”
May you like
Mason looked at the photograph.
“Cross.”
