Callahan’s voice cut through the tension. “Let him move.”
Warden Gaines hesitated. “You’re restrained.”
“I know.”
After a long pause, Gaines nodded. Clarke loosened the leash slightly, guiding Valor a step closer to Callahan. The dog sniffed his former partner briefly, then returned his attention to Holt, growling with unmistakable intensity.
Callahan looked directly at the warden. “The night of the shooting, Valor tracked a second scent.”
Holt’s expression hardened. “This is theatrics.”
“No,” Callahan said calmly. “It’s memory.”
Officer Ruiz frowned. “The trial records said the K-9 search was inconclusive.”
“It wasn’t,” Callahan replied. “He alerted to a jacket discarded near the alley exit. They logged it as contaminated and pulled him off.”
Valor barked sharply again—this time lunging toward the glass so forcefully Clarke struggled to maintain control.
The room shifted. Doubt, once unthinkable, crept into the edges of certainty.
Gaines turned to security. “Delay the procedure.”
Holt stepped forward angrily. “You can’t postpone a lawful execution because of a dog.”
Gaines’s gaze hardened. “I can postpone it for credible cause.”
Within minutes, Internal Affairs officers were summoned. Valor was guided down the adjacent corridor where evidence from the original case had been stored temporarily before transfer. He pulled decisively toward a side door marked Archived Materials.
“Open it,” Gaines ordered. Inside were sealed containers long assumed irrelevant.
Valor stopped at one crate and barked repeatedly. The crate contained a jacket not entered into final evidence exhibits. And tucked inside its lining, investigators discovered a memory card sealed in plastic.
Holt’s composure cracked.
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