Chapter 4: The Meeting
The community room was packed the next morning.
Several residents sat along the walls with coffee cups in their hands.
Some had lived there for decades.
Others had arrived recently.
Most had already formed opinions.
Daniel connected his phone to the screen.
The video appeared.
Karen walking near the forest entrance.
A timestamp.
Smoke in the distance.
A few residents exchanged looks.
Then Daniel stopped the footage.
“I need to correct something,” he said.
That surprised everyone.
He explained the timestamp discrepancy.
He showed Emily’s original photograph.
He showed the county maintenance truck clock.
He showed Karen’s watch.
The room became quiet.
Daniel did not defend his original accusation.
Instead, he admitted that he had mistaken presence for proof.
Karen watched him carefully.
For the first time since the confrontation, her expression softened slightly.
But Linda Hayes wasn’t finished.
She had obtained another piece of information overnight.
The emergency response log recorded the first smoke report at 5:47 p.m.
The security camera showed Karen at the entrance at 5:41 according to its own timestamp.
But the camera’s internal clock was running eleven minutes behind.
That placed Karen’s actual appearance at approximately 5:52.
After the smoke had already been reported.
Karen exhaled slowly.
The accusation against her was weakening.
But the meeting didn’t turn into a celebration.
Because another question immediately took its place.
If Karen hadn’t caused the smoke, what had?
Linda explained that investigators had not yet determined the source.
The forest itself had not been entered without authorization.
The area remained closed while officials examined it.
Then Karen remembered the smell.
She described it.
Linda asked whether she had seen anyone near the maintenance truck.
Karen said she had seen a man standing beside it.
She couldn’t identify him.
Daniel looked at the image from Emily’s photograph.
He zoomed in.
The figure beside the truck was barely visible.
But the truck itself carried a county maintenance number.
Linda recognized it.
She called the county office.
The truck had been assigned to a maintenance crew that afternoon.
The crew had already left the area.
There was no accusation against them.
No one had yet been identified as responsible for the smoke.
But a new investigative direction had emerged.
Karen had spent twenty-four hours defending herself.
Now she realized that defending herself was only half the battle.
Someone had been wrongfully accused because the evidence was misunderstood.
That could happen again.
She turned toward Daniel.
“You were ready to tell everyone I did it.”
Daniel nodded.
“I was.”
“And now?”
He looked at the screen.
“Now I want to know what really happened.”
For once, Karen didn’t argue.
She simply said, “Then let’s find out.”
