“Because Vale keeps insisting you saw something impossible.

He says no outsider entered that corridor.”

“Maybe the man was staff.”

“Maybe.

Your honesty matters more than a perfect story.”

It was the first time I sensed he might genuinely prefer a truth that disappointed him to a lie that supported his suspicions.

Before ending the call, he said, “I’m giving federal investigators access to the port records.

Some of what they find may be about things I allowed to happen.”