On another website a random internet person referenced a story that they had read but didn't remember the name of. The description interested me, so hopefully someone can identify this.
A veteran SETI technician finds some old documents buried in a safe. They show a couple of signals picked up by chance decades earler, from different stars, but with striking commonalities. Cryptographic analysis suggested the syntax was too complex for ordinary communication and thus likely a code, possibly indicating armed hostilities. The two stars were about as far apart as the closer star was to Earth. The scientist tossed the analysis in a safe, quit his job and took the key with him.
