"I live here. Have for two years." "That's what they all say." The words landed like a slap. Francis said nothing.
He watched Mason's hand drift to the radio clipped to his shoulder. "Dispatch, this is Mason. I'm going to need backup at this location. Just a precaution."
Just a precaution. Francis had heard cops use that phrase before, back when he was a beat agent working domestic terror cases. It never meant precaution. It meant something else was coming.
"Backup for what?" Francis asked. "I haven't done anything." Mason's eyes flicked over him, slow and deliberate, like Francis was a problem he'd been waiting all morning to solve.
"Just stand right there. Don't move around too much. Wouldn't want a misunderstanding." A misunderstanding.
Francis's stomach turned cold even as the sun stayed warm on his neck. He thought about going inside. Thought about calling this what it was. But something told him to wait.
Watch. See how far this would go. He didn't have to wait long. The first siren cut through the quiet street, faint at first, then closer.
Then another. Francis turned and watched three more patrol cars round the corner. Lights spinning silently. No sound but the low growl of engines.
Up and down the block. Doors started opening. A woman in a bathrobe stepped onto her porch. Coffee mug forgotten in her hand.
An older man across the street paused midstride with his dog, leash going slack. A teenager on a bike skidded to a stop at the corner, phone already rising to film. Francis stood in his driveway, soap suds drying on his arms, and watched his quiet Saturday morning fall apart in front of an audience. Three cars, then three officers stepping out one by one, boots hitting pavement with a kind of practiced weight.
They didn't rush. They didn't need to. They had time. And they knew it.
Mason turned back toward Francis and now there was something different in his face. Something almost like hunger. "See," Mason said loud enough for the porches to hear. "This is what happens when people don't know how to follow simple instructions."