But I can't publish as if the competing account doesn't exist." He understood her professional caution. He was less comfortable with how easily an unverified official-sounding story could cancel the testimony of people who had watched the incident happen.
After the call, Francis sat alone in the living room. Regina came downstairs and found him staring at a television screen he had forgotten to turn on. He told her about the journalist. She listened, then asked the question he had been avoiding.
"What if they never tell the truth?" Francis looked at her. "Then the evidence still matters." Regina shook her head.
"Evidence matters only if somebody is willing to look at it. You said that yourself." He had no immediate answer.
The local hearing went badly the next morning. Francis attended with his attorney and the records he had gathered, but the reviewing body treated the missing dispatch audio and shifting statements as unresolved issues. Mason's counsel argued that officers had responded to a legitimate safety concern, that the encounter was tense, and that later video captured only part of the sequence. Bellamy's revised statement supported that version. The board declined to sustain the complaint at that stage and restored Mason to duty pending whatever additional review the department might choose to conduct.
Francis listened to the decision without interrupting. When the chair announced that the evidence was insufficient, he looked at Regina in the second row. She was holding her hands together so tightly that her knuckles were white. Father Oscar sat beside her, looking straight ahead.
Puren had not been called to testify in full, and the opportunity to examine conflicting statements had been limited. The process was presented as a temporary administrative decision. To Francis, it felt like a door closing before anyone had allowed the most important witnesses through it.
Outside the building, reporters approached. Francis declined to make accusations he could not support. He stated that he disagreed with the outcome, that multiple recordings and eyewitness accounts existed, and that he would continue using lawful avenues to obtain a complete review. A reporter asked whether his position with the FBI should have influenced the officers' treatment.
Francis answered carefully. "My employment should not determine whether I receive constitutional protection. What concerns me most is what might happen to somebody who cannot challenge a report as effectively as I can."
Mason appeared near a side entrance while Francis was answering questions. He did not approach, but their eyes met across the sidewalk. The officer's expression held no apology. Bellamy stood behind him, looking pleased that the disciplinary threat had receded.