Devon Ashper took longer to locate. A relative provided a current contact number, and Devon eventually agreed to speak by video call. He was now employed in another city, but he remembered two traffic stops within one month and a complaint that ended without meaningful explanation. In the first, he was told his car matched a vague description. In the second, the officer questioned why he was driving through a particular area. Devon said he felt he had become an easy target because the officer recognized his vehicle and expected compliance through intimidation.
Ivette asked whether he could provide documents. Devon had kept a copy of his complaint and several messages from the department. The responses were brief and frustratingly general. He sent them after the call, along with contact information for a passenger who witnessed one stop. Ivette checked what she could independently. The older complaints did not establish every detail she was investigating, but they suggested that Francis's experience was not the only one worth examining.
That evening she contacted Captain Vanji. The captain initially declined an interview, citing the ongoing investigation. Ivette explained that she had spoken with Brown and Ashper and obtained documents raising questions about the department's handling of prior complaints. She also knew that dispatch audio related to Francis's case had gone missing before the first hearing.
"I'm not asking you to speculate about guilt," she said. "I'm asking whether you were instructed to keep the matter quiet." Vanji remained silent long enough that Ivette thought the line had dropped.
Finally, the captain agreed to an on-record meeting after consulting counsel. Ivette met her in a quiet office rather than at her home, allowing the conversation to be documented without the appearance of a nighttime ambush. Vanji looked exhausted. She admitted that she had received pressure from a superior to avoid drawing additional attention to the department during a difficult budget cycle and a period of negative publicity. The pressure had not been a direct order to falsify anything, she explained, but its meaning had been clear. She also acknowledged that she had accepted the initial explanation for the missing audio too readily.
"Why are you telling me now?" Ivette asked. Vanji looked down at her hands. "Because I told Agent Willard we'd handle it by the book, and then I watched the book become an excuse for not asking obvious questions."
She paused. "I didn't erase the audio. I don't know who did. But I stopped pushing when I should have insisted on answers."
Ivette asked whether she would give that account to independent investigators. Vanji nodded. "I've already requested an interview. I'll cooperate fully."
When Ivette left, her notebook held the outline of a much larger story. Brown and Ashper had experienced encounters that resembled parts of Francis's. Puren had offered a firsthand account of discrepancies in the officers' statements. Vanji had acknowledged pressure to minimize the complaint and a failure to preserve confidence in the local inquiry. The dash-camera recording was now in the hands of independent investigators. Ivette could not know what the legal outcome would be, but she understood that the case no longer depended on one man's word against a patrol officer's report.
She called Francis later that night. "I owe you an apology," she said. He was in the kitchen while Regina slept upstairs. "For what?"