Reigns appeared at the end of the hallway a moment later. He stepped into Marcus's path without asking permission. "Captain, we need to talk. This has turned into a witch hunt, and you're doing it for politics."
His voice was low but tense. "You've been here one day. You don't understand how patrol works in this city."
"Officer Reigns, you're not assigned to this investigation," Marcus replied. "You should direct any statement about the stop to Internal Affairs or your representative. I'm not discussing it with you in a hallway." Reigns took another step forward. "I won't let you ruin twelve years of service over a misunderstanding. The people in this building know what kind of cop I am."
Marcus looked at him steadily. "Then you have nothing to fear from a fair review." Reigns's lips tightened.
"Fair review? You don't know what this place can do when officers decide command doesn't have their backs. Backup can take a long time in the wrong part of town. Reports can get delayed. Radios can have technical problems."
The words were presented as an observation, but the threat beneath them was unmistakable. Marcus took out his phone, placed it openly on a nearby desk, and told Reigns he was recording the remainder of the conversation. "If you're saying officers might deliberately compromise emergency response because I'm investigating misconduct, I want that statement preserved," he said. "Public safety is not a bargaining chip."
Reigns stared at the phone. For a moment, his own confidence betrayed him; he had been so accustomed to choosing when a conversation was recorded that he seemed offended to see another person make the decision. "I didn't say that," he answered quickly.
"I said morale matters." Marcus nodded. "Morale does matter. So does arriving when somebody calls for help."
He told Reigns to return to his assigned administrative station and documented the exchange for the review team. The officer walked away with his jaw locked, his steps heavy against the tile. Marcus watched him disappear around the corner and felt something he had not felt during the roadside stop: the unease of realizing that one man's misconduct might already be shaping the behavior of an entire shift. A department could not function if officers were afraid to disagree with whoever controlled their backup.
At one-thirty, Voss appeared at Marcus's office. He knocked once and entered with a folder of shift statistics tucked under his arm. "Captain, we've got a morale issue," he began. "Your review of these old complaints is making good officers nervous. Patrol isn't something you can run like a university seminar."
Marcus indicated the chair across from his desk. "What specifically are they worried about?" Voss spoke about veteran officers feeling targeted, the difficulty of policing at night, and the unfairness of applying new standards to old decisions. He did not mention the drivers who had described being threatened with cash demands.