Reigns lifted his radio. "Control, Unit Twelve. Requesting a supervisor at Highland and Route Forty-Seven. I've got a suspicious driver refusing lawful commands and making accusations."
The dispatcher repeated the location and advised that Sergeant Calvin Voss was approximately three minutes away. Reigns clipped the radio to his belt and grinned. "Now you get to explain yourself to somebody who actually matters."
Marcus kept his eyes on the roadway. He had heard the report go out, clear and official, transforming a motorist who refused extortion into an uncooperative suspect. A dispatcher entering the call would have no reason to know how thoroughly the account had been distorted. By the time a supervisor arrived, Reigns's version would already have the advantage of being first.
"Your supervisor should hear my account as well," Marcus said. Reigns laughed. "Sure he will. He's going to listen real carefully." The officer moved toward his cruiser, leaving Marcus beside the SUV and ordering him not to touch anything. Marcus watched the dark road beyond the intersection until a second set of emergency lights appeared, approaching from the west.
A second patrol car pulled to the curb behind the first. Its headlights washed over the black SUV and caught the silver threads at Marcus's temples. The driver's door opened, and a tall man in a sergeant's uniform stepped out, broad through the shoulders, his movements economical. The embroidered name on his chest read VOSS.
Sergeant Calvin Voss had been with Westbridge for fifteen years. He had the easy confidence of an officer who knew the building, the command structure, and nearly everyone who could make a complaint go away. Marcus had seen his name in the personnel overview sent with his appointment papers. On paper, the sergeant's disciplinary record looked unremarkable, with steady evaluations and several letters of commendation for proactive traffic enforcement.
Voss looked first at Reigns, then at Marcus, then at the SUV. "What's the problem?" he asked. Reigns answered without hesitation, offering a practiced sequence of claims: weaving, suspicious responses, refusal to cooperate, accusations designed to evade enforcement. Voss nodded as though none of the details required verification.
"Sergeant," Marcus began, "your officer requested five hundred dollars in cash in exchange for ending the stop. He switched off his body camera before making that request." Reigns shook his head dramatically. "He's been inventing that story since I told him his vehicle might be searched."
Voss turned his flashlight toward Marcus. "You got proof of this accusation?" he asked. Marcus replied that the officer had repeated the amount after being asked to clarify it. "That's a serious claim to make about someone wearing this uniform," Voss said. "And a dangerous one if you're just trying to make trouble."
"It would be serious regardless of what he was wearing," Marcus answered. Voss's face hardened. For a moment the sergeant appeared less interested in whether extortion had occurred than in the audacity of being challenged. He moved beside Reigns, leaving Marcus facing both officers in the shifting lights.