"Officer Reigns," Marcus said, "reactivate your body camera."
"Sir, like I said, it's been malfunctioning."
"Turn it on."
Reigns touched the camera. The red light came on immediately. Marcus let the silence speak for him.
"Sergeant Voss, preserve all mobile video, radio traffic, dispatch records, and vehicle microphone data associated with this stop. Officer Reigns, do not delete, modify, reset, or charge your camera outside normal evidence procedures. Both of you will report to headquarters separately."
Voss swallowed. "Captain, we can handle this internally. No need to create a public misunderstanding before you've even started."
"There is no misunderstanding."
Reigns tried another approach. "Sir, the five hundred comment was sarcasm. Bad joke, I'll admit it."
"A joke you made after disabling your camera?"
"Battery issue."
"A joke followed by threats of search, tow, arrest, and citations?"
Reigns's mouth opened, then closed. Marcus took out his notebook and began writing the time, location, unit number, names, and observations. He included the body camera state, the dispatch request, the identity verification, and Reigns's claim that the extortion demand had been a joke.
"Captain," Voss said quietly, "we should all take a breath before this becomes bigger than it needs to be."
Marcus closed the notebook. "It became exactly as big as it needed to be when an officer demanded cash from a motorist and his supervisor backed him." He returned to his SUV.
In the mirror, Reigns stood beside his patrol car with the posture of a man who had just watched a trap close around his own ankle. Voss leaned toward him, speaking urgently. Marcus could not hear the words, but he did not need to. By 6:34 a.m., Captain Marcus Ellison was driving toward Westbridge headquarters with the officer who had tried to extort him following two cars behind. He had planned to spend his first morning learning the department.
The department had introduced itself first.
Westbridge Police Headquarters occupied a converted municipal building near the courthouse, a broad structure of brown brick and tinted glass that had been renovated so many times nobody could identify its original architectural style. Marcus pulled into a reserved command parking space at 6:48 a.m. and sat in the SUV for a few seconds before shutting off the engine.
He replayed the last hour in his head once, not emotionally but procedurally. The stop had begun without a clearly articulated violation, followed by a disabled body camera and a cash demand. Then came the threat of search and impound, followed by a supervisor who endorsed the escalation. Finally, there was the false dispatch characterization portraying Marcus as the problem.
Then he removed the digital recorder from the passenger seat, locked it in its protective case, and photographed the time display with his phone. He did not listen to the audio in the parking lot. From that point forward, he wanted every handling step documented. Reigns arrived behind him. Voss pulled in a minute later.
The lobby doors opened into a building already coming alive for shift change. Night officers leaned against counters finishing paperwork while dayshift officers checked mail slots and drank coffee from foam cups. A dispatcher behind reinforced glass looked up when Marcus entered and immediately stood straighter. Officer Jennifer Torres, whom Marcus had met during a brief orientation visit the week before, recognized him first.
"Morning, Captain."
"Morning, Officer Torres."
The title moved through the room faster than any formal announcement could have. Several officers who had been talking near the duty desk turned toward him. Then they noticed Reigns and Voss entering behind him, both unusually quiet. Marcus set his briefcase on the counter. "Duty sergeant?"
A broad-shouldered man named Anthony Thompson stepped forward. "Right here, sir."
"I need an evidence intake form, a fresh property envelope sized for a digital recorder, and an internal incident number. I also need the mobile-video server placed on preservation status for Unit Twelve and Sergeant Voss's vehicle from 05:30 forward. No routine overwrite, no deletion, no maintenance until Internal Affairs clears it."
The room went silent. Thompson did not ask why. "Yes, sir." Reigns stiffened. "Captain, this is getting ridiculous."