“Are you hurt?”
“My ribs are sore.”
“Victor.”
“I’ll get checked.”
“Was it one of ours?”
“Yes.”
Another silence.
Longer.
“Did he know who you were?”
“No.”
“And then he did.”
“Yes.”
Sarah exhaled.
“Come home.”
“I’m going to the new house.”
“It’s empty.”
“That’s fine.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“I need ten minutes.”
Sarah understood that language.
Ten minutes meant he needed to stop being Deputy Commissioner Langford before he spoke as her husband.
“All right,” she said.
“But then call me.”
“I will.”
“And get your ribs checked.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“That was not a joke.”
“I know.”
The Forty-Second Precinct was three miles away.
Officer Ellison drove there in silence.
He turned off the emergency lights before leaving Oak Creek.
For the first time in years, the badge on his chest felt heavy.
Not metaphorically.
Physically.
His body camera seemed heavier too.
He imagined the footage stored inside it.
Every word.
Every step.
You have no business being in this neighborhood.
He heard himself saying it again.
His stomach tightened.
At the station, Desk Sergeant Alan Miller looked up when Ellison entered.
Miller had been with the department twenty-one years.
Gray mustache.
Permanent crease between his eyebrows.
The kind of sergeant who remembered everyone’s probationary mistakes because he believed embarrassment was an effective training tool.
Ellison was three hours early.
Miller checked the clock.
“What happened?”
Ellison approached the counter.
“I need the watch commander.”
“For what?”
“Use-of-force incident.”
Miller’s expression changed.
“Any injuries?”
“No serious injuries.”
“Weapon?”
“No.”
“Taser?”
“No.”
“Who’s the subject?”
Ellison’s mouth went dry.
“Victor Langford.”
Miller stared.
“Say that again.”
“Deputy Commissioner Victor Langford.”
For three full seconds, Miller did not move.
Then he put down his coffee.
“What happened?”
Ellison began:
“I observed a suspicious individual—”
Miller raised a hand.
“No.”
Ellison stopped.
“If this involves the deputy commissioner and force, you’re not giving me the story at the front desk.”
He pointed.
“Conference room.”
Then he called the watch commander.
Within seven minutes, Ellison’s weapon had been temporarily secured according to command instruction.
His body camera was transferred directly into evidence custody.
His cruiser was taken out of service pending download of the in-car recording.
Internal Affairs was notified.
A union representative was called, because whatever Ellison had done, he still had contractual rights.
That detail mattered to Victor.
It would matter later.
Sergeant Miller did not understand it yet.
“What the hell did you do?” Miller asked quietly while they waited.
Ellison sat with his hands clasped.
“I thought he was casing houses.”
“Why?”
“He was looking around.”