Foster entered the answer without commentary. Mara's testimony did not make her a hero, and it did not establish what Kirby believed. It showed the exact point where an available safeguard had been offered and rejected. Sometimes that was the most important fact an investigator could establish.
The agency also interviewed the city liaison who had arranged the loading-zone access. Amara Brooks, a municipal transportation coordinator, produced an authorization record showing that the space had been reserved for a government vehicle during a specified period. The document did not contain a detailed presidential route, but it did show the city's approval of the vehicle's presence. Kirby had never checked whether a temporary authorization existed.
"Would an ordinary officer have been able to see the reason for the reservation?" Foster asked.
"Not the sensitive assignment," Amara answered. "But the officer could have been referred to the liaison contact and told the vehicle was authorized. That's why we have the system."
"Was that referral available on the afternoon in question?"
"Yes. The desk was staffed, and the record was active."
That answer added another ordinary failure to the case. The SUV had not only carried a valid federal plate; it had occupied a position approved through city coordination. Kirby had treated the loading-zone sign as sufficient evidence of wrongdoing while refusing to ask whether an exception had been issued. Nothing about the vehicle's appearance had prevented him from checking.
Mateo Alvarez arrived for his interview in his delivery uniform, still wearing the identification card that hung from his shirt pocket. He was nervous at first because he had never spoken with federal investigators, and he worried that a mistake in his statement might expose him to questions he did not know how to answer. Foster placed a map of the intersection in front of him and asked him to mark the locations from which he had watched. She told him to identify what he had seen directly and to say he did not know whenever that was the truth.
The instruction relaxed him. He described Toby standing beside the SUV with his hands on the hood, then being moved to the cruiser. He did not claim to have heard the credential discussion because he had been too far away at that point. When he reached the tow driver, he said he had heard the detained man warn that the vehicle required special authorization.
"Did he sound threatening?" Foster asked.
"No," Mateo said. "He sounded like a man trying to stop a mistake before it got expensive."
"That's your impression. What words do you remember?"
Mateo repeated them as closely as he could. He then showed the recording, which preserved the end of the exchange more clearly than his memory. Foster thanked him for separating what he heard from how he interpreted the tone, and Mateo left feeling that he had contributed something modest but real.
Frank Mercer's interview took longer. He brought his signed tow sheet, the job dispatch record, and a folder of photographs taken after the truck was removed from Meridian Street. He wanted the investigator to understand that he had asked questions, and he also wanted to explain why he had continued with the recovery after remaining uncertain. The reason embarrassed him enough that he nearly left it out.