Alyssa sat beside her on the curb. “Are you all right?”
“No,” Nia said after a moment. “But I'm here.”
Alyssa nodded. That was enough. They watched as an independent agent sealed a record of the item recovered during the stop, noting its original position and the officers who had handled it. Halverson looked smaller without the certainty that no one would question his account. Nia did not confuse his visible fear with justice. The investigation still had to prove what had happened, identify who else was involved, and revisit the people whose cases had never received this much attention.
The oversight supervisor approached before they left. “Judge Whitaker, your statement will be taken through counsel when you're ready,” she said. “The recordings have been preserved. The officers involved are being separated for interviews.”
Nia thanked her. There was something she wanted to ask, something she had not been able to say when she was still pressed against the hood. “Please make sure this doesn't end with my case.”
The supervisor studied her face. “We are looking at the pattern, Judge Whitaker. Not just tonight.”
Nia closed her eyes briefly. Then she got into the car Alyssa had arranged to take her home. Her own sedan would remain where it was until the documentation was complete. She watched it through the rear window as they drove away, a worn black car sitting quietly beneath streetlights, no longer a stage on which one man's accusations had to be accepted as fact.
The first review of the new recordings took place in an office Nia did not enter. She had been examined for her shoulder injury and sent home to rest, with strict instructions not to use her damaged arm unnecessarily. Alyssa and Harold attended as counsel, while Meera was retained to provide independent technical analysis. Darlene received authorized updates about the broader pattern investigation. They agreed that Nia would not watch the footage until the initial review was complete. She had spent enough hours reliving Halverson's hands on her body without making the replay part of every working day.
What the recordings showed was unusually clear. Across multiple independent views, investigators could trace Halverson's movements from the moment he approached the second intersection to the moment he produced the bag. One recording showed the item in his hand before it reached Nia's clothing. Another captured the brief movement near his waistband. A third established that Nia had kept her hands visible and made no sudden attempt to escape. When the footage was synchronized, the explanations Halverson had provided during his roadside interview could not be reconciled with the images.