Harold swallowed. "I thought I recognized something on the television. I didn't mean for anybody to get hurt."
"Did you see a weapon?" Aaron asked. "Did you see us threaten someone? Did you see either of us take anything?"
"No."
"Then what did you recognize?"
Harold stared at the floor. It would have been easy to say that he had been concerned by two strangers watching the station, and that was partly true. But one man in a business suit could have written in a notebook beside the window without alarming him. Two white tourists might have watched the station and made him curious. The conclusion had arrived before any observed action. Harold said nothing because he could not find a version of the answer that made him look like the person he believed himself to be.
"You should give the dispatcher your name if you haven't already," Nathaniel said. "The recording of the call will be part of the review. No one is asking you to invent a better explanation. Tell the truth about what you saw and what you assumed."
Kesler shifted as though he intended to speak again. Dalton stepped slightly between him and the customers. "Dale, the watch commander is coming over," he said. "Let's not make anything worse."
"You think this is on me?" Kesler hissed. "You're standing here letting these people talk down to me."
Dalton held his gaze. "I think we need to wait."
A tall sergeant arrived from across the street and surveyed the diner with an expression that grew more troubled at every new detail. She introduced herself as Lydia Marsh, asked whether anyone needed medical attention, and directed Kesler to remain at a separate table without speaking to witnesses. She collected his preliminary account, then noticed he had not taken the robbery bulletin from his cruiser. Marsh asked dispatch to read the actual suspect descriptions into the record.
The first suspect was reported to have a limp; the second had a prominent neck tattoo. Neither detail described Nathaniel or Aaron. Kesler stared at his hands as the words came over the radio. Marsh did not call it a misunderstanding. She called it an incident requiring investigation.
Nathaniel telephoned the FBI field office and described the encounter without embellishment. He gave the exact time, location, officers' names, and the fact that both he and Aaron were witnesses and potential complainants. The special agent in charge agreed to assign an independent team, with a separate supervisor, to review the diner incident. Nathaniel also contacted the Justice Department attorneys already working on the Millbrook pattern-or-practice inquiry. Aaron listened to the calls and felt a difficult relief. The work would not depend on his anger, or on a demand that other people treat his account as unquestionable because he carried a badge.
"We're stepping back from the part involving us," Nathaniel told him when he ended the call. "We can give statements and the materials we already collected, but we don't decide what happened to Kesler."