“I’m Zoe Carter. I was live streaming.”
“I noticed.”
Her face flushed.
“I didn’t know who you were.”
Marcus waited.
“That sounds bad.”
“It depends what you mean by it.”
“I mean…” She looked toward Sandra. “I thought something was wrong, but at first I also kind of thought maybe she knew something we didn’t.”
“That’s a reasonable thing to examine.”
“I didn’t examine it.”
“No.”
She swallowed.
“I just filmed.”
Marcus looked at her phone.
“Did you capture the passport being torn?”
“Yes.”
“The statements before and after?”
“Most of them.”
“Then you did something useful, even if you did not understand it at the time.”
Zoe looked surprised.
“You’re not mad?”
“I’m not interested in deciding how I feel about you in the middle of an evidence scene.”
That answer made her blink. Marcus continued.
“Do not delete the original file. Do not edit it. Do not add filters or captions to the original. Make a copy if you want to post clips, but preserve the full recording exactly as it exists.”
“Okay.”
“If police ask for it, get a receipt or upload confirmation.”
“Okay.”
“And stop showing people’s faces if they’re minors.”
Zoe nodded quickly.
“Yes, sir.”
He almost told her not to call him sir, then decided the moment had enough moving parts. The Aviation Weekly blogger approached next.
“My name is Peter Landry. I’d like a comment.”
“No.”
“Just one question. Is it true you’re scheduled to testify tomorrow about racial discrimination in aviation?”
Marcus looked at him.
“That information is on the House committee’s public calendar.”
“So today’s incident is directly relevant.”
“It may be.”