That's the point."
"I— I'm sorry," Thorn said.
"Save it for the judge," Dez said. "You stole from this town.
You stole from people who couldn't fight back. You just finally picked a fight with someone who could."
Dez started to close the door.
"One more thing," Thorn said, desperate. "Harlan, he's young.
He's stupid. Don't let them give him life."
"Harlan is a grown man," Dez said coldly. "He made his choice when he tried to plant those drugs.
That wasn't stupidity, Captain. That was malice.
Karma is a mirror. It only reflects what you stand in front of it."
Dez slammed the door.
He walked back to the living room. His phone buzzed.
It was a text from Harrison Lang. "Update.
The governor just suspended the entire Oak Haven command staff. The Department of Justice is opening a pattern-or-practice investigation.
Oh, and the city council wants to settle your civil suit before it goes to court. They're offering $3 million."
Dez typed back, "Not enough. I want the money to go to a legal defense fund for everyone else Harlan arrested.
Every single one."
He put the phone down. He looked at the Charger in the driveway.
It was still unfinished.
"Tomorrow," Dez said to the empty room. "I'll finish the tune-up tomorrow."
But the story wasn't quite done. There was one final loose end.
The real twist was about to hit the news cycle, something that would turn Darius Kane from a victim into a legend.
The story of the Oak Haven incident had already dominated the news cycle for days, but the final bombshell dropped on Friday morning.
It didn't come from the FBI, and it didn't come from Dez's lawyer. It came from the governor's mansion.
Governor Katherine Holloway called an emergency press conference. She stood at the podium, flanked by the state police commander, her face grim but her eyes wet with emotion.
"Yesterday, I was made aware of the identity of the veteran mistreated by the Oak Haven Police Department," Holloway began, her voice trembling slightly.
"The public knows him as Master Sergeant Darius Kane, but to a select few, he is known by a different name."
She paused, taking a breath.
"Six years ago, my son, a freelance journalist, was taken hostage by insurgents in Kunar Province. The government said a rescue was impossible.
The terrain was too hostile. The intel was too thin.
But a JSOC team went in anyway."
"They hiked 30 miles through freezing mountains. They engaged a force three times their size, and they brought my son home."
The reporters began to murmur. Cameras zoomed in.
"The team leader carried my son the last five miles on his back after taking shrapnel to his own leg," Holloway continued, wiping a tear.
"That team leader was Darius Kane. He is the reason my son is alive today.
He is a hero in the truest sense of the word. And to see him treated with such disrespect, such criminal malice by officers sworn to protect the peace, it is personal to me."