Vance asked that Dez be given access to medical attention and a telephone without further delay. Then the line disconnected, leaving the captain staring at the receiver.
"That was unnecessary," Thorn said quietly. Dez returned the phone to his pocket. "You wouldn't listen when I explained it," he answered.
"He did." Thorn looked toward the doorway, considering whether Kowalski had already passed word of the call around the station. He felt the situation expanding beyond a complaint he could file away. What troubled him most was not the prospect that Dez had been mistreated. It was the prospect that someone outside Oak Haven now knew about it.
In the corridor, Harlan was telling two junior officers that the man he had arrested was an experienced con artist. His account grew bolder with each retelling. He claimed Dez had stepped toward him, made a threatening remark, and appeared intoxicated. The two listeners nodded because Harlan was loud and the captain often rewarded his aggressive arrests. Elena Price stood at a desk nearby, pretending to sort papers while she listened. She remembered the calm man who had walked in wearing cuffs and wondered how the story could change so much before the paperwork was finished.
Thorn sent for Harlan. The officer arrived smiling, apparently expecting praise for catching someone who had fooled the sergeant. The smile faltered when he saw Dez still standing in the office. "I thought we were booking him," Harlan said. Thorn closed the door.
"You didn't check the license against the property record," he said. "You dismissed an authentic government credential. You brought a man in on a burglary theory after seeing proof he lived at the location. Explain that." Harlan blinked twice and then reached for the only defense he knew: another accusation.
"He smelled like marijuana," Harlan said. Dez looked at him sharply. The officer continued before anyone could challenge the statement.
"And he was acting aggressive, Captain. I could tell he was hiding something. Could've been drugs in the truck or the classic car." Dez answered that neither he nor the Charger had been carrying marijuana, and no mention of such an odor appeared in Harlan's recorded conversation. Thorn asked whether the smell was in the original report. Harlan claimed he had intended to add it during booking, a convenient phrase that made the captain's expression harder to read.
"You never said a word about drugs at the house," Dez told him. Harlan stared at the wall behind Dez's head. "Maybe you couldn't hear me," he said. Dez felt an involuntary tightening along his injured jaw.
It was a cruel remark even if Harlan did not know about the hearing damage. He remembered the blast, the dry taste in his mouth, and the long weeks when every faint noise seemed to arrive through deep water. He did not respond with that history. He simply said, "The recording can answer that."