The position was deliberate. Most of Vivien's vehicle remained near the edge of her own property, but its front end blocked enough of Malik's driveway that the moving truck could not safely turn in. Ben stopped short, set the parking brake, and leaned out of his window. Vivien climbed from her SUV with her phone already raised, a confident smile spreading across her face as she observed the truck halted in the street.
"Well, look who finally got his furniture," she called. "It would be a shame if nobody could get it inside."
Malik walked to the foot of the driveway, keeping several yards between himself and her vehicle. "Mrs. Caroway, you're blocking access to my property. Please move your SUV so the truck can enter."
"Make me." She angled the phone toward his face. "Go ahead, Chief. Show everybody how you handle women who refuse to obey you."
He glanced at the moving truck, then back at her. "I'm asking you to move a parked vehicle. That has nothing to do with your complaint."
"It has everything to do with it. You think you can have a man investigated because he tried to do his job, then stroll around here ordering decent people about."
"He tried to enter my home without a warrant and grabbed me at my front door," Malik said. "There will be an independent investigation. Right now, I'm trying to accept a delivery."
Vivien smiled into her screen. "Hear that? He keeps making threats. This is why the neighborhood needs protection."
Ben climbed down from the moving truck, removed his work gloves, and approached carefully. "Ma'am, I just need enough space to turn. We can get the truck unloaded in a couple of hours if you'll pull forward."
"Stay out of this," Vivien snapped. "I'm talking to your employer."
"He's our customer," Ben replied. "And I've got a crew on the clock waiting behind me. It's a driveway, not a courtroom."
The comment drew a brief laugh from one of the movers standing near the tailgate, and Vivien's expression tightened. She swung the phone toward the crew as if recording their faces might make them reconsider. Malik signaled for Ben to wait at the truck and took out his own phone. He dialed the nonemergency parking enforcement number rather than calling the police department he had just been appointed to lead.
"I have a vehicle obstructing a private driveway at 847 Elmwood Drive," he told the operator. "The owner has been asked to move and refuses. I would like a routine parking-enforcement response."
Vivien stared at him. "That's your grand plan? Parking enforcement? You have a police department and you call someone who writes tickets?"
"I'm following the process any homeowner can use," Malik answered. "I won't order officers to settle a disagreement with my neighbor."
"Because you know what would happen if you touched me," she said, moving close enough to block his path. "Everyone would see an angry Black man putting his hands on an innocent woman. Is that the story you want them to tell about you?"
He stopped before the space between them disappeared. "I am not going to touch you. Please give me room to reach my porch."
Vivien shifted left when he moved left. He tried to step around her on the other side, and she moved again, deliberately mirroring him while keeping the phone aimed at his face. The behavior might have looked childish if the stakes had not already become so serious. She had learned that a few seconds of selected footage could be made to suggest almost anything, and she appeared determined to manufacture a second clip.