What? I want to go back to Sycamore Drive, he said. Not as a chief, as a neighbor. I want to invite the street to a meeting in my backyard. Informal.
No cameras, no press, just people who live near each other figuring out how to do that better. He looked at her. And I want Victoria Hail there. Patricia Odum was quiet for a long time. You think she'll come?
She said. I think she needs to, he said. And I think the street needs to see her there. The mayor stood. She walked to the window and stood with her hands clasped behind her back and looked at whatever was outside.
Daniel didn't interrupt. He had learned from Susan, actually, who had been the most patient person he had ever known that some silences were thinking and some were deciding. And the right response to both was to let them finish. You know, Patricia said, without turning around. When the city council voted on your appointment, there were two members who had concerns.
Not about your record, about whether you'd be their word was disruptive. Daniel said nothing. She turned. They meant it as a criticism. She looked at him steadily.
I think they may have been accidentally right. He looked back at her. Is that a problem? No, she said it's exactly what I hired you for. She sat back down.
Do your backyard meeting. You have full support from this office. And Daniel Mayor, next time something like Sunday happens, anything like it, I want to know within the hour. Not because I'll interfere, because you shouldn't have to navigate this city alone. He nodded.
Understood. He drove back to the department. At 11: 15, he called a meeting with Captain Morris. Morris came in and sat down with his folder and his neutral expression and the careful practiced composure of a man who had been doing thits for 20 years and intended to keep doing it. Captain Daniel said, I want to be straight with you.
Morris looked at him. Something shifted almost imperceptibly behind the neutral. Sir, you know this department better than I do, Daniel said. every street, every officer, every complaint that's come through this building for the last decade. That knowledge is not a threat to me. It's a resource I need.
He held Morris's gaze. What I need to know is whether you're willing to work with me or whether you're going to spend the next year waiting for me to fail. The office was completely quiet. Morris set his folder on his knee. He looked at the desk for a moment, then up, and something in his face, the long-h held, carefully managed neutrality shifted into something that was not quite defeat, but was adjacent to it.
The expression of a man releasing a position he had been holding for a long time. "I wanted that job, " Morris said. His voice was flat. "Honest, I know, " Daniel said. "I've been here 20 years.
I know every officer, like you said. I know the budget and the politics and who to call when something goes sideways at 2 in the morning. He paused and they brought someone in from outside. They did, Daniel said. I'm not going to pretend that didn't sting.
I wouldn't ask you to. Morris looked at him for a long moment. But I'm not going to tank this department because of my pride, he said. I'm too old for that kind of stupid. He picked up his folder.
What do you need? Daniel almost smiled. Everything you know about this city, he said. Starting with the three neighborhoods that are most underserved by this department and have been for the longest. Morris opened the folder.
I already made a list, he said. Been carrying it around for 6 months waiting for someone to ask. They talked for 90 minutes. By the time Morris left, something had changed between them. Not friendship that would take time and both of them knew it and were fine with the knowledge, but the particular durable alignment of two professionals who have decided to point in the same direction which was Daniel had learned often more valuable than friendship in the work.
At 2: 30, Andrea knocked on his door. Victoria Hail is downstairs, she said. He looked up here, front desk, she asked to speak with you. Officer Chen called me. Dre's expression was carefully professional, but her eyes were doing something more complicated.
She's alone. No camera, no lawyer, nothing. Just here. He thought about the phone call yesterday. The hairline fracture in the voice.