“Did someone call?”
Ror did not answer directly.
“We patrol this area.”
Darius looked toward the cruiser.
“You were driving past.”
“Yes.”
“And saw me carrying boxes into my house.”
Ror’s jaw shifted.
“We saw activity.”
Darius understood the vocabulary.
Activity.
Not moving.
Not unloading.
Activity.
Ror pointed toward the SUV.
“Mind if we take a look?”
“Yes.”
Ror seemed momentarily surprised.
Darius clarified.
“Yes, I mind.”
“Why?”
“Because you have not given me any legal basis for a search.”
“It’s a simple question.”
“And I answered.”
Ror stepped closer.
“Most people with nothing to hide don’t have a problem helping us out.”
Darius had heard versions of that sentence in hundreds of interrogation recordings.
“The Constitution doesn’t require people to prove innocence by waiving rights.”
Something changed in Ror’s face.
A brief sharpening.
“Constitution?”
“Yes.”
“You a lawyer?”
“No.”
“Then maybe don’t lecture me on police work.”
“I’m not.”
Darius placed the deed on the SUV roof.
“I’m declining consent to a search.”
Ror looked toward Bellamy.
Bellamy moved.
His hand closed around Darius’s upper arm.
“Let’s keep this easy.”
Darius looked down at the hand.
Then at Bellamy.
“Take your hand off me.”
Ror said:
“Don’t make this complicated.”
“I’m standing on my property.”
“Put him on the hood.”
Bellamy guided Darius forward.
Darius did not resist.
His palms touched the SUV.
The hood was hot.
Across the street, a lawn sprinkler clicked rhythmically.
Two houses down, a woman holding a garden hose stopped moving.
Darius saw her from the corner of his eye.
She stared.
Ror came behind him.
“What’s in the vehicle?”
“My belongings.”
“We’ll check.”
“You do not have my consent.”
Ror ignored him.
Keaton opened the hatch.
That was when Darius looked directly at Ror’s nameplate.
ROR.
Something inside his memory moved.
A complaint file.
Not recent enough to sit at the front of his mind.
A name associated with a delivery driver.
Unauthorized vehicle search.
Questionable obstruction charge.
The complaint had not become a full investigation.
There had been insufficient corroboration at the time.
Darius had reviewed it during transition briefings after being assigned to Richmond.
He remembered the complainant.
Forty-seven.
Commercial delivery driver.
Vehicle stopped.
Documentation valid.
Search conducted anyway.
Later charge dismissed.
Officer name:
Gavin Ror.
Darius remained still.
Coincidences happened.
Officers shared surnames.
A single name did not prove anything.
Then Ror keyed his radio.
“Unit 74, Crest View Drive.”
Darius felt his attention narrow.
Unit 74.
Now he remembered the table.
Seven complaints.
Four-year span.
Same patrol designation appearing in multiple civil-rights intakes.
One name repeated.
Ror.
Another:
Keaton.
Bellamy appeared in fewer reports, but the unit itself had been consistent.
Darius had reviewed the summary three months earlier.
No criminal case yet.
Preliminary assessment only.