“Of course,” he said.
Nadia looked at him.
“What?”
“He gets an attorney before he even walks in.”
“Because his parents got him one.”
“So did mine.”
“Yes.”
Malik shook his head.
“But I got lockers first.”
There was no answer that made that fair.
The prosecutor later approved juvenile allegations related to the false report and planted evidence.
The exact charges were handled through the state’s juvenile process.
Garrett Langford initially pushed for the matter to disappear quietly.
His first call was to Hargrove.
His second was to a school-board member he knew socially.
His third was to an attorney.
That attorney gave him better advice than his instincts did.
“Stop calling people.”
Garrett did.
Eventually.
Desmond heard through Aisha that Garrett wanted a private meeting.
Desmond refused.
“I have nothing to discuss with him privately.”
Aisha nodded.
“That’s wise.”
“He’ll say boys make mistakes.”
“Boys do.”
“He’ll say Bryce didn’t expect Malik to get hurt.”
“That may be true.”
Desmond looked at her.
“You sound sympathetic.”
“I sound like a lawyer.”
She leaned back.
“Bryce did something serious.”
“He should face an appropriate juvenile consequence.”
“That is different from making him your second villain.”
Desmond hated that she was right.
“What would you suggest?”
“That you let the prosecutor do the prosecutor’s job.”
Desmond smiled bitterly.
“This is very annoying.”
“That’s why you pay me.”
“I haven’t paid you yet.”
“You will.”
The internal-affairs investigation into Drexler took much longer.
Weeks.
Then months.
Investigators reviewed body-camera footage.
School surveillance.
Witness statements.
Malik’s medical records.
Drexler’s arrest report.
Prior complaints.
Most prior complaints had not been sustained.
That did not make them meaningless.
Three involved allegations of unnecessarily aggressive language toward teenagers.
Two involved force during arrests that supervisors deemed technically permissible but “poorly de-escalated.”
One complaint from a Black father three years earlier described Drexler referring to his son as “another future inmate” during a disturbance call.
The department had classified it as unverified because body-camera audio was unclear.
Now investigators looked again.
Officer Lang became important.
At first, Lang was terrified of being seen as betraying a partner.
Then Aisha’s civil team obtained preservation orders for evidence, and internal affairs separately interviewed him.
“Did Malik resist?”
Lang sat with his hands clasped.
“He pulled his arm back when Carl grabbed him.”
“Did he attempt to flee?”
“No.”
“Strike either officer?”
“No.”
“Kick?”
“No.”
“Threaten?”
“No.”
“Why was he taken against the whiteboard?”
Lang swallowed.
“Carl said he was resisting.”
“What did you think?”
“I thought it escalated too fast.”
“Did you say anything?”
“Not then.”
“At the car?”
“I told him easy.”
“Why?”
“Because Malik wasn’t fighting.”
That mattered.
Not enough to excuse Lang’s silence.
Enough to distinguish conduct.
The body camera did the rest.
The phrase “we’ll make an example.”
The decision not to remove Malik quietly.
The dismissive comments.
The force.
The failure to adjust when new information appeared.
The assumption that a father was absent.
The aggressive interview after Malik began asking for family and counsel.