"Last warning," he said. "You can come down willingly, or all four of us will bring you down. Your choice."
He climbed higher, locking his eyes on Maya. Shaw circled toward Naomi's side of the porch while Mercer positioned himself across the walkway, effectively closing off the driveway. The three officers formed a wall of intimidation beneath the porch. Maya raised her voice, clear and controlled. "Keep your hands visible. All of you."
Pike laughed harshly. "You giving orders now? Real cute." "You are standing on private property without consent," Maya replied. "You have no warrant, no probable cause, and no lawful authority to detain us."
"Listen to her," Pike mocked. "She thinks she's a lawyer now. Maybe she watched some television in county lockup."
Shaw snickered. Cole stayed silent, his eyes moving uneasily between the twins and his sergeant. Pike climbed another step until he was close enough for Maya to smell coffee on his breath. "You want to know about authority? Here's your authority."
He reached for Maya's wrist and closed his hand around her arm. Maya reacted on trained reflex, breaking his grip and stepping aside without striking him. Pike's own momentum carried him forward, and he caught the porch railing to keep from falling. The railing shuddered under his weight as he steadied himself.
Shaw's face tightened with anger. "She assaulted him. She attacked a police officer."
He rushed up the steps, but Naomi moved between him and Maya with both hands raised. "Stop. Everyone stop right now."
Shaw halted inches away. Pike straightened beside the railing, his face burning with humiliation. "You want to resist arrest?" he snarled. "You want to assault police officers? Fine. You just made this a felony."
"I defended myself against unlawful contact," Maya replied. "You grabbed me without cause." "Unlawful contact? I'm conducting an investigation. You attacked me."
"I removed your hand from my person. Nothing more." Shaw jabbed a finger toward her. "Bull. You threw him down those steps."
"I did not strike anyone. I did not use force against him. I moved away from unwanted contact."
Pike's composure cracked. "That's assault on a police officer. Both of you are under arrest."
Maya and Naomi looked at each other. A single glance passed between the twins, the kind of silent communication built over thirty-six years. Then both women reached inside their jackets. Pike tensed, Shaw's hand dropped toward his belt, and Mercer stepped forward.
The twins pulled out their credential wallets together. Gold federal badges caught the afternoon sunlight. "Special Agent Maya Carter, FBI." "Special Agent Naomi Carter, FBI."
The credentials were official and unmistakable. Their identification photographs matched their faces, and the FBI seals gleamed against the black leather cases. Cole immediately stepped back and moved his hands away from his belt. Shaw's mouth fell open, while Mercer froze in place.
For a moment, the entire yard seemed to reset around those badges. Cole's face went pale as the implications reached him first. Shaw stared from one credential to the other, searching for some visual flaw he could use to dismiss what he was seeing. Mercer stopped moving entirely. Pike alone refused to let the new information change his conclusion, as if admitting the badges were real would also mean admitting that every order before that moment had been built on an assumption he could no longer defend.
Pike stared at the badges for three long seconds. Then his expression hardened. "Nice try. Real convincing props. Where'd you buy them, the internet? Some costume shop?"
Maya kept her voice level. "Call the FBI field office. Verify our credentials."
"Could be stolen," Pike said. "Could be fake. Could be anything. Criminals carry all kinds of identification."
Naomi took out her phone. "Call the FBI Washington Field Office and ask for Agent Patricia Williams, assistant special agent in charge. She can verify our employment status immediately." "I'm not calling anyone based on your word. You're both under detention until we verify who you really are."
"Then make the verification call," Maya said. Instead, Pike reached for his radio. "Dispatch, this is Sergeant Pike. I need Lieutenant Keller at my location immediately. Priority response."
Naomi raised an eyebrow. "You're calling your lieutenant instead of the FBI field office." "Lieutenant Keller handles verification procedures for this precinct. He'll know what to do with fake federal credentials."
Pike paced beside his patrol car while speaking into his phone in low, agitated tones. The other officers maintained their loose perimeter around the porch. Cole kept looking at the badges still visible in the twins' hands. Finally he called out, "Sergeant, maybe we should verify through dispatch. That's standard procedure for federal credentials."
Pike's head snapped toward him. A sharp cutting gesture silenced Cole immediately. The warning in Pike's eyes needed no words, and Cole lowered his gaze.
Shaw moved closer with his own phone raised, aiming its camera toward Maya's open credential case. Maya pulled the badge back against her chest. "What do you think you're doing?" "Documenting evidence," Shaw said with a grin. "These fake badges are going to look real nice in the police report."
He tried to photograph Naomi's credentials as well. Naomi turned her body away. "Those are official federal documents. You do not have authorization to photograph them."
"I have authorization to document anything relevant to my investigation. These fake badges are relevant."
Mercer watched with growing unease. His earlier confidence was fading into the careful posture of a man who sensed the encounter had gone badly off course. Naomi looked toward the small black cameras mounted under the porch eaves. "Officer Shaw, I want to make something crystal clear. Every word being spoken right now is being recorded by multiple cameras on this house."
Shaw lowered his phone slightly. "What cameras?" "A motion-activated security system with high-definition video and audio. Everything that has happened in this yard is being permanently stored."