She checked the screen, then slipped it into her palm and faced Holmes.
“I was jogging on the public sidewalk,” she said. “Officer Mercer demanded ID, refused to state a legal basis, grabbed me when I asked what I had done, twisted my arm behind my back, and pressed me against his hood. Officer Briggs took my phone. Your officers decided I didn’t belong in my own neighborhood before they bothered to verify where I lived.”
Holmes looked at Mercer.
Mercer said, “We had a complaint.”
“That complaint,” Naomi said calmly, “was not probable cause.”
The private security officer approached just close enough to speak.
“Ma’am, your legal team has been notified. The exterior recording is secure.”
Mercer’s face lost what little color it had left.
Holmes turned back to him.
“Body camera running?”
Mercer hesitated.
Holmes’s eyes sharpened.
“Officer. Was. Your. Body camera. Running?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.”
Holmes then looked at Briggs.
“Yours?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Then don’t say another word unless I ask you.”
The street had changed now. Doors were opening. A woman in a robe stood on a porch halfway down the block pretending she was not watching. A man watering flowers had stopped completely. The silence felt different. Not polished anymore. Exposed.
Naomi glanced toward the house and then back to Holmes.
“You should also know,” she said, “that I’m scheduled to present at City Hall tomorrow on the expansion of police-use oversight technology.”
Holmes said nothing.
She continued.
“Your department requested that presentation.”
Mercer stared at her.
It landed on him all at once—the house, the protocol, the captain’s tone, the cameras, the mistake.
Naomi was not just a homeowner.
She was the founder of Carter Sentinel Systems, the cybersecurity and smart-monitoring company currently consulting with the city.
Mercer had seen the name before. He knew he had. He just had not attached it to the Black woman in running shoes on a quiet morning street.
Holmes pinched the bridge of his nose once, then dropped his hand.
“Ms. Carter,” he said carefully, “I’m asking whether you would be willing to give a formal statement.”
Naomi looked at him for a long moment.
“Yes,” she said. “And I want the name of whoever reported me as suspicious.”
Holmes nodded once. “You’ll have it.”