The question came from a teenage girl standing with her mother, her young voice cutting through Gerald's rhetoric like a knife.
Gerald's head snapped toward the girl, his expression darkening. "Excuse me?"
The girl's mother quickly pulled her back, apologizing profusely. But the question hung in the air like smoke that couldn't be dispersed. Several other neighbors began looking at each other with questioning expressions, the seed of doubt planted by an innocent inquiry.
Detective Michelle Park seized the moment. "Chief, it would only take five minutes to run her identification. Standard procedure for any arrest involving government property."
But Gerald was beyond reason now, his authority challenged too many times in too short a period. "Detective Park, if you can't support your commanding officer's decisions, perhaps you need to reconsider your career in law enforcement. This woman is going to the station. She's going to be booked, and she's going to face the full consequences of her criminal actions."
As he spoke, Gerald's radio crackled with incoming calls, dispatch attempting to reach him with what sounded like urgent messages. But he was too focused on his performance, too invested in proving his point to the crowd to pay attention to the increasingly frantic attempts at communication.
Lydia Monroe slid into the back seat of the patrol car with fluid grace, her movements suggesting familiarity with vehicles and security protocols that seemed incongruous with Gerald's narrative of criminal behavior. She positioned herself so she could see out the window, her eyes finding Darnell Washington's phone camera and holding the lens for just a moment, as if sending a message to unknown viewers.
Mrs. Hargrove approached the car window, tapping on the glass with her manicured nails. "I hope you learned your lesson, young lady. This neighborhood isn't for people like you."
But Lydia Monroe only smiled, an expression so serene and knowing that it sent an unexpected chill down Mrs. Hargrove's spine. It was the smile of someone who possessed information that others lacked, someone who understood the situation far better than anyone else present.