Chapter 2

She engaged her turn signal, pulled smoothly onto the wide shoulder, killed the engine, turned on the interior dome light, and placed both hands flat on the steering wheel. Her posture was relaxed. Her breathing was controlled.She watched in the side mirror as Officer Garrett Odum stepped out of the cruiser. He was broad through the shoulders, late thirties, moving with the swaggering forward lean of a man accustomed to being the largest presence in any situation. His hand rested on his flashlight—not out of protocol, but out of habit. The habit of someone who enjoyed the reach it gave him."Evening," Elaine said as he reached her window. Her voice carried the flat, measured cadence of someone who had been trained to never let stress bleed into her tone—the same voice she used to debrief field operatives and address congressional oversight committees.Officer Odum said nothing for a moment. He swept his flashlight across the interior of the vehicle, pausing on the back seat, the center console, and then settling back on Elaine's face. He pushed the beam directly at her eyes without apology."Do you know why I stopped you?" he asked. His tone was slow and deliberate—the particular drawl that some officers deployed to signal that they control the pace of everything that was about to happen."I don't," Elaine answered, keeping her hands visible and still. "I was maintaining posted speed, and my vehicle is in proper working order."Odum leaned his forearm on the roof of the Navigator. "You crossed the center line back there a couple times. You've been drinking.""I have not," Elaine said."Where are you headed this late?""Home. I've been traveling."Odum's flashlight dropped to her attire. Elaine was dressed in a fitted charcoal blazer over a dark silk turtleneck—the kind of understated, impeccably tailored clothing that cost more than most people's mortgage payment. The kind of clothing that on a Black woman driving alone on a rural Georgia highway after 11:00 p.m. apparently registered as suspicious."Whose vehicle is this?" Odum asked."It is assigned to my employer," Elaine replied.Odum's eyes narrowed. "What employer?"Elaine held his gaze without blinking. "License and registration, Officer Odum," she said, redirecting the stop to its legal purpose.Something flickered across Odum's face; he wasn't used to being redirected. "Yeah," he said. "Let's start there. License, registration, proof of insurance.""My credentials are in the center console," Elaine narrated calmly. "I'm going to reach for them now."

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