Laura turned toward Rachel. "Officer Miller, I need you to remain available for a formal statement."
Rachel nodded. "Of course."
"Tell us exactly what you saw. Don't improve it. Don't minimize it."
Rachel looked toward Dalton. "I won't."
Dalton laughed bitterly. "So that's it? Everybody's against me now?"
Rachel's expression tightened. "This isn't about sides."
"Sure feels like it!"
"No, Eric. It's about what happened."
For the first time, Dalton had no quick answer.
Laura handed the evidence envelope to another investigator. "Log this immediately."
The investigator walked toward one of the SUVs. Dalton followed the envelope with his eyes. Marcus noticed: still worried about the key.
Dalton looked back at him. "You keep acting like it proves something."
"By itself," Marcus said, "no."
A flicker of hope appeared in Dalton's face. Marcus saw it. Then Daniel stepped forward. "But it isn't by itself."
The hope disappeared. Daniel pointed toward Marcus's canvas bag. "The transmitter recorded the encounter from the moment you approached us." Dalton glanced at the bag. Daniel continued, "My recorder captured the stop separately."
Dalton's eyes moved toward Daniel's jacket.
"Park security cameras cover this walkway," Laura added. She looked toward Clare. "And at least one independent witness appears to have recorded part of the encounter."
Clare lowered her phone slightly. "I recorded most of it." Her voice trembled. Everyone looked at her. Clare swallowed. "I started after he told them they looked like they were waiting to rob somebody."
Dalton stared at her. "You don't know what happened before that!"
Clare's face reddened, but she didn't look away. "I know what I heard."
The food vendor finally spoke: "So do I." His voice was quiet.
The hotel worker nodded: "Me, too."
Marcus looked around. The crowd that had been silent while he sat in handcuffs was finding its voice now that the danger seemed to have passed. Part of him wanted to resent them; he couldn't. Fear was complicated; he had spent too many years studying power to pretend otherwise. But he hoped they remembered how difficult speaking became when the person being mistreated still appeared powerless.
Laura turned toward Dalton. "Do you understand what we're investigating?" Dalton didn't answer. She continued, "For seven months, adults stopped within your patrol area have reported discrepancies between money taken during police encounters and money documented afterward."
Dalton scoffed. "Complaints! That's all you've got!"
"We have more than complaints."
"You have people trying to blame cops because they got stopped!"
Marcus looked at him. "Leon Harris."
Dalton's face remained still. Marcus watched closely. "Sixty-two. Dishwasher. Bus terminal."
Nothing.
"The report says $420 was taken from him."
Dalton shrugged. "If that's what the receipt says."
"He says he had $840."
"People say lots of things."
The words landed harder than Dalton seemed to realize. Marcus heard Leon again: Because I know how much money I had.
"You see," Marcus said quietly, "that's why we're here." Dalton frowned. "You assumed people like Leon couldn't prove anything, so their word didn't matter."
"You don't know what you're talking about!"
"Then explain Locker 214."
Dalton's jaw tightened. "I don't know anything about it."
Daniel stepped closer. "Then your reaction today is going to be difficult to explain."
"What reaction?"
"You stopped mocking us the moment you saw that number."
"That's your interpretation!"
"You asked where Marcus got the key, because it was suspicious."
"You put it in your pocket."
"I secured it!"
"You didn't call it in."
Dalton looked toward Laura. "I was going to."
Rachel spoke from behind him: "You had time." Dalton turned. Rachel held his gaze. "You had time to handcuff both of them. You had time to call me. You had time to order me to move them into your cruiser. You never logged the key."
Silence returned—different this time: not passive, but heavy. Dalton looked from face to face. Every explanation was closing another door. Marcus could see the panic beneath his anger.
"Even if I made mistakes," Dalton said, "that doesn't prove I know some storage locker!"
Laura nodded. "Correct."
Dalton blinked; he hadn't expected agreement.
Laura continued, "That's why today wasn't designed to prove the entire case."