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Cop Punched a Black FBI Agent — Then Every Door in the Station Locked

Cop Punched a Black FBI Agent — Then Every Door in the Station Locked

Chapter 5

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"Ray," Ruth said to him, using his first name for what sounded like the first time all shift, "why does that bother you?"He didn't answer. He looked instead toward the corridor that ran past the front desk, past the interview rooms, to the property room at the back of the building—the same corridor his own badge would need to open in about six minutes. His hand had started to shake very slightly around a pen that wasn't writing anything."Let's get you somewhere quieter," Kittredge said, already moving toward the back hallway. "Away from all this. We can get you looked at properly.""I'm fine where people can see me," Monroe said. "Agent Vance told me to stay in view of the cameras.""The cameras are down.""Then I'll stay in view of the room."Because Monroe didn't move, Kittredge didn't push it. Not with Priya Anand already kneeling beside him, two fingers light against his cheekbone, her voice dropping into the flat, careful register of someone documenting rather than comforting."Swelling here. Laceration about a centimeter, consistent with a closed-fist strike," she said, mostly to herself, then louder to the room: "Somebody should be writing this down.""I'm writing it down," Ruth said, and did.Doyle leaned in before Priya could finish. "You'll want to say he came at me first. That's closer to what actually happened."Priya didn't look up from Monroe's cheek. "I'll say what I saw, not what's closer to anything.""Then say it slower," Doyle said, "so it comes out right."She finished her count of the laceration and stood. And for the first time since the punch, she looked directly at Doyle instead of past him. "I've written a hundred of these. Yours won't be the one I get wrong."That should have ended it. It didn't.Kittredge turned back to Ruth instead, changing targets the way a man does when the first argument isn't working. "This flag on his appointment... when did it go up?""Tuesday," Ruth said."Tuesday?" Kittredge repeated it like the word might come out different the second time. "And you didn't think that was worth mentioning to me?""Why would I mention a records hold to a sergeant?" Ruth said. "It's not unusual. We get them for subpoenaed material." She paused, and something in her face changed—the pause of someone connecting two facts she hadn't put next to each other until just now. "Actually, it is unusual. We've had exactly one other flagged appointment this year. Same category, same source.""What source?" Monroe asked.
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Cop Punched a Black FBI Agent — Then Every Door in the Station Locked

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