"Yes."
"Car payment?"
"Yes."
"Pension you would like to keep?"
Noah understood where the conversation was going.
Boone continued. "Then stop treating one bad afternoon like it is worth throwing away your entire career."
"One bad afternoon?"
"You know what I mean."
"No. I know what I saw."
Mercer spoke from the wall. "You saw a complicated stop."
"I saw you hit the engine case after I told you the number was valid."
Mercer put down his coffee. "You keep saying that."
"Because it happened."
Boone tapped the report with one finger. "Nobody is asking you to invent anything."
Noah looked at him. "The report says the identification was damaged before the stop."
"It says the damage was observed during the inspection."
"That is not the same thing."
Boone's voice became firmer. "You ran a number through a database. You aren't a forensic vehicle examiner."
"I do not need to be one to know what a steel baton does to metal."
Mercer stood. Boone raised a hand and stopped him. Then he turned back to Noah. "You sign this and you go home."
"No."
"You think carefully before you answer."
"I already did."
Boone pushed the report toward him. "A career is a long thing to throw away over one afternoon."
Noah looked at the signature line. "So is a lie once you sign your name to it."
He left the report unsigned. Boone watched him walk out of the conference room.
Mercer waited until the door closed. "What now?"
Boone picked up the paper. "Now we find out whether he is scared enough to stay quiet."
At Hensley Recovery and Storage, Maya was still inside the locked office. Her cuffs had been removed from one wrist so she could sit more comfortably, but the other remained secured to a metal ring attached to the side of the desk.
Mercer returned to the yard a short time later. Maya heard the outer door open. He came down the hallway and stopped outside the room.
"You still awake?"
"Yes."