“Elijah Mercer,” Redding said, reading from the license he had finally pulled from the wallet. “Doctor, huh?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of doctor?”
“Public safety leadership.”
Redding smirked.
“So not a real doctor.”
The crowd murmured.
Elijah did not take the bait.
“Officer Redding, badge 3186, I am requesting that a supervisor be called to this scene.”
The badge number landed hard.
Redding froze for half a second.
People who filed complaints learned badge numbers.
People with lawyers learned badge numbers.
People who caused problems for officers like him learned badge numbers.
“Don’t you say my badge number like you know me,” Redding snapped.
“I am identifying the officer conducting this stop.”
“You think that suit makes you special?”
“No.”
“You think that car makes you better than me?”
“No.”
“You think because you talk like some college professor, I won’t put you where you belong?”
The sentence hung in the morning air.
Ruth lowered her phone just enough to look at him with disgust.
Delia whispered, “There it is.”
Elijah turned his face slightly toward Nolan’s camera.
“I am unarmed. I am compliant. Officer Redding has conducted a search without consent and is now escalating verbally. I am again requesting a supervisor.”
That was when Redding slapped him.
The sound cracked against the buildings.
Elijah’s head turned.
His sunglasses flew from his face and skittered across the sidewalk, one lens shattering near the curb. Blood appeared at the corner of his mouth. A red handprint rose across his cheek, clean and unmistakable.
For one second, the city seemed to hold its breath.
Then the phones moved closer.
Redding stepped back with a satisfied curl to his mouth.
“Maybe now you’ll learn respect.”
Elijah wiped his lip with the handkerchief.
He kept his eyes on Redding.
“Officer Redding has just struck me without provocation. Time is approximately 8:49 a.m. There are multiple witnesses present.”
Redding’s smirk faltered.
The calm bothered him.
Men he slapped usually shouted, cursed, pleaded, or folded into themselves. Elijah did none of those things. He stood with blood on his collar and spoke like he was creating a record.
That was exactly what he was doing.
Delia’s voice rose from the storefront.
“I recorded it. Every second.”
Nolan’s livestream jumped from nine hundred viewers to five thousand.
Comments poured in so fast he could barely read them.
Redding slapped him.
That man didn’t do anything.
Get his badge number.
Someone call the station.
Ruth Callahan stepped off the curb.
“I’ve watched you do this for years, Carl Redding. Years. You slapped Mrs. Alvarez’s nephew. You shoved Mr. Baker’s son. You searched that college boy’s backpack until his textbooks were in the gutter. We all saw it.”
Redding turned toward her.
“Ma’am, you need to step back.”
“No,” Ruth said. “You need to step down.”
The crowd made a sound somewhere between shock and approval.
Redding reached for his cuffs.
“Turn around,” he said to Elijah. “You’re under arrest.”
“For what charge?”
“Disorderly conduct.”
“I have not been disorderly.”
“Resisting.”
“I have not resisted.”
“Obstruction.”
“I have asked questions.”
Redding stepped closer.
“I said turn around.”
Elijah slowly reached inside his jacket.
Redding’s hand snapped toward his weapon.
“Don’t move.”
Elijah stopped immediately.
“My credentials are in my inside pocket. I am going to remove them slowly with two fingers.”
“Credentials for what?”
Elijah looked directly at him.
“For the job I was on my way to begin.”
The crowd quieted.
Redding’s eyes narrowed.
Elijah withdrew the leather case.
He opened it.
The gold shield caught the morning light.
Dr. Elijah Mercer
Chief of Police
Lakeford Police Department
Redding’s face drained of color.
It did not happen slowly.
It vanished from him as if someone had pulled a plug.
His eyes moved from the badge to Elijah’s bleeding lip, then to the handprint on his cheek, then to the crowd of recording phones.
The street understood before Redding fully did.
A gasp moved through the crowd.
Nolan almost dropped his phone.
“Wait,” he said to his livestream. “The man he slapped is the new police chief.”
Delia covered her mouth.
Ruth Callahan smiled without warmth.