Afterward, Daniel wrote down the time of Price's call and the words he could remember precisely. He left a blank where he was uncertain, resisting the urge to turn an anxious conversation into a polished account. Tessa brought the hospital folder from the kitchen and placed the page inside it, beginning a record neither of them had ever wanted to keep.
Outside, a car slowed along the street. Tessa drew the curtains without looking through them, and Daniel gave Price the number again, waiting on the line until the older man wrote it down.
The first investigator from the state bureau arrived the next morning carrying a notebook rather than a promise. Special Agent Miriam Cole introduced herself to Daniel and Tessa, explained who supervised her work, and asked whether they wanted an attorney present before giving a detailed statement.
They had already contacted Rachel Warren, a civil rights lawyer whose office occupied the second floor above a bakery. Rachel joined by video because she was in another county, and Cole waited while Daniel adjusted the phone so everyone could hear.
He started with the public entrance. Cole asked him to describe what he had seen before mentioning what he believed Mercer intended, and the distinction forced him to slow down.
There had been a volunteer at a folding table, an unlocked stroller brake, a bottle he had taken from the side pocket. He had lifted Lily because she was crying, then felt a hand seize his jacket.
“Did you see him open the rear compartment?” Cole asked.
“No.”
“Did you see his hand near it?”
Daniel searched the memory. The temptation to make it clearer was almost physical, especially with Tessa listening, but the morning remained broken into separate flashes.
“I saw him look at the bag after Captain Grant arrived. Before that, I can't say.”
Cole wrote the answer down without disappointment. She asked him to mark his route on a printed park plan, then gave Tessa time to describe packing the envelope and receiving the threatening message.
Rachel spoke when the statement turned toward Price. She wanted the record to reflect that Daniel had not known about the drive, and Cole asked him to explain the entire exchange at the shop in his own words.
He remembered Price balancing the broken scanner beside a toaster and complaining about his stiff knee. He remembered offering coffee, which Price declined, and the pause after Daniel mentioned meeting his sister.
“He asked whether she'd read a letter from someone like him,” Daniel said. “I told him she's my sister. She can read.”
Tessa almost smiled. It was the kind of answer Daniel gave when someone made an ordinary person sound smaller than a title.
Cole had already spoken to Price, but she did not compare their accounts in front of Daniel. She said only that the materials had been preserved and that separate specialists would examine the drive using methods intended to protect the original.
“Is this about the push or the equipment?” Daniel asked.
“Both may matter. We are documenting each allegation separately until the evidence tells us how they connect.”
After she left, Rachel remained on the call. She explained that medical records and missed work should be kept together, and that Daniel did not have to speak publicly simply because others were speaking about him.
“They already put my face everywhere.”
“That doesn't give them the rest of you.”
He wrote the sentence on the back of an envelope after they disconnected. It felt like permission to turn off the television and help Tessa fold the clean baby clothes piled on the chair.
By afternoon, however, a shorter clip began circulating. It showed Mercer beside the railing after the impact, Daniel shifting Lily to his other arm, and Evelyn approaching through the crowd.
The caption claimed a commissioner had intervened when her brother refused a lawful instruction. The shove was missing, as was Mercer's attempt to reach the camera.
Tessa held the screen at a distance. “Where did they get this angle?”
Daniel recognized it as a view from near the reception tent. Someone had recorded the aftermath and presented it as the beginning, and thousands of strangers were now explaining why the part they had not seen must have happened.
He called Rachel instead of answering them. She told him to preserve the post and let the investigators know, then reminded him that a complete record would matter more than winning an argument beneath a video.