Before bed, Daniel checked the message he had sent Price after the scanner arrived. It mentioned only the charging problem and the appointment with his sister, exactly as he remembered. He forwarded it through the agreed contact, then put the phone down. Keeping an original record was becoming a discipline, one small task he could finish without predicting what it would prove.
That evening, Cole sent one brief update through Rachel: Judith's original recording had been received directly from her phone. It began before Mercer approached Daniel, and it had not been cut at the railing.
Judith Hale had gone to the river reception because her late husband had helped fund the park's accessible paths. She had expected speeches, weak coffee, and a chance to ask why the promised handrails had taken so long to install.
Instead, she found herself sitting across from Miriam Cole in a quiet state office, describing the sound of a man's back striking iron. Her phone lay on the desk beside a receipt for the copy investigators had collected.
“Tell me why you started recording,” Cole said.
Judith had been filming the newly opened walkway for her sister, who used a wheelchair. Daniel and the stroller appeared near the edge of the frame before Mercer approached; she had not started because she expected an incident.
“I nearly lowered the phone,” Judith said. “Then I heard the officer.”
The recording caught him telling Daniel the area was for invited guests. Daniel pointed toward the public path and said he was meeting someone, his voice audible beneath the wind.
Mercer did not ask for identification. He moved between Daniel and the stroller, and Judith's camera swung briefly toward the river as she stepped aside for a passing volunteer.
When the image steadied, Mercer had seized Daniel's jacket. The impact itself was visible, but the officer's other hand was hidden by his body.
“I thought he touched the bag first,” Judith admitted. “Watching it again, I can't see that.”
Cole noted both statements. Judith was embarrassed until the investigator thanked her for being precise rather than certain.
“I know what I saw him do to the father,” Judith said. “I won't invent the rest.”
They watched through the arrival of Grant and Evelyn. Judith had kept recording until the paramedics asked people to make room, then stopped so she could help with the stroller.
No one at the scene had asked her to delete anything. Two people had asked for copies, however, including a man wearing an event contractor's lanyard who said he could get the footage to the commissioner's office.
“Did you give it to him?”
“No. I told him the captain already had my number.”
Cole asked her to describe the man. Judith remembered a silver watch with a bright blue face, but not his name, and she refused to guess his age more closely than somewhere in his forties.
After the interview, she called Daniel at the number he had given her. She did not discuss questions Cole had asked, only how he and Lily were doing.
“She's sleeping better than I am,” he said.
“That seems unfair.”
He laughed gently, protecting his ribs. Judith told him she had made an extra copy of her original before providing the file, and that she would keep it safe as instructed.
Daniel thanked her again. This time she interrupted him.
“You shouldn't need a witness to be believed. But since I was there, I will be one.”
Her confidence steadied him for the rest of the afternoon. He returned to the shop for an hour, accompanied by Tessa, and found three repaired appliances waiting for collection and a dozen messages he was too tired to answer.
One customer had canceled, saying he did not want trouble near his house. Another had left cash in an envelope with a note that said the kettle worked beautifully and there was no rush about the change.
Daniel put both messages in the drawer. He did not want his life divided into supporters and enemies every time he opened for business.
At closing, his assistant, Ben Ortiz, showed him the shop camera from the previous afternoon. Price stood at the counter, placing the envelope beside the scanner while Daniel fetched a charger.
Through the front window, a gray sedan was visible across the street. Its driver remained inside, too distant to identify, but the car stayed after Price left and departed only when Daniel locked up.
Daniel called Cole. He described the image without naming Mercer, because he could not see the driver and would not let fear supply a face.
“Keep the original recorder running,” she said. “We will arrange preservation before its oldest footage is overwritten.”