Before leaving the parking lot, she opened the voice recorder on her phone and began documenting the events while the details remained fresh.
She recorded the approximate time of the encounter, the officer's name, the location, the sequence of instructions, the words she remembered, and the moment she saw him examining the registration.
She described the handcuffing, the ride to the station, and the questions she had asked during intake.
She also noted the incident number and the names of the officers who had spoken with her.
She avoided guessing about anything she had not directly observed.
Where she was uncertain, she said so.
When she finished, she saved the recording and sent a copy of her notes to a secure account.
It was not a dramatic gesture.
It was a practical one.
Tessa knew that the accuracy of an account could become difficult to maintain when several people later described the same event differently.
A contemporaneous record would help her remember what she had seen, what she had heard, and what remained uncertain.
Only after completing the notes did she pull out of the parking space.
She drove toward her office, following the familiar route through Westbridge's busy streets.
The traffic lights changed slowly.
Cars moved between lanes.
Pedestrians waited at intersections.
The ordinary rhythm of the city continued around her, but her thoughts remained focused on the afternoon.
She was not interested in revenge.
She was interested in accountability.
Those were not the same thing.
Revenge would mean seeking to make Grant suffer simply because he had humiliated her.
Accountability would mean ensuring that the facts were examined, the decisions were reviewed, and the appropriate people determined what action was justified.
She would not decide the outcome before the evidence had been considered.
She expected the same standard from everyone else.
At her office, Tessa parked in the underground garage and took the elevator to the floor where her team worked.
Most of the staff had already left for the day.
A few lights remained on behind glass partitions.
Her assistant, Maya, was still at her desk, organizing files for the following morning.
MAYA: "Tessa? You're back. I was beginning to worry."
TESSA BROOKS: "I'm sorry I missed your calls. Something happened at the shopping center."
Maya stood immediately.
MAYA: "Are you all right?"
TESSA BROOKS: "I'm physically fine. I was arrested by a police officer who suspected my car was stolen."
Maya stared at her.
MAYA: "Your car?"
TESSA BROOKS: "My car."
MAYA: "But it's registered to you."
TESSA BROOKS: "Yes. The registration was in the glove compartment."
MAYA: "Did he check it?"
Tessa placed her folder on the desk.
TESSA BROOKS: "Eventually. Not before arresting me."
Maya looked genuinely shocked.
MAYA: "How did you get released?"
TESSA BROOKS: "Another officer verified the registration, the desk sergeant reviewed the footage, and they completed the release procedure."
MAYA: "Did they apologize?"
Tessa paused.
TESSA BROOKS: "The sergeant acknowledged that it had been difficult. The conduct review is separate."
Maya pulled out a chair.
MAYA: "Please sit down. Tell me everything."
Tessa sat and began explaining the encounter.
She described Grant approaching the SUV, ordering her away from the vehicle, and refusing to examine her identification.
She recounted the comments he had made about her being an attorney.
She explained how he had taken the registration from the glove compartment, returned it, and continued the arrest.
Maya listened without interrupting.
When Tessa finished, Maya shook her head.
MAYA: "I don't understand how someone can see the registration and still take you to the station."
TESSA BROOKS: "That is one of the questions the review needs to answer."
MAYA: "What are you going to do?"
Tessa opened the folder and placed the incident paperwork on the desk.
TESSA BROOKS: "First, preserve the evidence. Then request the records through the appropriate process and make a formal complaint about the conduct."
MAYA: "Are you going to tell them you're a state attorney?"
Tessa considered the question.
TESSA BROOKS: "They will learn my professional position if it becomes relevant to the process. But I don't want this treated as a problem only because of who I am."
Maya looked at her carefully.
TESSA BROOKS: "If an ordinary person had been standing beside that vehicle, the registration should still have mattered. The officer should still have checked the facts. The person should still have been allowed to understand the basis for the detention."
MAYA: "You're right."
TESSA BROOKS: "If I make the complaint about my title, the department might focus on whether the officer should have recognized me. That's not the central issue."
MAYA: "The central issue is that he shouldn't have treated you that way in the first place."
TESSA BROOKS: "Exactly."
Maya picked up the incident number and entered it into a secure note.