CLAIRE: "I will."
HAYES: "Is there anything else you believe we should know?"
Claire thought about Daniel's hesitation, the employee's nervous expression, and the way Ethan had immediately assumed that his colleagues would obey him.
CLAIRE: "I would like the investigation to establish whether there have been previous complaints involving similar behavior. I don't want us to look at this incident in isolation if there is evidence of a broader problem."
Hayes's face became more serious.
HAYES: "That may require a wider review."
CLAIRE: "Then the review should follow the evidence."
Laura glanced down at the tablet.
LAURA: "There may be older records in the internal complaint system. Some are stored separately from the ordinary personnel files."
HAYES: "Can you access them?"
LAURA: "I can identify the relevant records and request authorization to retrieve anything restricted."
CLAIRE: "Please do that. We should not assume the earlier complaints are connected, but we should not ignore them either."
HAYES: "Agreed."
For the first time since Claire had entered the station, the conversation felt like a professional meeting rather than a confrontation. The participants were discussing evidence, procedure, and responsibility rather than trying to establish who could intimidate whom.
Yet the most difficult part of the morning was still ahead.
When Claire left the interview room, she went directly to the medical office to have her injuries examined. The nurse documented the redness on her cheek and the pain in her shoulder. She was advised to seek further evaluation if the discomfort worsened.
Claire then returned to the administrative area to complete the required paperwork.
Meanwhile, Ethan had begun preparing his own account.
He sat at a workstation near the back office, staring at a blank incident-report form. He had already told Captain Hayes that the confrontation had been mutual, but he knew that Daniel and the administrative employee might contradict him.
He also knew that the station's cameras could provide a record that was more difficult to manipulate than a verbal account.
His first instinct was to describe the encounter as a routine disagreement that had escalated unexpectedly.
He typed several sentences, deleted them, and began again.
According to his draft, Claire had refused to identify herself, questioned his authority, and moved toward him in an aggressive manner. He wrote that he had attempted to control the situation and that she had fallen during the struggle.
He did not initially mention the slap.
He did not mention the kick.
He described his actions as an effort to maintain order.
When he reached the section asking whether physical force had been used, he stopped typing.
The cursor blinked on the screen.
For several seconds, Ethan stared at the question, hoping that a suitable explanation would occur to him.
A shadow fell across his desk.
Sergeant Paul Reynolds, a middle-aged officer who supervised part of the patrol division, stood beside the workstation.
REYNOLDS: "I heard there was an incident at reception."
Ethan looked up.
ETHAN: "People are making a big deal out of nothing."
REYNOLDS: "The captain seems to think it's serious."
ETHAN: "The captain wasn't there. He only heard her version."
REYNOLDS: "Did you hit her?"
Ethan leaned back in his chair.
ETHAN: "She was challenging me. Things got out of hand."
REYNOLDS: "That still doesn't answer the question."
ETHAN: "I slapped her once. She was disrespectful, and I reacted."
Reynolds's expression changed.
REYNOLDS: "You slapped a female officer inside the station?"
ETHAN: "Don't make it sound worse than it was."
REYNOLDS: "I'm not making it sound like anything. I'm asking what happened."
ETHAN: "You know how these new people are. They come in thinking they can question everyone."
REYNOLDS: "That doesn't give you the right to hit them."
Ethan lowered his voice.
ETHAN: "You should be careful. You weren't there, and you don't know the whole story."
REYNOLDS: "Then give the investigators the whole story."
ETHAN: "I am."
Reynolds looked at the unfinished report on the screen.
REYNOLDS: "Make sure you include the physical contact. If the footage shows something different from what you write, that will become another problem."
Ethan's face tightened.
ETHAN: "Are you threatening me?"
REYNOLDS: "No. I'm telling you not to make a bad situation worse."
Reynolds walked away before Ethan could respond.
Ethan turned back to the screen, but his concentration had been broken. He realized that the incident was no longer confined to the people who had witnessed it at the front desk. It was spreading through the department, and every new conversation created another opportunity for someone to challenge his account.