EVELYN: "Agreed."
She turned back toward Brooks.
EVELYN: "The vehicle camera should also be secured, along with the dispatch records and any available radio traffic. We'll need the original files, not edited copies."
BROOKS: "I'll make the request."
RYAN: "This is getting ridiculous."
Evelyn looked at him.
EVELYN: "A disputed use of force involving alleged evidence planting is serious. Preserving recordings is standard procedure."
RYAN: "Nobody planted anything."
MARCUS: "Then the recordings should help establish that."
Ryan fell silent.
For the next several minutes, the roadside became a carefully documented scene rather than an argument between two men.
Brooks recorded the witnesses' contact information.
Evelyn noted the time and location of the encounter.
Marcus identified the positions where the confrontation had taken place and described the movements that had led to the physical struggle.
Ryan remained close to the cruiser, increasingly isolated from the people who had initially arrived to assist him.
When the woman finished explaining what she had recorded, she approached Marcus.
WITNESS: "I didn't get the very beginning. I started filming when I noticed the officer getting aggressive."
MARCUS: "That's fine. Preserve the original recording exactly as it is."
WITNESS: "What happens now?"
MARCUS: "The evidence will be reviewed. Your recording may help establish what happened."
WITNESS: "Will he know who I am?"
Marcus did not dismiss the concern.
MARCUS: "The investigators handling the case will explain the procedures for protecting your information. Make sure you keep your original file and don't post it publicly before you've received guidance."
She nodded, visibly relieved that someone had taken her concern seriously.
Across the road, Ryan was watching them.
He had spent years treating witnesses as inconveniences. People who asked questions could be intimidated. People who recorded encounters could be ordered to move along. People who complained could be made to feel that the process would be more trouble than it was worth.
Now the witnesses were being asked to preserve their evidence, and no one was telling them to leave.
His phone vibrated.
Ryan pulled it from his pocket and looked at the screen.
The caller's name made his expression change.
He stepped away from the others and answered quietly.
RYAN: "What?"
A man's voice spoke through the phone, too faint for anyone else to hear clearly.
Ryan looked toward Marcus.
RYAN: "Not now."
He listened.
Then his face tightened.
RYAN: "I said not now."
The call ended.
Ryan lowered the phone, keeping it in his hand for a moment before slipping it back into his pocket.
Marcus had noticed the exchange.
So had Evelyn.
Neither commented immediately.
Instead, Evelyn opened her document case and removed a sheet of paper containing the reference number for an existing inquiry.
EVELYN: "Marcus, before this happened, I was preparing to contact you about the records we received last night."
Marcus looked at her.
MARCUS: "Which records?"
EVELYN: "The dispatch logs and the evidence inventory from the Westbridge district."
For the first time since the stop began, Marcus's expression showed unmistakable interest.
The district had been the subject of several complaints over the preceding months. Some involved missing property. Others involved searches that appeared to have been conducted without proper documentation. A few concerned officers whose reports contained strikingly similar language despite describing different events.
None of the complaints had yet established a coordinated scheme.
But the records had raised enough questions to justify further review.
MARCUS: "Did you find a connection?"
EVELYN: "A possible one. Nothing conclusive."
MARCUS: "What kind of connection?"
Evelyn glanced at Ryan.
Then she lowered her voice.
EVELYN: "Several incidents involve the same evidence-processing unit. The dates don't line up properly, and some of the property records were amended after the original reports were submitted."
Marcus considered that.
MARCUS: "Who authorized the amendments?"
EVELYN: "That's what we're trying to establish."
Marcus looked toward the gray sedan, then back at Evelyn.
The packet Ryan had planted might have been an isolated act of misconduct. It might also be connected to a larger pattern.
He would not make that determination based on suspicion alone.
But the timing was difficult to ignore.
MARCUS: "Don't connect this incident to the existing inquiry until we've reviewed the evidence."
EVELYN: "I wasn't planning to."
MARCUS: "Good. Keep the files separate for now."
EVELYN: "Understood."
A few feet away, Brooks was speaking with dispatch, requesting the relevant communications and confirming that the incident would be documented.