"Fine. I'll wait."
He listened for a few more seconds, then ended the call.
The room was silent.
Brooks approached him.
"What did they say?"
"They're continuing the verification."
"Did they identify the badge as fraudulent?"
Kane looked at her.
"They haven't finished."
"Then we still don't know that it's fake."
He ignored the point and walked toward the table.
Cross watched him closely. The officer's behavior had shifted from open aggression to restless defensiveness. He was still insisting that the badge was false, but his certainty no longer seemed as effortless as it had been at the beginning.
For the first time, Kane was being required to wait for an answer he could not dictate.
That waiting made him uncomfortable.
He picked up a pen and began tapping it against the table. The repeated clicks were sharp in the otherwise quiet room.
Brooks gathered the notes and placed them beside the incident log.
"While we're waiting, I want the circumstances of the arrest documented."
Kane did not look up.
"You can write whatever you want."
"I want an accurate record."
"Then write that he was uncooperative."
Parker spoke before Brooks could respond.
"He answered the questions we asked him."
Kane stopped tapping the pen.
Parker immediately seemed to regret speaking, but he did not withdraw the statement.
"Did you hear him refuse to answer?" Kane asked.
"I heard him ask for his credentials to be verified."
"That wasn't my question."
"No, sir."
Kane placed the pen down.
"Then be careful about what you put in that report."
Parker nodded slowly.
"I'll record what I observed."
The answer was measured, but it carried a firmness that had been absent earlier in the night.
Kane stared at him before looking away.
Brooks began preparing the incident report herself. She recorded the time, the names of those present, and the fact that the credentials had been referred for verification. She included the visible injury and made a note that medical assessment had been requested.
She did not speculate about the outcome of the identification check.
She did not label the badge fraudulent.
She did not omit the physical contact.
The report was not yet complete, but it was beginning to establish a record that did not depend entirely on Kane's version of events.
Cross watched her work.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
Brooks looked up.
"I'm not doing this for you personally. I'm doing what should have been done from the beginning."
"That is exactly why it matters."
She studied him for a moment.
"You've been remarkably calm about all this."
Cross's eyes moved briefly toward Kane.
"Staying calm is not the same as accepting what happened."
"I understand."
"I hope so."
Brooks looked toward the officer, who was now standing near the opposite end of the table.
"Do you need medical attention immediately?"
"I would like the injury documented and assessed."
"I'll make sure that's arranged."
Cross nodded.
He did not ask her to remove the cuffs, although the metal was beginning to irritate his wrists. He wanted the situation handled in a way that could not later be described as an attempt to evade supervision.
Kane noticed their conversation and returned to the center of the room.
"Don't start acting like you're a victim in some investigation," he said to Cross.
Cross looked at him.
"I don't need to act like anything."
"You know what I mean."
"I know what happened."
Kane gave a dismissive snort.
"You've got a lot of confidence for someone who came in here in handcuffs."
Cross's answer was immediate.
"Handcuffs do not determine whether an accusation is true."
Brooks stopped writing for a moment.
Parker looked down at his notebook, concealing an expression that might have been agreement.
Kane's face darkened.
"You really believe you're going to walk out of here and tell everyone how badly we treated you?"
Cross did not respond immediately.
He looked at the officer, then at the room around them. The dark table, the closed blinds, the empty chairs, and the harsh ceiling lights had all seemed ordinary when he first entered the station. Now they formed the setting for a series of decisions that would have to be explained.
"I believe that what happened should be recorded accurately," he said.
Kane shook his head.
"You keep coming back to that."
"Because it is still the issue."
"The issue is that you walked into my station and expected special treatment."