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The interrogation room smelled of disinfectant and old paper. Heller pushed Nadia into a chair that scraped the floor, then took her briefcase to the opposite side of the table. Reed remained near the door. He had holstered his weapon, but he kept one hand resting against his belt as if a woman cuffed behind her back might somehow become the threat his partner had already described. Nadia shifted her weight to reduce the pressure on her injured shoulder.
“Remove these cuffs and check my identification,” she said.
Heller planted both hands on the table. “You are going to sit here until Internal Affairs gets here.”
“Why Internal Affairs?”
“Impersonating command personnel. Entering a restricted vehicle area. Whatever else we find.”
Nadia looked at the briefcase. “You have not asked permission to open that.”
He smiled at Reed. “Hear that? She thinks she gets to direct the investigation.”
Reed did not smile. Nadia noticed the failure and held his gaze for a moment. He was young enough to believe the next choice could still return this encounter to normal. She wanted him to make it. “Officer Reed, the front desk has a telephone. Call the city administrator. Ask who was appointed yesterday.” He glanced toward the door. Heller straightened immediately. “You stay here,” he told him. Reed's hand slipped from the door handle.
The red light in Nadia's pocket had been visible only to her when she checked the connection outside. It belonged to a secure recorder connected through her work phone, used for an agreed transition call with the mayor's office. They had been reviewing the arrival schedule. The mayor's assistant had said he would remain on the line while finding the final agenda. Then Heller shouted. Nadia had not reached for the phone because the first instruction was followed by a weapon, a strike, and the cuffs.
“Check my inner pocket,” she said.
Heller narrowed his eyes. “For what?”
“Before Mayor Elena Ward comes through that door.”
“Now you are threatening the mayor?”
“No. I am telling you where you can verify what you refused to ask.”
He reached across the table and pulled the recorder from her jacket. The red diode flashed against his palm. For the first time since the lot, his expression changed. He turned the device over, searching for a switch. Nadia watched his thumb hover near the controls. “Do not alter it,” she said. He ignored her and pressed the side button. A small speaker emitted a voice so clear that Reed stepped away from the wall.
“Dr. Brooks? Nadia, can you hear us?”
It was Adrian Cole, the mayor's executive assistant. He sounded frightened in a way Nadia had never heard during their negotiations. Heller stared at the recorder. Reed looked at her face, then at the red mark spreading across her cheek. The room had become quiet enough to hear the ventilation grate rattle. Heller said the call was unauthorized. Adrian asked who was speaking and where Nadia was being held. Neither officer answered him.
“You heard the encounter,” Nadia said toward the device. “I am in an interview room at the Ninth Precinct. I am restrained. My credentials remain unchecked.”
Adrian repeated the location to somebody beyond the microphone. Then another voice joined the call. “Nadia, this is Elena. Are you injured?” Nadia closed her eyes briefly. Being believed did not instantly make her feel safer. It made the danger more visible because another person was finally naming it. “My shoulder and cheek need examination,” she answered. “Please send an independent supervisor.”
The room's camera sat above the door, its dark lens angled toward the table. Nadia could not tell whether it was recording. She asked Reed to preserve any interview-room footage and the access history. He looked toward the lens, apparently noticing it for the first time. Heller said she was in no position to issue orders. Nadia did not argue about rank again. She repeated the request in the same voice, knowing the open connection could establish that the request had been made. Whatever happened to a file later, nobody could honestly say preservation had never been mentioned.
Heller set the recorder on the table as though it might burn him. “We had a report,” he said. The mayor did not argue with him over the speaker. She asked for his name and badge number. Reed supplied both officers' names before Heller could stop him. Outside the room, footsteps accelerated along the corridor. A desk phone rang, stopped, and rang again. Then someone knocked hard on the door, and a voice said, “Is Dr. Brooks in there?”
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