Lieutenant Ruth Ellis entered first, carrying no weapon in her hands. She stopped when she saw Nadia's wrists behind the chair and the recorder lying between Heller's palms. Ellis looked older than the photograph in the transition file, with gray at her temples and a habit of holding her jaw tight before speaking. Nadia remembered her as the officer responsible for overnight operations. Ellis remembered Nadia well enough that recognition reached her face before she said a word.
“Take off the cuffs,” she told Reed.
Heller began explaining. “We received information about a woman near the vehicles.”
Ellis kept her eyes on Reed. “Remove them. Then step outside with Sergeant Bell.”
Reed moved quickly, and Nadia hated how much the sudden care hurt. The right cuff opened first. She brought the arm forward with difficulty, keeping her fingers away from the raw pressure mark. Reed asked if she was all right. She answered honestly. “No. But you can give the lieutenant your key and follow her instruction.” He did.
Ellis asked permission before examining the red mark on Nadia's cheek. She arranged medical assistance, then called the city administrator to confirm the appointment on a recorded administrative line. The formal verification took less than a minute. Nadia watched the lieutenant write the time. Heller watched too. An answer available in seconds had been treated as impossible when providing it might have interrupted his certainty. Nobody in the room needed Nadia to explain the comparison.
The mayor arrived with counsel and a city security officer. Elena Ward was a compact woman with a controlled voice and a reputation for hating public embarrassment. Nadia had wondered during the selection process whether that preference would make difficult reform impossible. Now she watched the mayor look at her cheek without searching immediately for a softer description. “Who is preserving the recordings?” Elena asked. Ellis answered that preservation instructions had been issued and the outside review unit contacted.
Heller said he wanted representation. The city attorney, Marin Shaw, told him that appropriate arrangements would be made and that no one was requiring an immediate statement in the room. He was to surrender the recorder without altering it and comply with the supervisor's directions. His right to advice did not authorize continued control of another person's property. Heller released the device. Nadia felt the room's attention shift toward the equipment and wanted somebody to remember that her shoulder still hurt.
Ellis did. She guided the paramedics inside and asked the others to step back. Nadia answered questions about the strike, the restraint, and her medical history. There was a bruise from an older injury on her upper arm; she identified it before anyone photographed the new marks. The examiner thanked her for making the distinction. Nadia had done this work for other people. Providing her own account made her realize how easily a tired person could mistake careful questioning for disbelief.
They moved her to the small conference room beside the lobby. Ellis placed a glass of water within reach and asked whether she wanted someone called. Nadia thought of her sister Camille, who had insisted on celebrating the appointment the previous evening. She had said the city was lucky. Nadia had told her not to make speeches before seeing the place. Now she asked for her phone and dialed Camille herself. She kept the explanation brief. Camille said she was coming.
Ellis asked a desk employee to write down every person who had entered the room after the call was identified. She included herself and the mayor. Nadia appreciated the equality of that list. Evidence did not become secure because people considered themselves the good ones. They could contaminate a memory by discussing it, misplace an item while trying to help, or assume somebody else had handled a task. The lieutenant assigned each responsibility to a name and a time. It was not elegant leadership. It was the kind that left fewer empty spaces for a frightened person to fall through.
From the hallway, Nadia heard Heller say that nobody had told him the appointment was final. Ellis asked who he had contacted to check. The answer was lost beneath another ringing telephone. Elena sat across from Nadia and kept her own hands flat on the table. “I heard enough,” she said. Nadia looked at her. “You heard what happened to me. We need to learn what happens to people who aren't on a call with your office.” The mayor absorbed the distinction. “Then we start there,” she said.
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