Then she lowered her hand.
“No.”
Hale stared.
“Officer Barnes.”
“No, Marcus.”
“This is an internal security incident.”
“No.”
Josephine looked at Leah.
“Do not alter that recording.”
Hale’s voice rose.
“She doesn’t take orders from you on evidence.”
Josephine looked at him.
“I’m not giving an operational order.”
She picked up the document near his boot.
“I’m preserving a potential record relevant to a judicial proceeding.”
She turned the paper toward him.
Hale finally read.
At the top:
Emergency Evidentiary Hearing Regarding Courthouse Security Division Conduct
Below:
Assigned Judge: Hon. Josephine A. Caldwell
Then farther down:
Complaints to be addressed include allegations involving Officer Marcus Hale.
Every remaining trace of color disappeared from his face.
Josephine watched him read.
His lips parted.
The hearing had been scheduled to review three incidents.
One involved missing body-camera footage.
One involved an allegedly unlawful detention.
One involved use of force against a young public defender.
Officer Marcus Hale appeared in all three.
Josephine had not planned to decide guilt that morning.
She planned to determine what records must be preserved, whether an independent monitor was necessary, and whether immediate temporary restrictions should be imposed pending further investigation.
Now she could not preside.
Because fifteen minutes before the hearing, the officer whose conduct she was supposed to review had grabbed her, shoved her, slapped her, and attempted to handcuff her.
The irony was not satisfying.
It was devastating.
Captain Evelyn Brooks arrived less than two minutes later.
She stopped halfway down the corridor.
“Jesus.”
Nobody corrected her language.
She looked at Josephine’s face.
Then Hale.
Then the scattered papers.
“What happened?”
Walter answered.
“Hale mistook the judge for Turner.”
Brooks stared.
“Maya Turner?”
“Yes.”
Captain Brooks looked directly at Josephine.
Then toward the missing-defendant description displayed on the handheld terminal clipped to Hale’s belt.
Twenty-three.
Five-four.
Braided hair.
Gray sweatshirt.
Jeans.
Brooks slowly lifted her eyes.
There was no possible honest resemblance.
“Hale.”
He said nothing.
“What did you do?”
“I made a mistake.”
Brooks looked at Josephine’s reddened cheek.
“That isn’t a mistake.”
He became defensive.
“She wouldn’t identify herself.”
“She told you she was a judge.”
“She could have been lying.”
Brooks’s jaw hardened.
“So you slapped her?”
“She pulled away.”
“From what?”
“My grip.”
“Why were you gripping her?”
“She resisted direction.”
“What lawful detention?”
Hale’s answer collapsed inside his throat.
Josephine quietly said:
“Captain.”
Brooks looked toward her.
“I need medical photographs taken before the swelling changes.”
“Yes, Judge.”
“I also need every camera feed from this corridor preserved immediately.”
“Yes.”
“Security logs.”