She leaned toward the monitor.
Watched Hale shove Marcus against the truck.
Then quietly reached for her phone.
"He's doing it again," she said.
And the person on the other end of the line immediately understood what those words meant.
Because the destroyed tire was about to become the first clear piece of evidence connecting the sergeant to a much larger operation.
But seven months earlier, Marcus Ellison had known nothing about that operation.
He had only been trying to help a retired veteran get to a medical appointment.
Marcus returned to Bellhaven after thirteen years of military service.
He hadn't planned to settle permanently in the town where he grew up.
For most of his adult life, he'd imagined living somewhere with a major airport, good employment opportunities, and enough distance from childhood memories to make every day feel new.
But the death of his father changed those plans.
His father had spent forty-one years running a small automotive repair shop on the east side of town. The business occupied a weathered brick building with three service bays, a cramped office, and a faded sign that read ELLISON AUTO REPAIR.
The shop had never made the family wealthy.
Some years were good.
Others were difficult.
But Marcus's father believed that a person who understood how to repair something had a responsibility to explain the problem honestly.
He refused to replace parts that didn't need replacing.
He sometimes allowed struggling customers to pay in installments.
And he had a habit of repairing older vehicles for military veterans at prices far below what other shops charged.
Marcus remembered arguing with him about it when he was seventeen.
"Dad, you keep giving everybody discounts. How are you supposed to make money?"
His father laughed.
"You been looking at my books?"
"No."
"Then how do you know what I can afford?"
Marcus frowned.
His father placed a wrench on the workbench.
"Son, making a living matters. But if a man comes here because his truck is the only way he gets to dialysis, I'm not going to sell him a new transmission when all he needs is a repaired connection."
Marcus looked toward the old pickup being serviced.