“That’s a lie.”
Mercer pushed him down.
“Quiet.”
Nathan’s voice dropped.
“Take your weight off his back.”
Mercer stared.
“You giving me orders?”
“I’m asking you not to turn a questionable detention into something worse.”
Mercer laughed.
“You lawyers always sound like that.”
Nathan said nothing.
Mercer continued.
“Your kid ignored instructions.”
“What instructions?”
“That’s police business.”
Nathan glanced toward the woman beside the stroller.
She was still recording.
The older man beside the bench was recording too.
So were two joggers.
Nathan looked back at Mercer.
“The witnesses seem to think otherwise.”
Mercer’s face hardened.
“You want to interfere?”
“No.”
“Then stop questioning me.”
Nathan’s eyes moved toward the body camera.
“Your camera is active?”
Mercer glanced down.
“Why?”
“I want that record preserved.”
Jordan almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because Nathan had begun speaking exactly like himself.
No anger in the sentence.
No threat.
Just language that sounded ordinary until somebody understood what it implied.
Preserved.
Not reviewed.
Not watched.
Preserved.
Mercer did not understand the distinction.
Denise did.
She quietly removed her phone.
Mercer noticed.
“Put that away.”
Denise looked at him.
“No.”
Mercer shifted his weight.
“You want to be detained too?”
Nathan turned his head slightly.
“Denise.”
She lowered the phone but did not put it away.
Jordan knew what Nathan was doing.
Preventing escalation.
Even now.
Especially now.
Officer Megan Ruiz had remained near the cruiser, visibly uncomfortable.
Now she approached.
“Sergeant.”
Mercer looked at her.
“What?”
“We should bring him up.”
“No.”
“He’s secure.”
“I said no.”
Ruiz glanced toward the witnesses.
Then toward Nathan.
“We can complete the investigation with him standing.”
Mercer’s tone sharpened.
“Officer Ruiz, manage the crowd.”
She stopped.
Nathan studied her.
Ruiz looked back at him.
There was something in her face Nathan had seen before.
A subordinate calculating the cost of disagreeing with a superior in public.
Nathan hated that look.
It usually meant the institutional problem was larger than the immediate one.
Jordan said quietly:
“Officer Ruiz knows I didn’t do anything.”
Mercer pushed his shoulder.
“Stop talking.”
Nathan stepped forward once.
Mercer’s hand went toward his belt.
“Back up.”
Nathan stopped.
“Sergeant, if you believe my son matches a reported suspect, tell me the reported offense.”
Mercer said nothing.
“What offense?”
“I don’t answer to you.”
“No.”
Nathan nodded.
“That’s true.”
Mercer looked almost surprised.
Nathan continued.
“You answer to evidence.”
Denise’s phone vibrated.
She checked the screen.
Nathan noticed.