She examined it.
Then looked toward Price.
“Officer.”
Price straightened.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Is your body camera recording?”
“Yes.”
Mercer turned sharply.
“Price.”
The young officer looked between them.
Mercer’s voice lowered.
“Turn it off.”
Nobody moved.
Lena’s camera captured everything.
Price’s hand hovered near his chest.
For fourteen months he had obeyed orders.
Some smart.
Some stupid.
Some he disagreed with privately.
None had ever forced him to choose so clearly between a superior and policy.
Mercer stared.
“That’s an order.”
Price’s pulse hammered.
Then he lowered his hand.
“No, sir.”
Mercer’s eyes widened.
Price swallowed.
“Policy requires recording during an active enforcement encounter.”
Mercer’s face darkened.
“You are relieved.”
Amara spoke.
“No.”
Mercer turned.
She adjusted her glasses one final time.
“You do not touch him.”
The chief laughed nervously.
“Judge, I obviously didn’t recognize—”
“That is irrelevant.”
Three courthouse security officers were running across the street.
Behind them came two deputy U.S. marshals.
Mercer saw them.
Panic entered his posture.
“Judge Bennett, there has been a misunderstanding.”
Amara looked at him.
“You slapped a woman in a public park after she asked whether she was being detained.”
Mercer’s mouth opened.
“You shoved her.”
“You seized her phone.”
“You ordered another officer to stop recording.”
She paused.
“Which part was the misunderstanding?”
Mercer looked toward the gathering crowd.
Phones were everywhere now.
He lowered his voice.
“Can we discuss this privately?”
Amara’s expression did not change.
“That option ended when you put your hand on me.”
The first deputy marshal arrived.
“Judge Bennett?”
“I’m fine.”
He looked at her cheek.
“Ma’am—”
“I said I’m fine.”
She pointed toward Price.
“Secure that body-camera recording.”
Then toward Lena.
“And her footage.”
Lena lifted her camera slightly.
“It’s already off-site.”
Amara looked at her.
“Live?”
“Yes.”
Something close to relief crossed the judge’s face.
“Good.”
Mercer heard.
His shoulders dropped.
Only then did he understand the true scale of what had happened.
The reporter’s camera had not merely recorded him.
It had transmitted him.
There was nothing to seize.
Nothing to accidentally lose.
Nothing to rewrite before morning.
The image already existed beyond his control.
That was bad.
Officer Price’s body camera was worse.
Because it had been recording before Mercer ever reached the bench.
It had captured a conversation the chief had already forgotten.