“I know.”
“That isn't answer.”
He looked down.
“The engagement was confidential.”
“Then you should have said, ‘Don’t shop at that chain this week.’”
“That would have been disclosure.”
“Then invent a reason.”
He looked at her.
“You want me to lie?”
“I wanted not to be shoved into a window.”
That ended the argument.
His face broke.
“I’m sorry.”
She looked away.
He continued.
“I did not know you were going there.”
“I thought you were at the gallery.”
“I changed plans.”
“I know.”
“You texted after you bought jacket.”
“I was already on my way.”
She closed her eyes.
None of it was his fault.
That did not mean she was ready to soothe him.
“You showed up with evidence because audit system alerted?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“When manager manually reactivated an RFID inventory record immediately after a completed transaction, it triggered a forensic exception.”
He had been in the SUV six blocks away.
His phone buzzed.
The transaction name displayed hers.
For one second he thought coincidence.
Then he opened audit mirror.
Saw video.
Saw the manager plant the wallet.
Called his wife.
No answer.
Because the officer had taken her arm before she could reach phone.
He had watched the sidewalk camera only after arriving because the store's exterior camera fed to the same cloud system.
He had seen the cuff close around her wrist while his vehicle was still two blocks away.
He stopped explaining.
She looked at him.
“You watched?”
“Yes.”
Her anger changed.
He had watched and been unable to get there instantly.
“I’m sorry.”
She stepped toward him.
For the first time since police arrived, she touched him.
One hand against his chest.
“You came.”
He closed his eyes.
“I should have been there earlier.”
“No.”
She said it more firmly.
“No.”
“You do not make yourself responsible for another man putting his hands on me.”
He opened his eyes.
She understood the danger immediately.
If he made himself responsible, then somewhere inside that logic was the idea that her safety depended on him.
It did not.
His presence had helped.
His access to evidence had helped enormously.
But the older officer’s conduct belonged to the officer.
The boutique manager’s scheme belonged to the manager.
Her husband’s guilt belonged nowhere useful.
She took a breath.
Then:
“But we are going to talk about the audit.”
“Yes.”
“Later.”
“Yes.”
“After I get this jacket returned.”
He stared.
“You want to go back inside?”
“Absolutely not.”
He almost laughed.
She finally did.