Adrian did.
He took two slow steps.
His hands remained visible.
Wells stopped six feet away.
“License.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Certainly.”
His voice was calm.
“My wallet is in my right rear pocket.”
“I didn’t ask for a speech.”
Adrian said nothing.
He slowly reached back, removed the wallet, opened it, and handed over his driver’s license.
Wells took it.
The younger officer moved toward the passenger side of Adrian’s sedan.
Wells looked down.
“Adrian Ross.”
“Yes.”
“You from Washington?”
“I’ve been working there.”
“What brings you through Georgia?”
“I’m relocating.”
“At midnight?”
Adrian almost smiled.
“Yes.”
Wells looked toward the back seat.
Through the tinted glass, the garment bag containing Adrian’s judicial robe hung from the rear handle.
From the outside it looked like any black suit bag.
A leather briefcase sat beside it.
A cardboard box containing framed family photographs rested on the floor.
“What kind of work?”
“Legal.”
Pike laughed quietly.
Wells glanced at him.
Then back at Adrian.
“Legal.”
“Yes.”
“Lawyer?”
“Yes.”
Something in Wells’s expression changed.
It was subtle.
The curiosity disappeared.
Something harder replaced it.
“Pop the trunk.”
Adrian remained still.
“For what reason?”
Wells tilted his head.
“What?”
“You asked me to open my trunk.”
“I know what I asked.”
“Are you asking for consent to search my vehicle?”
Wells stepped closer.
“You got something in there I should know about?”
“No.”
“Then pop it.”
“I don’t consent to a search.”
Pike stopped near the passenger door.
Wells looked at Adrian for several seconds.
The service station suddenly felt much quieter.
A tractor-trailer hissed somewhere near the highway.
Adrian could hear the fuel pump ticking as it reset.
Wells smiled.
There was no humor in it.
“You lawyers always make simple things complicated.”
Adrian said nothing.
Wells moved closer.
“Pop the trunk.”
“No, Sergeant.”
“Excuse me?”
“I do not consent to a search.”
Wells stared into his face.
“You think knowing a few words gives you control of this stop?”
“I don’t believe this is a traffic stop.”
That answer irritated him.
“Turn around.”
Adrian did not move.
“Am I being detained?”
Wells laughed.
“Turn around.”
“For what suspected offense?”
Pike shifted.
Wells reached forward and jabbed two fingers against Adrian’s chest.
“You people always make things harder than they need to be.”
Adrian looked down at the fingers.
Then up.
“What people?”
Pike’s hand moved toward his belt.
Wells’s face flushed.
“I said turn around.”
“Sergeant, if you are detaining me, tell me why.”
Wells grabbed Adrian’s left shoulder.
Everything happened quickly after that.
Adrian felt himself spun.
His chest hit the hood.
Metal rang beneath him.
His coffee fell from the roof and shattered on the pavement.
Before he could regain his balance, Wells forced his upper body forward.
Adrian’s cheek struck the hood.
Pain flashed across his face.
Pike caught his right wrist.