The first thing the officer noticed was the watch. Not the registration papers folded neatly inside the open glove compartment, not the disabled parking permit tucked into the driver's side visor, and certainly not the carbon-fiber prosthesis that made standing on the sloped shoulder of Mercer Avenue a small act of calculation. He saw the watch and decided it did not belong to the man wearing it.
“Hands where I can see them.”
The Black man laid both hands against the roof of his blue sedan. Heat shimmered above the asphalt. At the intersection ahead, the pedestrian signal counted down beneath a cloudless afternoon sky. A bus idled at the red light, its windows flashing white with reflected sun.
“My license and registration are on the passenger seat,” the man said. “You asked me to step out before I could pick them up.”
The officer had blond hair cut close above the ears, a pressed black uniform, and the heavy, deliberate posture of a man who mistook intimidation for control. His nameplate read BRADY. His badge number was 8142. He had stopped the sedan for a broken taillight, though the man had inspected both lights that morning while fastening a bike rack for his niece.
“I'll decide when you get them.” Brady nodded at the left wrist. “Where'd you get that?”
The watch was silver, large but not flashy, with a midnight-blue face and a narrow line of engraving on its case. The man's hand tightened involuntarily.
“It's an award. Twenty years of engineering service.”
Brady laughed without warmth. “An award? You want me to believe they hand out watches like that to everybody?”
“Turn it over. My name is engraved there.”
Brady didn't look at the engraving. He took the man's wrist in a crushing grip. The man shifted his weight, and the socket surrounding the lower portion of his right leg pressed painfully against his skin. He could usually balance without thinking, but the roadside slanted away toward a storm drain, and the officer was pulling him toward the drop.
“You're hurting me,” he said.
“Then quit resisting.”
“I'm not resisting.”