Aaron looked at her.
"Please preserve your recording."
"Of course."
The handcuffs clicked open.
Aaron brought his arms forward slowly.
Red marks circled his wrists.
He flexed his fingers.
His right shoulder ached.
Grant stepped closer.
"Medical personnel are on the way."
Aaron nodded.
"Thank you."
Thornton finally spoke.
"Look, this is being blown out of proportion."
Every head in the café turned toward him.
He gestured toward Aaron.
"If he'd told me who he was, none of this would've happened."
Aaron looked directly at him.
The sentence seemed to settle over the room.
There it was.
The chief's first explanation.
Not that he had acted without sufficient grounds.
Not that he had used force unnecessarily.
Not that he had ignored the café owner.
But that the man he had handcuffed had failed to reveal an important title.
Aaron took one careful step forward.
"Chief, would the arrest have been justified if I were really a retired school administrator?"
Thornton said nothing.
Aaron continued.
"Would reading a newspaper become trespassing?"
The chief looked toward Grant.
Aaron kept his voice calm.
"Would you have been entitled to shove me against a table because I asked why you wanted me to leave?"
Thornton's jaw tightened.
"You're twisting this."
Aaron shook his head.
"No. I'm asking the same questions I asked before you put me in handcuffs."
He looked toward Nora.
"She never requested my removal."
Nora nodded.
"That's correct."
Aaron turned back.
"I was a paying customer. I did not threaten anyone. I did not physically resist."
Thornton glanced toward the café's front windows.
Outside, several pedestrians had stopped to look inside.
Aaron lowered his voice.
"The problem isn't that you arrested someone with an important position."