Adrian looked at him.
“Yes.”
Malik walked toward the window.
“That’s the part everybody keeps missing.”
“What?”
“People keep telling me I was lucky.”
Adrian said nothing.
“I was lucky you were there.”
“Yes.”
“But he picked me because he thought I wasn’t lucky.”
Adrian understood immediately.
Malik turned.
“He saw some skinny Black kid in a hoodie who works at a pharmacy.”
His voice became sharper.
“He thought if I said the bag wasn’t mine, nobody would believe me.”
Evelyn looked down.
Malik continued.
“And he was probably right.”
“No,” Adrian said.
Malik laughed.
“Really?”
Adrian could not answer quickly enough.
“That guy Andre told the truth.”
Malik had read about the reopened cases.
“Calvin told the truth.”
Another pause.
“Darius told the truth.”
Malik looked directly at Adrian.
“What happened to them?”
Adrian remained silent.
Exactly.
Malik sat again.
“I don’t want to be famous because I got lucky.”
“You aren’t.”
“Everybody keeps sharing the video.”
By then, footage from Adrian’s camera had leaked online.
Millions had watched Mercer grab Malik.
Millions had watched Adrian intervene.
And millions replayed the moment the Internal Affairs badge appeared.
Comments celebrated the twist.
Wrong Black guy.
Cop picked the wrong one today.
He had no idea who he was messing with.
Malik hated those comments.
“Why?”
Adrian asked.
“Because he didn’t pick the wrong guy.”
Malik pointed toward himself.
“He picked exactly the guy he wanted.”
The sentence stayed with Adrian.
The investigation eventually produced thirty-seven criminal allegations involving Mercer.
Some could never be proved.
Evidence was gone.
Witnesses were missing.
Statutes had expired.
But eleven cases were strong enough to send prosecutors forward.
Richard Voss was arrested for bribery and conspiracy.
Mercer’s brother became a cooperating witness.
Two other officers were suspended after investigators discovered they had falsified reports connected to Mercer.
The scandal consumed Bellhaven.
Chief Raymond Holt appeared before the city council.
Residents packed the room.
Some screamed.
Some cried.
Others carried photographs of family members who claimed Mercer had targeted them.
Malik sat beside his grandmother.
Adrian stood near the back.
A council member asked the chief:
“How did an officer accumulate twenty-one complaints without meaningful intervention?”
The chief gave a familiar answer.
“The complaints were investigated individually according to the standards in place at the time.”
A woman in the audience shouted:
“That’s the problem!”
Applause erupted.
The chief waited.
Then Adrian heard another voice.
Calvin Ross.
“You looked at twenty-one trees and pretended there wasn’t a forest.”
The room went silent.
Even the chief had no immediate response.
That sentence appeared in newspapers the next morning.
And for once, Adrian thought the headline had gotten something right.
CHAPTER FIVE: THE TRIAL
Grant Mercer rejected every plea offer.
