“I missed my son’s birth.”
He looked at Adrian.
“You gonna give me that back?”
“No.”
“Then what are you giving me?”
“A chance to clear your record.”
Calvin shook his head.
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
At least Adrian refused to lie.
Calvin studied him for a long moment.
Then he turned off the hose.
“What do you need?”
The investigation moved faster after that.
Not because old complaints had changed.
Because now investigators believed them.
That truth bothered Adrian.
Evidence mattered.
Due process mattered.
But he could not ignore how easily the department had treated each complaint in isolation.
One frightened person against one confident officer.
Each accusation looked uncertain.
Put twenty-one beside each other, and uncertainty became pattern.
Then forensics returned a result.
The small bag Mercer held against Malik’s face carried Mercer’s fingerprints.
That was expected.
It also contained traces from an evidence locker case processed two years earlier.
The evidence number had been partially removed.
Captain Sloan stared at the laboratory report.
“He didn’t just carry random material.”
Adrian nodded.
“He recycled evidence.”
They searched Mercer’s locker.
Nothing.
His home.
Nothing obvious.
Then an investigator searched his patrol cruiser.
Under the trunk lining they found four small bags.
Two pieces of jewelry.
Three wallets.
Cash.
And a sealed evidence envelope that had been reported missing eighteen months earlier.
Captain Sloan called Adrian at 2:11 a.m.
“Come in.”
He knew from her voice.
They finally had him.
Mercer was arrested the following afternoon.
He did not go quietly.
“This department is sacrificing me.”
Nobody responded.
“You know how many criminals I took off the street?”
Adrian watched from the hallway.
Mercer saw him.
“You.”
Adrian remained silent.
Mercer pulled against the officers holding him.
“You think you’re better than me?”
“No.”
“You followed me for months.”
“Yes.”
“You wanted this.”
“No.”
“Liar.”
Adrian approached.
“What I wanted was to be wrong.”
Mercer laughed.
“Sure.”
“I wanted every complainant to be lying.”
Mercer’s smile disappeared.
“I wanted those missing items to be mistakes.”
Adrian looked toward the handcuffs.
“I wanted the lab report to clear you.”
“Why?”
“Because every time an officer does what you did, every decent officer has to wear part of it.”
Mercer stepped closer.
“You people in Internal Affairs don’t understand the street.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“I worked patrol longer than you did.”
“Then you know.”
“Know what?”
“What people are like.”
Adrian looked at him.
“No.”
Mercer leaned forward.
“You stop enough of them, you know.”
“Them.”
Mercer realized too late how the word sounded.
Adrian said nothing else.
He did not need to.
CHAPTER FOUR: WHY MALIK?
The question should have been simple.
Why had Mercer chosen Malik Carter?
Wrong place.
