PART 2
I caught Reigns’s wrist inches before my phone hit the pavement. He drove his shoulder into me, and the phone spun from his hand, bouncing beneath the Tahoe instead of shattering. Voss grabbed me from behind. “Cuff him!” he shouted. I drove my heel backward into Voss’s shin, broke his grip, and spun around. “Touch me again and you will answer for assaulting your commanding officer!” A third cruiser rolled onto the shoulder. This time the officer who emerged was young, maybe twenty-six. His nameplate read PATEL. “Sergeant?” he asked, staring at all three of us. Voss pointed at me. “Captain Ellison became combative. Secure him.” Patel didn’t move. “Captain Ellison?” “That’s an order!” Voss snapped. I held up my credential case. “Officer Patel, activate your body camera and do not turn it off.” Patel touched his camera. A red light appeared. Voss’s face tightened. “Deactivate it. Now.” Patel looked between us. “Why?” That single word changed everything.
Reigns rushed toward Patel. “Give me the camera.” Patel backed away. “Sir, don’t touch me.” I moved between them. Reigns shoved me hard. I caught his forearm, turned him, and pinned him against the Tahoe without striking him. “Enough!” I barked. Voss reached for his radio. “Dispatch, officer needs assistance—” I ripped the microphone from his hand. “No false emergency call.” Voss stared at me with open hatred. Then a tow truck appeared around the curve. WESTBRIDGE TOWING SERVICES was painted across the door. It slowed before anyone called it. The driver, a heavyset man in mirrored sunglasses, saw Voss and immediately tried to continue past us. I pointed. “Stop that truck.” Patel stepped into the lane and flagged it down. “Who called you?” I asked the driver. “Dispatch.” “Nobody requested a tow.” He swallowed. Voss said, “Get out of here, Ray.” The driver’s name wasn’t printed anywhere visible. I looked at Voss. “You know him?” “Small town.” The driver suddenly hit the gas. Patel jumped aside. The tow truck clipped a traffic cone and accelerated away. That was when I knew the roadside bribes were only one piece of something organized.
Forty minutes later I walked into Westbridge Precinct still wearing dust on my jacket. Reigns and Voss had been ordered to surrender their weapons pending review, but neither was technically under arrest yet. I wanted evidence, not anger. Detective Sarah Kim, head of investigations, met me inside my new office. “Welcome to Westbridge,” she said, looking at the scrape on my wrist. “I’m guessing the welcome committee went badly.” I placed my recorder on the desk. “Secure this. Two copies, separate evidence lockers.” Sarah listened to thirty seconds of Reigns demanding five hundred dollars, then pulled off her glasses. “Captain… fourteen complaints.” “Against Reigns?” She nodded. “Fourteen in three years. Twelve closed as unfounded. Most mention disabled cameras.” “Who approved the closures?” She hesitated. “Voss.” We pulled towing reports. The same company appeared again and again: Westbridge Towing. Drivers who disputed searches had their cars impounded, then faced hundreds or thousands in storage fees. One elderly veteran, Harold Jennings, had lost his pickup after refusing a roadside “cash settlement.” Another man, Robert Torres, had filed three complaints and then abruptly withdrawn them. “Find Torres,” I said. Sarah’s face changed. “Captain, there’s something else.”
She turned her monitor toward me. Administrative access logs showed someone had entered the complaints database twelve minutes after I arrived at the precinct. The username displayed on the screen was mine. “Impossible,” I said. “I was standing here with you.” Sarah nodded. “Someone used your new administrative credentials.” The door suddenly slammed open. Reigns stormed inside despite being ordered home. Voss followed him. “He’s tampering with evidence!” Reigns shouted, pointing at me. “Check the system!” Voss held up a printed audit sheet. “Captain Ellison accessed closed complaints and altered timestamps.” I stared at them. They weren’t improvising. They had prepared this. Two Internal Affairs officers entered behind them. Sarah whispered, “Captain, don’t say anything.” Reigns smiled. “Looks like your first day might be your last.” Then Sarah’s computer chimed. She stared at the screen and went pale. “Marcus…” “What?” She slowly turned the monitor toward me. A second account had just logged into the evidence server—from inside the building. The account belonged to Detective Sarah Kim.
And Sarah was standing right beside me.
