Mark looked around the yard.
His friends suddenly found reasons not to meet his eyes.
“To everybody,” he said.
Ruiz faced the group.
“Who was the trainee?”
Silence.
“Who requested the demonstration?”
More silence.
Mark’s voice rose.
“It was a joke.
She knew it was a joke.”
I unlocked my car and stepped out for the first time.
The air felt cooler against my wet wrists.
Every face followed me as I walked toward Ruiz.
I held out my hands.
The injuries looked worse beneath the porch light.
Purple swelling had formed around both wrists.
My left hand trembled from the pinched nerve.
Ruiz studied the marks.
“Medical documentation,” she told one of the officers.
“Now.”
My mother scoffed.
“She bruises easily.”
Ruiz turned to her.
“Did you observe your son handcuff her?”
Sylvia hesitated.
“I saw them fooling around.”
“Did Elena consent?”
“She did not say no.”
“I said, ‘Mark, don’t,’” I replied.
Aunt Linda spoke from beside the porch steps.
“She did.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Linda’s hands were clasped tightly against her stomach.
She looked frightened, but she did not look away.
“She told him not to,” she continued.
“He grabbed her anyway.”
Mark’s face sharpened.
“Stay out of this, Linda.”
Captain Ruiz looked at him.
“That is your first warning regarding witness contact.”
“I’m standing in my own yard.”
“And you just attempted to influence a witness in my presence.”
Mark’s anger flickered into panic.
One honest sentence had changed the balance.
Sergeant Cole cleared his throat.
“Captain, I should probably explain what I saw.”
Mark stared at him.
Cole kept his eyes on Ruiz.
“Mark had been talking about the watch earlier.
He said he wanted to scare Elena because she acts superior about police procedure.”
The yard seemed to contract around us.
Mark stepped toward him.
“That is not what I said.”
Cole backed away.
“You said you wanted to put the auditor in cuffs and see whether she still thought she knew everything.”
