He stopped. The word interior had landed somewhere specific. “Do you have something in the interior you’re concerned about?” “I have personal property in the interior. I’m clarifying the scope.” “Step away from the vehicle, ma’am.” She stepped back two paces. Her hands remained visible.
Clement Taggart had materialized at the edge of the canopy. She registered him in her peripheral vision without turning her head. He stood there with his arms crossed. Not hostile. Just present. A witness who had already chosen a side.
Deputy Edson’s cruiser appeared from the south. Parking on the far side of the pump island. Edson stepped out and came to stand behind and to the right of Beaumont. A position that was calculated to put her between the two of them. Three to one. She noted the geometry.
Beaumont walked the perimeter of the Explorer. He looked at the plates, front and back. He looked at the windows. He came back around the driver’s side and stopped in front of her. “I’m going to need you to sign a voluntary statement confirming your cooperation with this inquiry.” He nodded to Edson.
Edson produced a single printed form from the inside of his jacket and placed it on the hood of the car. He put a pen on top of it. She looked at the form without touching it. “What is this document?” “Standard cooperation form.” Edson’s voice was younger than his posture. Mid-twenties. Practiced at sounding bored. “Just confirms you’re cooperating voluntarily.”
She leaned forward slightly and read the form. Line one. Line two. Line three. Her eyes moved steadily down. She did not rush. On line five, she stopped. “Line five states that I acknowledge the vehicle’s documentation may be incomplete and that I consent to this statement being used in any subsequent legal proceeding.” She straightened. “I won’t be signing that.” “It’s a voluntary form.” “Then I voluntarily decline.”
Edson glanced at Beaumont and something passed between them. Not words. Beaumont nodded. A single, almost imperceptible drop of the chin. Edson picked up the form and put it back inside his jacket. Then he produced a small notebook of his own and began writing. She watched the angle of his pen. She had already memorized what she saw.
“Ma’am.” Beaumont’s voice changed register. Lower. Slower. The register he used when he’d finished asking and started telling. “I’m going to ask you one more time to produce the rental documentation and confirm your right to operate this vehicle. If you can’t do that to my satisfaction, I have the authority to detain this vehicle and conduct a more thorough investigation.”
“I offered you the rental documentation fifteen minutes ago.” She held up the Enterprise agreement, still folded in her hand. “And yet you declined to take it.” Beaumont looked at the paper. He looked at her. Something in his face went the color of new brick. Not fury, exactly. But the cousin of it. The kind that comes when someone has maneuvered you without raising their voice.
He took the agreement. He read it. He handed it to Edson. Edson read it. He folded it. He put it in his shirt pocket. She watched the pocket. “That agreement will need to be held as part of the inquiry documentation,” Edson said. “That’s my document.” “It’ll be returned.” “I’d like a receipt for it.” Edson blinked. “A receipt?” She held his gaze. “Documenting the item, the time of transfer, and the name of the receiving officer.”