Holloway laughed.
“You don’t have jurisdiction over a criminal arrest.”
Naomi looked down at him.
“I have authority over the courtroom.”
She turned toward Chief Brooks.
“Secure the original document.”
Brooks nodded.
“Already doing it.”
“Preserve the envelope it came in.”
“There wasn’t one,” Holloway said.
Naomi looked at him.
“Interesting.”
He stopped talking.
Within minutes, courthouse leadership arrived.
The chief judge.
Court administrator.
District attorney’s representative.
Internal affairs.
City police command.
Nobody seemed to know what to do with the fact that three officers had entered a courtroom with a warrant apparently signed by the judge they intended to arrest.
The city attorney requested everybody stop making statements.
Holloway ignored him.
“This is being blown out of proportion.”
Naomi heard from behind the bench.
She said nothing.
The chief judge took the warrant into chambers.
Ten minutes later, he returned.
His face was pale.
The seal was wrong.
The docket number was wrong.
The issuing court code was wrong.
And Naomi’s signature was fake.
There was no uncertainty.
The warrant did not exist in the electronic system.
No clerk had processed it.
No judge had issued it.
No prosecutor had requested it.
Nothing.
The paper had been manufactured.
The two uniformed officers were immediately separated.
Holloway was told to surrender his badge and duty weapon pending investigation.
He laughed.
Then he realized no one else was laughing.
“You’re suspending me because of clerical problems?”
The internal affairs commander stared at him.
“We searched the warrant database.”
“So?”
“There’s no warrant.”
Holloway said nothing.
The commander continued.
“There has never been a warrant.”
The younger officer looked toward Holloway.
“You said it came from Major Crimes.”
Holloway snapped:
“Shut up.”
Every head turned.
The officer stared back.
“What?”
Holloway stepped toward him.
Chief Brooks blocked the movement.
“Enough.”
The young officer swallowed.
Then said:
“He told us it was signed through emergency judicial review.”
Holloway glared.
The officer continued.
“He said Judge Carter was under sealed investigation.”
Naomi watched.
The young officer’s fear was real.
Not innocence necessarily.
But fear.
The older officer spoke next.
“I never saw the warrant until we entered.”
Holloway laughed bitterly.
“Cowards.”
Chief Brooks said:
“Detective Holloway, stop talking.”
He finally did.
Naomi was escorted to chambers.
Her shoulder hurt.
Her wrist hurt more.
Not badly.
Enough to remind her every time she moved.
The chief judge closed the door.
“You need medical evaluation.”
“I’m fine.”