Elena nodded.
“And one of them put his hand on me.”
Rachel’s eyes moved toward the three officers.
“Where?”
Elena answered.
“My body. He said he thought I was hiding drugs.”
Rachel’s face hardened.
“I was wearing a swimsuit. I told him not to touch me.”
Harris turned toward Reeves.
“Body camera.”
Reeves looked down.
The indicator was active.
Harris nodded.
“Good.”
Then toward Cole and Grant.
“Yours?”
Also recording.
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“Before contact.”
“Good.”
Harris’s voice became very quiet.
“Because we’re going to review them immediately.”
The back gate opened.
A woman in a charcoal suit entered from the unmarked sedan.
Early forties.
Federal credentials clipped openly at her belt.
Cole stared.
Grant and Reeves went pale.
The woman walked directly toward Elena.
“You all right?”
Elena nodded.
“My wrist hurts.”
The woman looked at the mark.
Then at Cole.
“Who grabbed her?”
Cole’s mouth opened.
Harris answered:
“Officer Cole.”
“And the unwanted physical contact?”
Elena nodded toward Reeves.
“Him. He put his hand on me and claimed I was hiding drugs.”
The woman looked at Harris.
“I want all three recordings preserved.”
“Already happening.”
Cole finally asked:
“Who are you?”
She turned.
“Special Agent Claire Dalton.”
Cole frowned.
“FBI?”
Dalton did not answer.
Instead she looked at Elena again.
“You want medical attention?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Dalton nodded.
Cole stared at Elena.
Then said slowly:
“You’re FBI?”
Elena looked at him.
“No.”
That confused him more.
Grant asked:
“Then why is the FBI here?”
Elena tightened the towel around herself.
Harris looked at the three officers.
“Because Ms. Brooks is an attorney with the United States Department of Justice.”
Silence.
Cole stared.
Grant’s mouth opened.
Reeves took another step back.
Harris added:
“Civil Rights Division.”
None of the three men moved.
Rachel looked at Elena.
Elena sighed.
“I was going to tell you about the new assignment tonight.”
Rachel stared at her.
“Seriously?”
“Bad timing.”
Rachel almost laughed.
Cole did not.
He was looking at Elena differently now.
Elena saw it immediately.
The sudden caution.
The sudden respect.
The realization that the woman he had been manhandling by the pool now had professional consequences attached to her name.
Elena looked directly at him.
“Don’t do that.”
Cole frowned.
“Do what?”
“Look at me differently now.”
Nobody spoke.
“I am exactly the same woman you grabbed five minutes ago.”
Cole’s face reddened.
“I didn’t know who you were.”
Elena stared at him.
“That is not a defense.”
The sentence landed harder than shouting would have.