“I met with Barry to tell him that someone is in trouble. I asked him some questions and he lied, then he tried to turn it around and tell me the person in trouble needs mental attention, so I figured I can’t trust him, not with this.”
“And you decided to sidestep him and come directly to me,” Riley said. “Why didn’t you come to me to begin with?”
“Because you weren’t involved, at least I don’t think you were involved, but I guess we’re about to find out. Did you arrest someone, a woman walking in a neighborhood, a few weeks ago?”
Riley leaned back in his booth and nodded.
“Do you know why?”
“They said she matched the description of a girl who had been reported missing.”
“Do you have video of that?”
“Sure,” Riley said. “I wouldn’t exactly call it an arrest, more like we brought her in to keep her safe. Barry said she may not cooperate because she wasn’t in good shape mentally.”
“Do you have video?” That was Will’s sharp question.
“I had my vest on that day from a prior call and I turned my camera on when I got off to get the girl.” Riley’s blue eyes bounced back to mine. “I’m sure you heard about Toby a few months ago. I didn’t want that to happen again.”
“Who’s Toby?” Wolf asked.
“Another officer. His partner,” I said.
“Hold up. Is she the one who forcefully arrested a pregnant woman?” Will asked.
“A pregnant woman on heroin who was trying to run in front of a car,” Riley added. “Toby saved her life.”
“Of course you’d say that. She’s your partner,” I said.
“Just like you say these guys are awesome even when we all know you do sick things like rob graves,” Riley shot back.
“We don’t do that anymore.” Will smiled ruefully. “The school gives us access to the morgue so we can analyze the innocent people you guys kill all the time.”
Riley’s fists slammed on the table. “Our precinct has never committed a crime against those we try to help. It’s not fair for you to pigeonhole me or us with what you see on the news. Some of us are genuinely trying to help and protect the community.”
“He’s right,” I glared at Will. “And we need their help with this. I didn’t call him here so we could hurl insults at him. He’s one of the good guys.”
Will sucked his teeth. Riley’s face reddened.
“Look, I’m not defending everyone on the force. Lord knows there’s work to be done. I’m not going to sit here and defend a flawed system that we need to fix, but turning against everyone in uniform isn’t going to fix anything. I can show you Toby’s video so you can see she saved that woman from death.”
“The baby didn’t make it though,” I said.
“No, the baby didn’t make it, and that eats away at Toby every single day. You think she’s not traumatized? That she doesn’t feel like a murderer? But she saved that woman’s life and I hate to say it but with the amount of drugs in her system at the time, that baby may not have survived either way.”
I looked over at Will. I’d brought him along because I didn’t want my best friend to be uncomfortable having a swarm of police officers on our turf. Will had a run-in with a police officer last year and it had left a bad taste in his mouth, but Riley genuinely was trying to make a difference. I heard him go on and on about it every time our families had gotten together. He wasn’t one of those cops who sat there not speaking about his job or dodging questions or making excuses for anyone who did bad things.
“I think this is a good idea,” Will said, looking at me, “but we need The Eight in on this too.”
“They’re already in.”
“In on what?” Riley asked. “Don’t tell me you need us to go to one of your weird parties.”
“That’s exactly what we need.” Wolf grinned. “Don’t worry, you’ll only be buried for twenty-four hours.”
“You’re joking, right?” The look on Riley’s face was priceless.
“I need to see the video of the night you arrested Eva Guerra,” I said, bringing purpose back to the meeting.
“Eva Guerra?” Riley frowned. “You mean Stella Thompson? That’s who I took into the station, and please stop saying we arrested her.”
“I need to see the video.”
“Fuck.” He took out his cell phone and scrolled through until he found the app, then scrolled some more. He set the phone on the table between us and faced it toward us, pressing play.
The video was dark. In the beginning the only sound was of Riley’s breath.
“Are you going to get down?” It was a woman’s voice, I assumed Toby. “You know I can’t do it.”
“Yeah, I will,” Riley responded. “Shine the lights over there so it’s visible on video.”