Keller cuffed him anyway.
Pike looked uneasy.
“Should we really do this?”
Keller snapped:
“You want to keep your badge?”
Pike stopped talking.
Elias heard the words.
Interesting.
There it was again.
A hint of fear.
Not fear of Elias.
Fear of someone else.
Keller walked Elias toward the cruiser.
“Get in.”
Elias sat in the back seat.
The door slammed shut.
Through the window, he watched Pike return to the pickup.
The younger officer looked around.
Then he opened the truck's passenger door again.
He reached beneath the seat.
Elias couldn't see what he found.
Pike pulled out a small black bag.
His face changed.
He looked toward Keller.
Keller nodded.
Pike placed the bag into the police cruiser.
Elias watched everything.
He didn't ask what was inside.
Not yet.
The cruiser pulled onto the highway.
Elias sat quietly.
He knew something important.
If Keller had truly stopped him for speeding, the situation would have ended with a warning or citation.
Instead, the officers had taken his wallet.
Taken his cash.
Taken his badge.
Searched his truck.
Arrested him.
And now they had found something they clearly did not want anyone else to see.
The question was simple.
Why?
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at a small municipal police station.
Elias was taken inside.
A clerk behind the desk looked up.
When she saw Elias, she frowned.
“Who is this?”
Keller answered.
“Suspicious individual.”
The clerk looked at Elias.
“Name?”
“Elias Vance.”
Her fingers stopped moving.
She stared at him.
Then at Keller.
Then back at Elias.
“Elias Vance?”
“Yes.”
“You mean…”
Keller interrupted.
“Put him in Interview Room Two.”
The clerk didn't move.
“Keller.”
“What?”
“That name…”
“I said Interview Room Two.”
She obeyed.
Elias was led down a narrow hallway.
The interview room was cold.
There was a metal table and two chairs.
Keller removed the handcuffs.
“Sit.”
Elias sat.
Keller placed the badge on the table.
The old metal glinted beneath the fluorescent light.
“You're going to explain this.”
Elias looked at it.
“What would you like to know?”
“When did you work for the state?”
“Many years.”
“Why did you leave?”
“I retired.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
Keller leaned forward.
“Here's what's going to happen.”
Elias listened.
“You're going to tell me why you're carrying a state badge.”
“Because I earned it.”
Keller's jaw tightened.
“And you're going to tell me why you've got a thousand dollars in cash.”
“I already did.”
“And you're going to tell me what was in that black bag.”
Elias looked at him.
“I don't know.”
Keller smiled.
“Wrong answer.”
“I have never seen it before.”
Keller slammed both hands onto the table.
“You were transporting evidence.”
“No.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
“You know what happens to people who lie to police?”
Elias looked at him for several seconds.
Then he said:
“Yes.”
Keller leaned back.
“Then you know you're in trouble.”
Elias almost smiled.
“No, Officer.”
Keller frowned.
“You're the one in trouble.”
The room went silent.
Keller stared at him.
Elias continued.
“You've made several mistakes today.”
“What mistakes?”
“You didn't give a reason for the stop.”
Keller's expression changed.
“You searched me without consent.”
“You resisted.”
“I didn't.”
“You didn't request a warrant.”
“I wasn't required to?”
Elias nodded.
“Not under these circumstances.”
Keller's face darkened.
“You think because you used to be a cop—”
“I wasn't a cop.”
“What?”
“I was a state investigator.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Elias leaned forward.
“There is a difference.”
The door opened.
Pike entered.
His face was pale.
He whispered something into Keller's ear.
Keller immediately looked at Elias.
“What?”
Pike said:
“Someone is asking for him.”
“Who?”
Pike swallowed.
“State investigators.”
Keller froze.
“How many?”
“Three cars.”
Elias leaned back.
He said nothing.
Keller stared at him.
Then the radio on his shoulder crackled.
A voice came through.
“Keller, report to the front.”
Keller stood.
Pike followed.
Before leaving, Keller pointed at Elias.
“Don't move.”
Elias looked at him.
“I won't.”
The door closed.
For the first time that afternoon, Elias was alone.
He looked at the old badge on the table.
He remembered Margaret.
You spent your life earning it.
He reached toward it.
But before his fingers touched the metal, the door opened again.
A man in a dark suit stood there.
He was older than Keller.
His hair was silver.
His expression was serious.
“Mr. Vance?”
Elias stood.
“Yes?”
The man extended his hand.
“I'm Director Samuel Grant.”
Elias shook it.
Grant looked at the badge.
Then at Elias.
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“For the fact that you had to come out of retirement to teach us what we should have already known.”
Elias frowned.
“What happened?”
Grant closed the door.
Then he said:
“Keller isn't supposed to be working here.”
The Black Bag
Elias stared at Grant.
“What do you mean?”
Grant sat down.
“Keller resigned from another department eighteen months ago.”
“Why?”
“Internal investigation.”
“For?”
Grant hesitated.
“Evidence disappearance.”
Elias's expression hardened.
“How much?”
“Enough to end his career.”
“And yet he's here.”
“Yes.”
“Who hired him?”
“That's what we're trying to determine.”
Elias looked at the door.
“And Pike?”
“Pike was transferred here six months ago.”
“From where?”
“County narcotics.”
Elias nodded slowly.
Two officers.
Two troubled histories.
One traffic stop.
A black bag.
And his own wallet somehow caught in the middle.
Grant placed a folder on the table.
“We've been watching Keller.”
“For how long?”
“Eight months.”
“Why?”
“We suspect stolen evidence is being moved through this jurisdiction.”
Elias opened the folder.
Inside were photographs.
Storage facilities.
Vehicles.
License plates.
Bank records.
Names.
He turned a page.
Then stopped.
One name had been circled.
Daniel Mercer.
Elias recognized it immediately.
Mercer had been a state contractor.
A man Elias had investigated thirteen years earlier.
Mercer had disappeared before charges could be filed.
Elias looked up.
“Where did you get this?”
“From an anonymous source.”