Silas stiffened.
“You cannot arrest me.
I’m law enforcement.”
“We’re securing an active threat,” the team leader answered.
“Investigating authorities are on the way.”
Another agent came directly to me.
“General, are you injured?”
“No serious injury.
Remove the cuffs, please.”
Linda made a small choking noise.
The agent looked at the restraints.
“Department issue?”
I nodded.
He photographed them before opening them, preserving their position as evidence.
When the metal came away, red marks circled both wrists.
Linda stared at those marks as though she had only just understood how the scene might look to someone outside her marriage.
“Maya,” she began, “this got out of hand.”
I rubbed one wrist.
“You filmed him putting a gun against my head.”
“I didn’t know he was going to—”
“You told him to get my face.”
She stopped speaking.
Silas found his voice again.
“She grabbed me first! She assaulted an officer!”
The team leader glanced toward me.
I said nothing.
I didn’t need to.
A second member of the detail held up a secure tablet displaying the archived video feed.
The image showed the kitchen from the tiny camera in my clothing.
The audio had captured the argument clearly.
Silas heard his own recorded voice.
“I could pull the trigger right now and tell the department you reached for my weapon.
Linda will testify.”
He went pale.
“That’s out of context.”
The recording continued.
“The neighbors will believe me.
You are nothing, Maya.”
No one answered him.
For years, Silas had survived disputes by controlling the first version of events.
He was the uniform at the scene.
He was the familiar face.
His confidence came from assuming everyone else would have to argue against his word.
Now his own voice was the witness against him.
Linda suddenly reached for her phone again.
“I should call someone.”
“Leave it where it is,” the team leader said.
“That is my property.”
“It may contain evidence of the incident.
Nobody is deleting anything.”
Her eyes shot toward Silas.
That glance told me more than her words had.
She had recorded the entire confrontation.
Not because she feared him.
Because she had enjoyed it.
Outside, neighbors were gathering at the edges of their lawns.
