You have to protect me. We protect our own. There is no our own here, Rick. Captain O'Reilly said, his voice dropping to a low, disgusted growl. I just spent 30 minutes in Judge Montgomery's chambers.
Do you know what she showed me? O'Reilly pulled a tablet from under his arm. He tapped the screen a few times and held it up to the bars. On the screen was a high-definition crystal clear video. It was from a discreetly placed security camera mounted at the end of the third floor corridor.
A camera Dempsey had arrogantly assumed was broken or simply hadn't cared enough to check for. The video had perfect audio. Dempsey watched himself swagger down the hall. He heard his own hostile barking voice. He watched Judge Montgomery stand perfectly still, calmly explaining that he was making a mistake.
He heard her warn him. And then, in sickening, undeniable clarity, he watched himself lunge forward, grab her coat, and violently backhand her across the face. The sound of the slap in the recording was somehow louder, more brutal than Dempsey remembered. "She didn't raise a hand," O'Reilly whispered, his eyes locked on the screen. "She didn't make a sudden movement.
She didn't pose a threat. You assaulted a woman because her existence irritated you." "Cap." Dempsey's voice was barely a whisper. The reality was finally setting in, crushing his lungs.
"Please. Judge Montgomery didn't just stop at having you arrested," Fowler said, packing up his briefcase. He couldn't even look at Dempsey anymore. "She has officially ordered a judicial review of every single case you have touched in the last 10 years. Every arrest, every use of force report, every conviction where your testimony was the deciding factor.
DA Harding is setting up a special task force this afternoon. "They're going to open my files. Dempsey gasped, stepping back from the bars, his legs suddenly feeling like wet sand. If they opened his old files, if they actually looked at the complaints Fowler had buried, he wouldn't just be fired. He would spend the rest of his life in prison.
You're done, Rick, O'Reilly said, turning his back on the cell. The union is officially dropping your representation. You're a liability to the entire department. The mayor wants your head on a spike by 5:00 to prevent the city from rioting when this footage leaks. And I'm going to gladly hand it to him.