"Shut your mouth." Coulter snapped, patting down her pockets with a rough disregard for professional boundaries. "I don't need a supervisor to bust a car thief." Just then, a second cruiser pulled up, its tires hissing against the wet pavement. Officer Nolan Reed stepped out, jogging over.
Reed was younger, only a couple of years out of the academy, and he looked immediately uneasy at the scene before him. "Everything good here, Colter?" Reed asked, shining his own light on Elena, who was standing handcuffed in the rain. Her expensive suit ruined, glaring daggers at the senior officer. "Got a stolen vehicle in progress."
Colter said smugly. "Suspect is uncooperative. Fake registration. Probably took it from one of the houses up on the ridge." "I am an attorney."
Elena stated loudly, directing her words to Reed, hoping to find a shred of reason in the younger man. "This vehicle is registered to me. There is no probable cause for this stop, and there is certainly no probable cause for an arrest. If you search my vehicle without a warrant, everything you find will be fruit of the poisonous tree." Reed hesitated, glancing at the polished, highly articulate woman, then down at the registration Colter was holding.
"Uh Vance, did you run the plates through dispatch yet?" "I don't need to run the tags." Reed scoffed. "Look at it. Paper tags, fake registration.
She's driving a car worth more than she'll make in her lifetime. I'm going to search the cabin for weapons or drugs." "You do not have my consent to search my vehicle." Elena said firmly, her voice echoing in the wet night air. Colter ignored her completely.
He left Elena standing in the rain with Reed and leaned into the driver's side of the Range Rover. He began tearing through her immaculate car, pulling papers out of the glove box, yanking open the center console, and tossing items onto the passenger seat. Inside the center console, buried beneath some receipts, was Elena's leather credential case. Colter grabbed it. He flipped it open.
Inside was a heavy gold badge and a federal ID card that clearly read Elena Whittaker, Department of Justice, United States Attorney's Office. Colter barely glanced at it in the dim interior light. He saw the badge, assumed she had bought a fake novelty item to try and talk her way out of tickets, and tossed it carelessly onto the passenger floorboard. "Nothing in here but a bunch of legal garbage and a fake badge." Colter yelled out to Reed.
"Put her in the back of my cruiser. We're taking her in for grand theft auto, forgery, and resisting arrest." Reed looked at Elena, his face pale. "Ma'am, please come with me." "Officer Reed, is it?"