Do you need paramedics?" "I'm fine, Bryce." Elena replied calmly, setting the log down. "Just thoroughly unimpressed with the local talent." Drummond turned his attention to Captain Langford.
The FBI agent was a towering man with a severe buzz cut and a gaze that felt like a physical interrogation. "Captain Langford, I am Special Agent Drummond, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Effective immediately, my unit is taking jurisdiction over this incident." "Agent Drummond, I assure you we are handling this." Langford attempted to say, though his voice lacked conviction.
"We've already stripped Officer Colter of his" "You aren't handling anything, Captain." Drummond interrupted seamlessly. "Your officer assaulted a federal prosecutor. That makes this a federal crime scene. My agents are currently outside seizing Officer Colter's patrol vehicle for evidence processing.
We will be taking the dash cam footage, the body cam footage, the dispatch logs, and every personnel file you have on Vance Colter going back to the day he graduated the academy." Langford swallowed hard, nodding slowly. He knew better than to argue with the bureau when they had a legitimate statutory hook, and assaulting an AUSA was about as legitimate as it got. Drummond pulled up a chair across from Elena. "Walk me through it from the beginning."
For the next minutes, Elena meticulously recounted the event. She didn't exaggerate. She didn't add emotional flair. She presented the facts with the clinical precision of a seasoned litigator. She detailed the lack of probable cause, the immediate escalation, the refusal to examine her valid registration, the physical assault, the illegal search of her vehicle, and the blatant disregard for her federal credentials.
As she spoke, Officer Reed was brought into the room by one of the other FBI agents. Reed looked terrified, his eyes darting between Drummond and Elena. "Officer Reed." Drummond said, not looking up from the notepad he was writing on. "Montgomery states that you witnessed the assault and illegal search, and that you failed to intervene, though you did attempt to verify the vehicle's tags with dispatch, which Officer Colter verbally overrode.
Is this accurate?" "Yes, sir." Reed said quickly, eager to cooperate. "I swear I didn't want any part of it. I told him we should run the tags.
He just" "He had his mind made up." "He said she didn't look like she belonged in that car." Drummond stopped writing. He slowly looked up, his pen hovering over the paper. "He said what?"
Reed gulped. "He said she didn't look like the type of person who belonged in a luxury car. He assumed she stole it from one of the houses on the ridge." Elena offered a small grim smile. "There it is.