"Looked like me or was me?" Mercer's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. She described a similar build, similar hair. That's a description, detective. It doesn't identify me.
It's enough for me to ask the questions I'm asking. Then asked them using the words the witness actually used, not the ones that make it sound stronger than it is. That should have ended it. Instead, Mercer kept going. There's a traffic camera two blocks from Hian that caught a vehicle matching a make and color registered to your household.
Dana didn't blink. What's the plate number on that traffic camera image? Mercer hesitated for the first time since she'd sat down. We're still confirming the plate, so you don't have one. We have a vehicle consistent with detective.
Dana kept her hands folded. "A car that looks like mine in a city with thousands of cars that look like mine isn't evidence. It's a coincidence you're choosing to treat like one." Something tightened behind Mercer's eyes. Not doubt this time.
Irritation. "How many coincidences do you need before you stop calling them coincidences?" "As many as it takes before one of them actually places me inside that building." Officer Reed sat in the corner with a legal pad, saying nothing, writing everything. He'd read the original database out before they left the station that morning.
It had ranked Dana third of four with a note recommending further corroboration before treating any candidate as a lead. The incident report drafted an hour later didn't mention a ranking at all. It said identified suspect. He underlined the words "identified suspect" twice and didn't say why. Dana leaned forward slightly.
I'd like to see the original surveillance footage, the full candidate list, not just my name pulled out of it. The witness's first statement in her own words and the traffic camera image with a visible plate. Mercer's jaw worked once before he answered, ""This isn't a discovery hearing. It's a request for the evidence you're using to hold me here." You're not being held.
You're helping with an investigation. "Then it should be simple to show me what I'm helping with."" Dana didn't raise her voice. She didn't argue about the arrest. She simply kept narrowing the questions until every piece of evidence had to stand on its own. Mercer seemed to notice.
"You know how to ask for evidence like that," he said slowly. "Most people don't. Most people haven't had to read a report critically before agreeing with it. You can stop trying to outsmart us," Mercer said. "I'm not trying to outsmart you.
I'm asking what evidence puts me inside that building. "We're not finished gathering that evidence." "Then I'd like to know why I'm in a room instead of at my job site while you gather it."" Mercer closed the folder. "Because right now you're the strongest lead we have." Dana held his eyes.
"Third of four with nothing else that holds up on its own isn't strong. It's just the one you stopped questioning first." Reed's pen had stopped moving. He was watching Mercer now instead of writing. The way a man watches a small crack spread across a windshield.
Not urgent yet, but no longer something he could unsee. I'd like my requests logged. Dana said, "The footage, the full candidate list, the original statement, the plate number in writing with today's date." Mercer didn't answer right away. Then he nodded once tightly and slid a form across the table, the kind of gesture that looked like cooperation and functioned like a wall.