“Daniel.”
“No, sir, because everybody is acting like I picked this guy randomly.”
Isaiah turned toward him.
“You did.”
“I had a description.”
“A Black male?”
“A suspicious Black male.”
“Doing what?”
Mercer looked irritated.
“I already explained this.”
“No,” Isaiah said. “You've repeated the word suspicious. You have not explained the behavior.”
Mercer opened his mouth.
Isaiah waited.
Again there was no answer.
The wind blew snow between them.
Finally Mercer said, “He was sitting there staring at people.”
Isaiah pointed toward the bench.
“That is a public park.”
“I know what it is.”
“Then why did I need to prove I belonged there?”
“You're twisting everything.”
“Am I?”
“Yes.”
Isaiah stepped a little closer.
He did not need height to dominate the conversation now.
“You called me ‘little man.’ You asked whether I lived in the neighborhood before you asked whether I had committed a crime. When I asked why I was being detained, you said people like me always wanted to turn things into courtroom arguments.”
Mercer's face changed.
Mallory looked toward him sharply.
“You said that?”
Mercer looked away.
The body camera had already answered for him.
Isaiah continued.
“You told me not to play the race card after you had walked past white people doing exactly what I was doing.”
“I didn't know you were FBI.”
There it was again.
Isaiah stared at him.
“You keep saying that like it helps you.”
Mercer frowned.
“If I'd known—”
“What?”
Mercer stopped.
“If you'd known I was federal law enforcement, you would have treated me with respect?”
“I would've understood why you were acting secretive.”
“No. Finish the thought.”
Mercer looked toward his captain.
Mallory said nothing.
Isaiah's voice remained controlled.
“If you had seen my badge, you would have believed I belonged in that park.”
Mercer said nothing.
“That is precisely the problem.”
A silence settled among them.
Isaiah looked toward the families still moving through the park despite the cold.
“I'm thirty-eight years old,” he said. “I've worked federal investigations involving kidnappers, armed crews, organized crime, corruption, and people who have actually tried to kill me. Today I was sitting on a bench drinking coffee, and you decided I was the threat.”
Mercer's mouth tightened.
“You were uncooperative.”
“No.”
Isaiah shook his head.