"Are you hurt?" Jordan asked.

"My cheek hurts."

"I'm talking about when he fell."

"I didn't hit him."

"I know."

Simone stared at the door.

"He'll say I did."

Jordan glanced toward the courtroom camera.

"He can say whatever he wants."

CHAPTER 4 — THE FIRST RECORDING

Court security produced the footage within an hour.

Judge Lawson reviewed it privately with counsel.

The video was unambiguous.

Keller struck Simone first.

He approached again despite being instructed to back away.

When he raised his arm a second time, Simone moved defensively.

Keller fell because he lost his balance during the encounter.

Vaughn watched the footage twice.

Then he removed his glasses.

"I need to call my supervisor."

Jordan nodded.

"You do."

The charge resulting from the courtroom incident disappeared before anyone formally filed it.

But Simone still faced charges from the previous night.

Jordan wasn't satisfied.

"If he behaved like that in front of a judge," she said, "I want to know what happened when he thought nobody important was watching."

The prosecution requested the body-camera file again.

This time the police department responded differently.

There was a file.

But it was incomplete.

The recording began before Keller approached Simone.

Then it stopped seventeen minutes later.

Just before he ordered her from the car.

Keller claimed he had accidentally deactivated it.

Jordan studied the timestamp.

"Convenient."

Simone didn't answer.

Jordan immediately corrected herself.

"Actually, forget I said that. We don't need assumptions. We need evidence."

They requested gas-station surveillance footage.

The station owner agreed to preserve it.

Then Jordan posted a narrowly worded request seeking the couple who had witnessed the arrest.

By evening, she received a message.