The handcuffs.
The object on the ground.
The officer kicking it beneath the car.
The drive to the station.
He described everything without exaggeration.
When he finished, the investigator asked:
"Are you certain it was a badge?"
"Yes."
"Did you recognize the department?"
"No."
"Did you see the engraving?"
"Not clearly."
The investigator nodded.
"We'll find it."
But the badge had disappeared.
Officers searched the patrol car.
Nothing.
They searched the roadside.
Nothing.
They searched the station.
Nothing.
Then the investigator requested the body-camera footage.
The video began.
It showed Officer Reed approaching Daniel's vehicle.
It showed Daniel stepping out.
It showed the search.
Then the camera angle shifted.
The metal object became visible.
Daniel watched silently.
On the screen, Reed looked down.
His boot moved.
The badge disappeared from view.
Everyone in the room watched.
Nobody spoke.
The investigator paused the footage.
"Go back."
The video played again.
There it was.
Clear as day.
A metal badge on the ground.
Reed's boot moving over it.
The investigator looked at Chief Whitaker.
"We need to identify that badge."
Daniel remembered something.
"The engraving."
"What about it?"
"It looked like an old department badge."
Whitaker frowned.
"Old?"
Daniel nodded.
"Possibly from a former division."
Whitaker thought for a moment.
Then he remembered.
Years earlier, the department had operated a special investigations unit.
The unit had been disbanded after an internal scandal.
Its badges had been retired.
Only a small number had ever been issued.
Whitaker's expression changed.
"Get me the archive records."
An officer left the room.
Daniel watched.
The mystery had just become much bigger.
The records arrived twenty minutes later.
The retired unit was called the Special Integrity Division.
Its purpose had been simple.
Investigate corruption within the police department.
The division had been formed after a major scandal fifteen years earlier.
Its investigators had been given special badges.
Only twelve had ever been issued.
Then the unit had been dissolved.
The badges were supposed to be returned.
The investigator placed a photograph on the table.
Daniel looked at it.
The badge from the old photograph looked almost identical to the object from the video.