Excluded and Uninvited novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Part One

Greg posts a cropped clip and Reno calls Caleb a coward; his captain says a complaint puts him on leave.

"There's a video," Jo said. "Greg posted it twenty minutes ago."

"Of what?"

"Of you. Don't watch it standing up."

I sat down on the couch and put her on speaker.

The clip had a title card in white letters: "What happened to Brandy last night. Please share."

It ran ten seconds.

It was shot from the mouth of the alley, shaky, with the three orange jumpsuits in the dark at the far end.

In the frame, I was turning away from the camera.

My back was to the lens and my shoulders were square, and I was moving toward the men.

Over it, a woman's voice screamed, "Caleb, don't leave me! Please don't leave me!"

I played it again.

Brandy had never said that.

She had said "Freeze."

"Did you hear her say that?" Jo asked. "Because I think her mouth isn't moving."

"She's not in the shot."

"Exactly. They put her voice on it."

The clip had three hundred thousand views.

The comments ran down the screen faster than I could read them.

"Run, Forrest, run."

"That's a man's back leaving."

"I hope somebody tells his station."

I put the phone face down on my knee.

The door opened and Katja came in with a bag of oranges and cold air on her coat.

She looked at my face and then at the phone.

"Bad news?"

"I'm being turned into a coward on the internet."

She set the oranges on the counter and held out her hand.

I gave her the phone.

She watched the short clip twice with no expression at all.

"Is that your back?"

"Yes."

"Which way were you going?"

"At them."

"Then it's a real clip," she said, and handed the phone back. "It just starts at the wrong place."

"Everyone will read it the way it looks."

"Most will," she said. "Some will wonder why a clip that shows a man being dragged away has no part where he gets dragged."

She started peeling an orange.

"I've watched a lot of rescues be told wrong," she said. "The story is whoever films first."

I thought about Greg at the glass doors with his phone out.

I thought about how many times in eighteen years I had stood beside him while he filmed something.

A birthday.

A bar fight.

A guy falling off a pier.

He had always kept the camera rolling a second longer than I would have.

I had laughed about it.

My phone rang in my hand.

The screen said CAPTAIN, and I answered before it could ring twice.

"McPartland."

"Captain."

"Where are you?"

"Tahoe. I'm all right."

"I heard you weren't." He cleared his throat. "Cal, I'm going to say this the way I have to say it. The chief's office got a complaint at seven this morning."

"From who?"

"A civilian. It says you failed to protect a woman during a violent assault and left the scene."

I stood up so fast my ribs caught.

"Captain, I was hit with a pipe. I've got eight stitches in my head."

"I saw the ER paperwork. I believe you."

"Then say it."

"I'm saying it to you. I can't say it to the review." He sounded tired. "It's a conduct complaint on a public safety employee with a video. There's a procedure. You're on administrative leave starting now. The review panel is in six days."

I looked at Katja.

She was watching me and still peeling the orange.

"How many people have seen the clip?"

"The chief's phone has been lit up all morning. There are donors writing in. This is how it goes, Cal. You know how it goes."

"I know how it goes."

"One more thing."

I waited.

"The complaint names a witness who will speak to the panel. He asked to give a statement in person."

My mouth had gone dry.

"Who?"

"Gregory Bresnahan," the captain said. "He says he's your best friend of eighteen years, and that he's sorry to have to say it."

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