Coyle unholstered his sidearm, laid it flat on the center console beside his radio, and unbuckled his seatbelt. He turned fully in his seat, his arm hooked over the headrest, looking straight through the partition into my face.
"Get out of the coat," he said.
The county booking desk smelled of stale coffee, industrial floor wax, and the damp wool of three rain-soaked deputies leaning against the counter.
When Deputy Vance Coyle marched me through the security sally port into the precinct squad room, he shoved me forward with a hand planted flat between my shoulder blades. The room had eight desks under humming fluorescent strips, where two road officers were typing incident reports and the night sergeant, Frank Miller—no relation to the retired judge—was stamping bail bonds with rhythmic, leaden thuds.
"Unauthorized possession of municipal estate property," Coyle announced, pitching his voice so it carried over the printers. He dropped the three green cloth-bound ledgers and the two sealed courier bags onto the intake counter with a heavy smack. "Driver was running out-of-district transit plates down Route 9 after five. Refused to surrender the vehicle. Claimed he was doing legal courier work, but the tag belongs to Arthur Pendelton's estate."
Sergeant Miller barely looked up from his stamp. He squinted through wire-rimmed glasses at the ledgers. "Pendelton died Tuesday. Probate holds all county property."
"Exactly," Coyle said, resting his hand on his duty belt. "I caught him hauling the old man's private files toward the county border. Car’s impounded at Oakhaven Yard for inventory. I’ve got him on vehicle tampering, resisting transport protocol, and failure to present valid state courier authority."
"Search him down, book him on the hold, and stick him in Cell Two until the morning prosecutor walks in," Miller said, reaching for an intake card. "Name?"
"Thomas Cole," I said, stepping up to the waist-high counter before Coyle could jerk my arm back. My wrists were still clamped behind me, the steel cuffs cutting deep into the bone. "Deputy Clerk of Probate, Fourth Judicial District. Employed thirty-one years under Magistrate Arthur Pendelton."