CHAPTER 3: Officer Holt Mistakes Quiet for Fear

Officer Nolan Holt had the heavy confidence of a man used to being obeyed before he finished a sentence.
He stood near the aisle with one thumb hooked near his belt, watching Elara as if she were already an interruption. His uniform was clean. His cap sat low. The badge on his chest caught the fluorescent light each time he shifted his shoulders.
Elara knew his name from the complaint file.
Three tenants had reported that Holt visited their buildings after midnight, telling them the city would remember who cooperated. One bakery owner said he watched Holt tear a notice from the wall and replace it with another dated two weeks earlier. A woman in apartment 4C said Holt laughed when her son asked where they would live.
None of those complaints had survived inside the department database.
Elara had copies anyway.
Holt moved down the aisle before the clerk called her name. The sound of his shoes against the tile made the whispers behind her shrink into silence.
He stopped beside her chair and smiled without warmth.
Mrs. Voss, he said, the mayor requests that you step outside.
Elara looked up at him slowly. The request had already arrived wearing a threat.