I was standing in that hallway, and I heard the whole thing come over the dash.”

“Clean isn’t the same thing as admissible.” Mark gathered up his papers.

“Pendelton is going to ask her why she skipped her supervisor.

She’ll say it was the girl’s voice.

He’ll say that’s not a legal standard.”

María touched the radio clip once and let go.

“It was the right standard.”

By six the dispatch room was filling up for the night shift, and the blue monitors cast their glow over the empty chairs the way they always did.