And as Salvar expected, there was no CCTV footage to begin with.
"What a coincidence," Salvar said, his voice carrying the innocent weight of someone who had never done anything wrong in his life, "the CCTV footage is unavailable?"
The female officer looked up from her notes.
"The camera at the VIP entrance malfunctioned. The dance floor camera was obstructed. And the corridor camera" Salvar tilted his head slightly while he audibly inhaled through his mouth, "was facing the wrong direction entirely, all three of them at the same night."
He paused while glancing at George, "What are the odds?"
The room was quiet for exactly two seconds.
George went very still. The particular stillness of someone doing rapid mathematics behind a neutral face.
Federic, on the other hand, got heated for no reason.
"WHAT ARE YOU..." He shot up from his seat before the officer beside him slapped the table loud enough to rattle the pen holder.
"SIT."
Federic flinched before sitting. His nose, still swollen and crusted at the edges, gave him the look of someone who had lost an argument with a wall. Which was not entirely inaccurate.
The female officer made a small note on her pad. Her expression gave nothing away, but Salvar noticed the pause before she wrote. She had caught it, too.
Smart woman.
"Mr. Beladore," she said without looking up. "We are done with your statement. You are free to go."
Salvar stood. He shrugged off her blazer and placed it on the desk with both hands, neat and folded. He picked up his confiscated phone.
"Thank you for your service," he said genuinely.
He turned and walked toward the exit.
Behind him, he heard Federic make a sound like a kettle reaching boiling point but being forcibly removed from the stove.
Salvar was three steps from the door when it was pushed opened.
He stepped aside automatically to let the person through and then turned his head to look at the man.
The man who entered was blonde, blue eyed dresses in a sky blue shirt, with the sleeves folded precisely to the elbow, and beige trousers.
He walked like someone who had never once in his life been told no and had subsequently forgotten the word existed.
He scanned the room once before locating Federic.
And walked toward him with the calm, measured energy of a natural disaster that had decided to take its time.
Salvar watched the man before he realised who the man was.
It was William, Federic's stepfather.
The man reached Federic, gripped his collar, and lifted him from the seat like a ragged doll, and in less than a one second he slapped his son across the face.
The sound terribly echoed in the police station.
The police and George stood from their seats in unified panic.
"He is a child," William said to the room, his voice smooth and unbothered as he released Federic's collar and straightened his own shirt. "Children make mistakes unknowingly. Surely this department understands that extending an attempted murder charge to a boy who simply lost his temper is an overreach."
Federic touched his cheek. His expression was the specific expression of someone who had just been slapped by their parent in a police station and was trying to decide whether to cry or evaporate.
George tried to approach him, but was completely blocked by William.
William turned his head and looked at Salvar.
"You." He studied him with the leisurely assessment of someone appraising livestock. "The boy rarely turns violent without provocation. It would be wise to question the victim once he wakes up rather than assume."
Salvar blinked before he smiled and nodded affirmatively. The picture of cooperative reasonableness.
But it was not.
Damon waking up was a separate calculation entirely. Damon was many things, but he was not fucking stupid.
He wasn't bold enough to attack Salvar openly. He knew exactly what Salvar's family was capable of. They can easily erase the existence of their family business within a day.
Whatever story Damon would sprout from that hospital bed would not be the one that buried Salvar.
Probably.
While Salvar was deep in thought, the door to the police station opened again.
Salvar turned as the familiar perfume hit his nose.