Chapter 6: Doug Greer Makes His Move
The officer who took our report was a woman named Sergeant Hale.
She was calm, thorough, and she asked Evan every question directly, not through me.
She looked at the receipt.
She looked at the dates.
"Every Saturday for five months," she said.
"Yes, ma'am," Evan said.
"And today was the first time there was a physical altercation?"
"He shoved me first.
I shoved back.
Then Ray pulled up."
"Ray being your employer."
"Yes, ma'am."
Sergeant Hale wrote everything down.
She took Ray's number and Dennis's address.
She told us a juvenile officer would follow up within 48 hours and that the threat against Dennis's property would be documented separately as criminal threatening.
We were home by ten-thirty.
Evan was asleep by eleven.
I sat at the kitchen table with my phone and didn't sleep at all.
Doug Greer called at seven-fifteen the next morning.
I let it ring.
He left a voicemail.
*"This is Doug Greer.
I understand there was some kind of report filed last night involving my son.
I think there's been a serious misunderstanding and I'd really like the chance to talk before this goes any further.
Please call me back."*
Calm.
Reasonable.
The voice of a man who had talked his way out of things before.
I called Carol instead.
"He left a voicemail," I said.
"Don't call him back," she said immediately.
"Let the juvenile officer make contact first.
The moment you talk to Doug directly, it becomes a conversation between parents.
Right now it's a police matter.
Keep it that way."
"He's going to say Evan started it."
"Let him say it to Sergeant Hale."
I didn't call Doug back.
By Tuesday afternoon, the juvenile officer — a man named Officer Tran — had spoken to Ray and to Dennis.
He called me that evening.
"Both witnesses corroborate your son's account," he said.
"We'll be speaking with Tyler Greer and his parents tomorrow."
"His father is going to push back."
"That's his right," Officer Tran said evenly.
"It doesn't change what the witnesses saw."
Doug Greer didn't just push back.
He showed up at the diner on Wednesday morning before Ray opened.
Ray called me at eight a.m.
"He was here when I pulled up," Ray said.
"Wanted to talk.
I told him I already gave my statement and I had nothing more to say to him.
He told me I didn't understand the full picture." Ray's voice was tight.
"Then he said he hoped my business license was current, because the health inspector had been making rounds in this neighborhood."
My stomach dropped.
"He threatened your license?"
"He implied.
Didn't say it outright." A pause.
"I've been running this diner for eleven years.
I've never had a citation."
"Ray, I'm so sorry."
"Don't be sorry.
I'm telling you so you know what kind of man you're dealing with." His voice steadied.
"I'm not changing my statement.
I want to be clear about that.
But you should know he's not going to make this easy."
I hung up and called Carol.
"He went after Ray," I said.
Carol was quiet for two seconds.
"Write it down.
Time, date, exactly what Ray told you.
That's witness intimidation.
It's a separate issue from the juvenile case." Her voice was sharp now, the softness gone.
"Doug Greer just made a very stupid mistake."
"Carol—"
"He threatened a witness, sweetheart.
That's not a parks committee problem.
That's a criminal matter." A pause.
"Call Sergeant Hale.
Today."
I called Sergeant Hale.
She listened without interrupting.
When I finished, she said, "Thank you for telling me.
I'll be in touch with Mr.
Paulk and Mr.—" she checked her notes — "Ray Dominguez directly."
"Is there anything else I should do?"
"Keep your son away from Millfield Road for now.
And don't engage with Mr.
Greer directly." A brief pause.
"You did the right thing filing when you did, Ms.
Hartley.
Let us do our job."
I set the phone down on the kitchen counter.
Evan was standing in the doorway in his school clothes, backpack on, watching me.
"Is it bad?" he asked.
"It's complicated," I said.
"But it's being handled."
He studied my face the way he'd been studying my face since he was four years old, trying to decide if I was telling him the truth or just the version that wouldn't scare him.
"Okay," he said finally.
He left for school.
I stood in the kitchen alone and thought about Doug Greer standing outside Ray's diner at eight in the morning, smiling his parks-committee smile, talking about health inspectors.
May you like
He thought this was still a conversation he could manage.
He didn't know yet that Sergeant Hale had his name in a second file.
