Chapter 7 - CAMERON TRIED TO BAIT ME
Cameron Voss wanted me angry.
His lawyer made that obvious.
Two weeks after his arrest, an investigator delivered a recorded jail call.
Cameron had spoken to a friend.
He knew the call was monitored.
That was the point.
“Dean hasn’t come looking for me?”
The friend laughed.
“He’s not stupid.”
Cameron said:
“I heard soldiers protect their women.”
I stopped the recording.
Jonah, sitting beside me, said:
“Don’t.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“You’re standing like you’re about to walk through a wall.”
Fair.
I sat down.
The recording continued.
Cameron called me a coward.
Invited me to “come finish it.”
Then laughed.
Malik shook his head.
“He’s begging you to give his lawyer a story.”
I knew that.
Still hurt.
Emily listened to thirty seconds before asking me to stop it.
Then she looked at me.
“Do you want to hit him?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not lying.”
I almost smiled.
Then she became serious.
“If you hurt him, does my leg heal?”
“No.”
“Does Hannah get her life back?”
“No.”
“Does Ferris become less afraid of telling the truth?”
“No.”
“Then don’t give Cameron another thing.”
That was my wife.
Both legs shattered.
Still teaching me where strength actually lived.
Cameron’s bail was denied.
Travis Cole’s situation changed soon afterward.
His lawyer approached prosecutors.
Travis had worn a badge wallet.
Used department radios.
Driven official vehicles.
Entered homes while claiming law-enforcement authority.
But he had never completed an academy.
Never held valid certification.
Never taken a lawful oath as a deputy.
He had spent two years performing police authority because his uncle allowed it.
Now those shortcuts became charges.
More importantly, Travis was afraid.
Not of prison.
Of Cameron.
That interested investigators.
Eventually Travis agreed to cooperate.
He admitted the attack on Emily had been planned as intimidation.
The broken legs were not part of the original plan.
Cameron escalated when Emily refused to reveal where she stored the garage video.
Travis testified that Sheriff Cole knew Cameron intended to “scare her.”
Whether Cole expected that level of violence became a legal question.
But one thing was no longer disputed.
The system around Cameron had protected him repeatedly.
Until enough people stopped.
Hannah.
Emily.
Ferris.
Travis, eventually.
Even Mercer began negotiating.
Corruption had looked enormous when everyone was silent.
Once people started talking—
it became a collection of frightened individuals protecting themselves.
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That did not make them harmless.
It made them beatable.
