As he neared downtown, the traffic thickened. Sirens flashed ahead. People were already abandoning cars and walking toward the commotion with phones in their hands. Elias felt anger rise in his chest, but he pushed it down. Anger would not help Mara. The city didn’t understand what it was watching. To them, she was a spectacle. To Elias, she was a terrified animal, one bad sound away from disaster. By the time he reached the police barrier, the crowd had doubled.
The street looked wrong to Elias the moment he stepped out of his truck. Patrol cars blocked both ends of the road. People stood behind loose police tape, filming, whispering, laughing nervously. Above them, Mara clung to a sycamore tree outside a bakery, her body pressed hard against the trunk. She was higher than he expected.