NASHVILLE, Tenn. – If nothing else, and there was plenty else, the police report describes a woman hiding from her boyfriend in the bushes in the dark. That is the image that lingers.

It is one version of a single moment on a terrible night, in what is presented in a tidy timeline and more likely was a heartsick smear, if it went down that way at all. The alleged events on the night of Oct. 30 at Aroldis Chapman’s house brought the police, and more than a month later brought Major League Baseball, which is where the story starts again.

Barely three months ago MLB and the players’ union agreed to the sport’s first domestic violence policy. As of Tuesday, three players were under investigation – Yasiel Puig, Jose Reyes and Chapman, all for alleged incidents over a four-week period.

The latest, Chapman, comes with a pending trade, a case only just landing on the desks of league investigators and a still untested policy that allows for counseling, psychological evaluation, discipline and appeal, if not necessarily clarity.

What really happened on that night in Davie, Fla.? And, to some extent, who is Aroldis Chapman? That’s what the policy is charged with revealing, which it probably can’t come close to. Then, what sort of penalty, if any, comes with those answers?

It is an imperfect system that must judge a seemingly imperfect night, along with the actions of an imperfect man, and that goes as well for Puig and Reyes. (MLB seems sure that Puig’s case will be resolved soon, in Puig’s favor.) The league won’t have its players assaulting others, not in their homes or anywhere, and in Chapman’s case will lean on a police report and a he-said, she-said description of the events, none of which convinced the police at the time to make an arrest, and then what comes of their own attempts to investigate.

“We knew before it was going to be difficult,” said Dan Halem, the league’s chief legal officer. “There is a challenge to investigate these kinds of incidents. You have to just kind of work at it.”

That said, he added, “We understand the need to complete these as quickly as possible.”

Under the terms of the domestic violence policy, commissioner Rob Manfred can impose suspensions or other sanctions as he sees fit. (Those can be appealed by the player.) There do not yet appear to be guidelines, in terms of the length of the suspensions tied to certain acts or intentions.

“It depends where the facts lead us,” Halem said.

He said he hoped to close the investigations before spring training, but there was no firm timetable. They haven’t done this before.

“There’s no grass growing under anyone’s feet here,” said Joe Torre, the league’s chief baseball officer. “It’s too important an issue not to pay attention to.”

And yet, he added, “We want to make sure we follow the protocol that needs to be followed.

“As awful as the situation is, there are still rights that need to be protected. We’re careful to respect that and get all the information and we will proceed accordingly.”

The league was made aware of the police report involving Chapman on Monday night.

“We want to be sure we do the right thing,” Torre said.