"You could have told me the plan wasn't going smoothly, " Addie says. It was going exactly the way these things always go. Slow. Slow. Almost got you arrested today.
I had it handled. Josie repeats. Softer this time. Addie sigh, leaning her head back against the car door. I got assigned to this district 3 weeks ago, she says.
I've been building a file on Whitmore construction the whole time. Fraud complaints, land disputes, a few things that don't add up. I know. Josie says that's part of why I came here first. I wanted to see them up close before you showed up with a badge.
See if the rumors match the people. And Addie asks, "They're worse than the rumors, " Josie says quietly. "And better in small ways, too. Not everyone here is like Grant. Some of them are just scared.
" Addie nods slowly, watching the diner lights glow through the window. "Dad used to say that. " She says, "Fear and cruelty aren't always the same thing. Sometimes fear just looks like cruelty from the outside. " Josie is quiet for a moment.
Do you think Frank really knew him? I think we're about to find out, Addie says. Come on, let's go talk to him properly. They find Frank sitting alone on a bench outside, hands folded in his lap. He looks up as they approach, older somehow than he did an hour ago.
I owe you both an explanation, he says. A long overdue one. We'd like to hear it, Addie says, sitting down beside him. Josie sits on his other side, quiet, waiting. Frank is silent for a moment, gathering himself.
Your father was the best sheriff this county ever had. He starts fair, honest. Never once took a shortcut, even when it cost him. About 9 years ago, he started asking questions about a Whitmore project. Land records that didn't match up.
Permits signed off too fast. He never got to finish that investigation. I remember the night before it happened, Frank adds quietly. He came by my house late. Said he'd found something in the county records.
Wouldn't tell me exactly what. Said he wanted to be sure first. Said he'd show me in the morning over coffee like always. That morning never came. The accident, Josie says quietly.
That's what we were always told. That's what the file says. Frank agrees. I never believed it. Not fully.
The the skid marks were wrong. The timing was wrong. Too many things didn't fit. But the case closed within a month and I was young. I had a family, a badge.
I wasn't ready to lose. I told myself it wasn't my place to push. His voice cracks slightly on the last few words. I've carried that decision for 9 years, he says. It never got lighter.
Addie reaches over and rests a hand on his arm. You were scared, she says. That doesn't make you a bad man. It makes me a man who chose safety over your father, Frank says. That's a hard thing to forgive myself for.