Chapter 16 - The Badge on the Table
Years later, Mercer returned.
He placed his old sheriff's badge on Dennis's kitchen table.
“Why bring this?”
“I almost threw it away.”
Dennis picked it up.
“Why didn't you?”
“Because Barnes made me ashamed of it.”
Dennis studied the metal.
“Barnes doesn't own what this means.”
Mercer looked at him.
“You believe that?”
“I've met cops who risked careers to tell the truth. I've met investigators who followed evidence when it was inconvenient.”
Dennis pushed the badge back.
“One corrupt sheriff doesn't get to define everyone who wears one.”
Mercer closed his fingers around it.
He later became an instructor in ethics and reporting procedures.
He told recruits about the worst decision of his career.
Signing a false statement.
And the second hardest.
Admitting it.
Dennis never attended those lectures.
May you like
He didn't need to.
The lesson belonged to Mercer now.
