Day had been a notorious bachelor, but no one knew much about his personal life until he’d unexpectedly come out during his run for sheriff. It almost cost him the election too. Regardless, he was so well liked he’d been re-elected. At thirty-five he’d been the youngest and first openly gay sheriff ever elected in Tompkins County, and until this bullshit started it seemed like he was running his department well.

“Archer.” I stretched my hand to Day after he’d gone in for a backslap with Ron and kissed Cindy hello.

“You’ve been a hard man to pin down lately,” I said as we followed him to his office.

Like my own, it was sort of an ode to the seventies. Lots of wood paneling and bright carpeting, but it was large enough to accommodate us. Unlike mine, Day’s office was scrupulously tidy, everything in its place.

He sat down on the small round table in his office and leaned in the chair with his arms crossed over his chest. I wasn’t sure what vibe he was giving off, and I didn’t want to start on the wrong foot, so I thought about how to best get the conversation going.

This type of situation was always tricky for me. In a courtroom, there were no holds barred. I would come in guns blazing and do what I needed to do. But when it was colleagues, I had the tendency to let myself get mowed down. I didn’t want to hedge on this though, but before I could speak Ron did.

“So how are we going to get these little fuckers to realize they’re too stupid to know their implicit bias is making their decisions for them?”

“Ron!” That was Cindy.

Day’s face barely moved, but his neck was getting redder by the second. I put up my hands out trying to get people to calm down, knowing I couldn’t afford this meeting to go off the rails before we even started.

“Whitney, there’s a problem,” I said with the most conciliatory tone I could come up with after Ron’s outburst.

Day just looked at us, his expression inscrutable. I was starting to get a bit on edge from the stare down he was aiming at me when he finally opened his mouth. “I got a couple of young deputies who are a little overzealous and obviously need a little more training, but I’m not ready to call this a problem.” He looked genuinely puzzled, and even a little hurt. “I don’t recruit racists. The minute I hear anyone’s been using slurs or anything like that, there will be consequences.”

Ron’s mouth flattened at that and Cindy looked like she was really close to having another cardiac episode.