I heard Cindy sigh heavily from behind me as we made our way to the elevator. “Cindy you really need to go home, this is going to get you worked up, seriously.” She waved me off as I turned to Ron, who was looking more pissed by the second.

“Which deputy was it?”

Ron just shook his head, his face grim. “Chief Cooker’s youngest.” My heart sank.

“Fuck.” Cindy’s curse rang out in the hallway outside the DA’s office.

Cooker had been the head of the Ithaca Police Department for almost twenty years, and had only recently retired. For the most part he had run his department well, and was respected... Unfortunately, his children seemed to only be interested in ruining their father’s legacy.

I shook my head in disgust as we walked into my office, because no matter what, this was going to be a shit show. “Awesome,” I said, my voice heavy with sarcasm. “I went to elementary school with his brothers and they were assholes even back then. Seems like the youngest one is trying to emulate his older siblings. I’m going to call Sheriff Day.”

Cindy’s eyes widened at that and I held up my hand. “Cindy, I know that it’s hard for you to be hands off, but I am interim DA and you need to be resting. I will handle this.” I took my phone out and sighed.

Ron scoffed as I fiddled with it. “Cooker’s kids are not the only ones that could use a talking to in that department,” Ron said, frustrated.

Ron’s wife was black and they were raising two biracial teenage boys. Of course this type of bullshit was going to rattle him. “Nothing is going to change until people start being held accountable and there’s an honest conversation about biases in that department.”

“Agreed,” I said, wondering how Day was taking this. He was a friend, but since he’d barely secured his last run for sheriff after coming out as gay during the campaign, I knew he’d been walking a very thin line. “Day’s a reasonable guy, we can talk to him about this frankly, but we need to know how to approach it.”

Ron shoved his hands in his pockets and looked between Cindy and me. “I want to burn shit down.” Cindy balked at that and Ron shook his head. “But I know my role here, and I will defer to you.” His conciliatory tone did little to mask how distressed he was. “Stuff like this is becoming a common occurrence again, and I don’t like it.”

Cindy groaned as I called Day’s personal number. This was not the first time I’d checked in with him about issues happening in our jurisdiction, so when he practically barked that he couldn’t talk right, I was taken aback.

I was still trying to figure out how to respond, when he exhaled, and spoke again, this time not as aggressive, but no less distressed. “I know why you’re calling and I’m going to take care of it.”