“Why?”

Herrick put on a small show of bluster. “Everybody’s entitled to some privacy, aren’t they? I’m not gonna mess with ’em just ’cause they wanna be left alone.”

“That’s commendable,” Joe commented. “Tricky, though, given that he bought a huge estate and had a mansion built. No one ever set eyes on him or dealt with him directly?”

“They didn’t have to,” Herrick said. “He had his own people, and I played interference now and then. He made it worth my while to moonlight a little. It helped move things along.”

“You ever meet his wife?”

The answer was curt. “Sure.”

A topic Joe planned to return to. “Tell us,” he requested instead, “what Shaw was doing at your house when we arrived.”

Herrick relaxed again as he feigned ignorance. “How do I know? He had a computer. I know squat about those. Ask my guys. They’ll tell you I avoid ’em like the plague. Shaw came by, asked if he could use my living room. I said sure, and then you people showed up in town, and he told me to stay put. That’s why you found me at home. I have no clue what he was doing.”

Joe nodded silently, allowing Willy to speak. “You’re fucking lying,” he said quietly. “How long you been on the job?”

Herrick flushed but answered the question, pointing at them as he answered, “Thirty years, so don’t think I don’t know good cop, bad cop when I see it. I might as well’ve written the book.”

“Comic book is more like it,” Willy countered. “You don’t think we didn’t tear your poor excuse of a police station apart before this sit-down? First rule of interrogation, Clyde: do your homework. What we got against you’ll put you in jail for decades, and that’s before we hit you with all the shit you pulled with Shaw. You don’t have to cooperate right now. You can pretend you’re God Almighty and flip us off.” Willy leaned forward to emphasize, “But we will bury you if you do.”

“Oooh,” Herrick mocked him. “Now I am scared.”

Joe spoke as if nothing had been said. “Nine years ago, Clyde, one of your patrol officers—now long gone to another agency—stopped Lemuel Shaw as he was receiving oral sex from an underage boy.” Joe slid a document across the table from a folder before him. “This is an affidavit from that officer, attesting to the fact that he later submitted that report to you for processing, and that you told him not to worry, because you would do the rest.”

“Nine years ago?” Herrick asked, his forehead suddenly shining in the bright overhead light. “How’m I supposed to remember that?”

“Do you know Dillon Rowe?” Joe asked.

Herrick hesitated.

“Careful,” Willy cautioned. “Could be a trick question.”

The chief glowered. “He’s one of my officers. Not a good one, but he has a pulse.”

Joe presented a second document. “This is another affidavit, written by Officer Rowe, stating how he discovered the paperwork about that stop nine years ago, tucked out of sight and never acted upon, presumably where you’d put it to keep it available but out of circulation.”