Jent Robert Shea arrived at 12:03. He was younger than Stone had imagined from the voice 41 with a lean contained manner and the kind of eyes that processed information quickly without broadcasting what they found. He shook Stone's hand sat down. It's in coffee accepted once spent the first 20 minutes going through what Stone had assembled the accounts. In the payment records in the timeline.
The video when he watched the video twice. When the second viewing finished, he set the tablet down. Harrington, he said, has been on a federal watch list for 14 months. Don looked at him. Financial irregularities, she said.
Deposits that didn't match his salary. We had the pattern, but not the source. You've built me here is the source. He looked at the documentation. 11 victims.
Some payments going back three years. Video evidence of property destruction and witness intimidation. He checked his notes. An active duty officer willing to testify regarding fabricated evidence. He looked up.
Mr. Walker, you have built a case. We built it. Stone said in this town built it. Shea nodded. The people in this town built it.
He agreed. With your help. He spent the next hour going through everything methodically, asking precise questions, making notes in a way that told Stone he had done this many times and was very good at it. 145, Anna came back in. At 2011, Officer Danny Reeves walked through the door of the Last Ride Tavern in civilian clothes and asked for coffee at him.
29 years old, maybe 30, tired eyes. He sat at the bar with his hands around the mug and he looked like a man who had not slept in a week and had recently made a decision that was costing him something real. Him Stone introduced him to Shay. He watched Reeves look at the federal badge and swallow hard and then square his shoulders in the specific way of someone who has decided to do something difficult and is now committed to seeing it through thing. You told Mr. Walker this morning.
Shea said to Reeves, "I need you to tell me." Record from the beginning. Reeves looked at Stone once. He nodded just barely. Reeves turned back to Shay.
I'll start from the first time I understood what Harrington was doing. Reeves said 14 months ago. There was an incident with the diner on Main Street. Talking. He talked for 2 hours.
What came out of those two hours was not just the confirmation of everything Stone had documented more. Reeves had been present for things that none of the business owners had been in a pos in a position to see. He knew about the arrangement with Sheriff Buell. He knew the name of the judge who had signed the fraudulent warrant that had enabled the bar inspection. He knew about two other deputies who had participated in the operation and one who had refused and been quietly transferred to a different assignment to keep him quiet.
He had dates, names, stationation fragments that he had committed to memory. With the precise recall of a man who had known somewhere underneath his fear that he would eventually need them. When Reeves finally stopped talking, Shea looked at his notes for a long moment. Then he looked up and said, "You're a brave man." Officer Reeves shook his head. "
I'm a man who waited too long," he said. " It's a difference." " You're here now," Anna said quietly from behind the counter. Been there for most of the interview, staying back, staying out of the way, but present in the way she always was. You've looked at her. "
Yeah," he said. " I'm here now." Jay began making calls. He stepped outside to make most of them. Coming back in periodically to ask Stone a clarifying question or confirm a detail was on the phone for 90 minutes.
Stone did not ask who he was calling stood that the mechanism had been engaged and was now operating under its own momentum and his job at this point was to stay available and stay out of the way through the sun was going down by the time she came back in and sat down. Arrest warrant for deputy Harrington will be issued within 24 hours. Shea said aneously Sheriff Buell will be placed on administrative leave pending investigation. The judge who signed the fraudulent warrant has been flagged to the state judiciary commission. He paused.
I want to be direct with you about what happens next. This is going to be public. It's going to be in the news. The the people in this town who gave you their accounts are going to be named eventually and they need to be prepared for that. Stone said and the gathering?
Shea said carefully. That's still happening tomorrow morning. Stone said I at dawn. Shea looked at him steadily. And to ask you one thing, he said.
Ask. Stone said peaceful. Shea said what you've built here is solid. The case is real. Harrington is going to be arrested.
One is going to work this time because you forced it to, but it's going to work. The last thing you need is anything that allows anyone to reframe this as something other than what it is, which which is a community standing up against documented corruption. You met his gaze. I've already given that instruction, he said. " No violence, no threats."
We are there so the truth cannot be buried. Shea studied him. Done. You know, he said, "In 19 years, you think I have ever seen a private citizen build a federal case this clean?" Don looked at him. "
I had good people," he said. She nodded. He closed his notebook, capped his pen, and stood. Shea left. The bar was quiet.