“Do I what?”
“Forgive me.”
Iris closed her eyes briefly.
“I don’t know.”
Hollister said nothing.
She continued.
“I don’t need to know.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means forgiveness is not part of your compliance plan.”
He laughed unexpectedly.
Iris almost did too.
“Keep doing the work.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s plenty.”
Five years passed.
Ridgemont completed federal monitoring successfully.
Not perfectly.
Successfully.
Independent auditors confirmed substantial compliance.
The consent agreement ended.
The city held a ceremony.
Iris refused to attend.
Marcus asked why.
“Because compliance with constitutional policing should not require balloons.”
“There are no balloons.”
“You know what I mean.”
“They want to thank you.”
“They should thank the residents who complained before anyone listened.”
Marcus nodded.
“So you’re not going.”
“No.”
She went anyway.
Not to the ceremony.
To Main Street.
She stood outside the bookstore.
Bought coffee.
Walked toward the courthouse.
The same route.
This time no one stopped her.
At the department entrance, a plaque had been installed.
Not about Iris.
She would have hated that.
The plaque displayed the department’s revised oath of service.
One line read:
AUTHORITY EXISTS TO PROTECT RIGHTS, NOT TO REPLACE THEM.
Iris stood there longer than expected.
Chief Keller approached behind her.
“You like it?”
“It’s a plaque.”
He laughed.
“You hate ceremonial things.”
“Mostly.”
“We stole the line from your report.”
“I noticed.”
“You going to sue?”
“I’ll consider it.”
Keller had announced retirement.
Davis would become lieutenant.
A new chief had been selected from outside the department.
Keller looked toward the street.
“I wish I’d acted earlier.”
Iris said nothing.
“I keep thinking about those complaints.”
“Good.”
“You always say that.”
“Regret can be useful.”
“Davis says that too.”
“He stole it from me.”
Keller smiled.
Then became serious.
“You think we changed enough?”
Iris looked toward officers coming and going.
“There is no enough.”
“That’s depressing.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“It means institutions require maintenance.”
Keller stared at her.
“You make democracy sound like plumbing.”
“It often is.”
He laughed.
They said goodbye.
Iris returned to Washington.
Her career continued.
New investigations.
Different towns.
Different departments.
Different institutions.
Some cases involved discrimination.
Others excessive force.
Some retaliation.
Some failed complaint systems.
Some ended with no systemic finding at all.
Iris learned to be comfortable with that.
An investigation was not successful because it proved wrongdoing.
It was successful because it found what evidence supported.
Years later, she became Deputy Director.