Chapter 8 - Walter Said He Had Been Cowardly In A Very Professional Way
Walter met me before sunrise.
Training yard.
Empty.
His cap sat on the patrol car.
Same one I had kicked.
“You wanted to talk.”
“I did yesterday.”
“You mostly accused.”
“Still counts.”
He almost smiled.
“Your mother told you.”
“Enough.”
“What did she say about me?”
“That you tried to fix the attribution three years later.”
Walter looked surprised.
“She told you that?”
“Yes.”
“Then she told you she refused.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
Good.
No need to protect her.
I asked:
“Why didn't you take your own name off?”
He looked toward the empty mats.
“Because by then the academy had built half the program around me.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is.”
“No. That’s context.”
Walter looked at me.
I had stolen that line from my mother without realizing.
He noticed too.
“She still talks like that?”
“Apparently.”
He sat on the patrol car bumper.
“I was thirty-eight.”
“So?”
“I had just been promoted.”
“Exactly.”
“Yes.”
I waited.
He continued.
“If I publicly said the academy had misattributed the technique, the first question would have been why I waited three years.”
“Good question.”
“Yes.”
“What was the answer?”
“I liked being the guy who fixed the program.”
That stopped me.
Not credit exactly.
Identity.
“Even though Mom built part of it.”
“Yes.”
“Even though Voss changed it.”
“Yes.”
Walter rubbed his hands together.
“I told myself I was preserving the safer version from inside.”
“Were you?”
“Somewhat.”
“And?”
“I also liked what the association did for my career.”
Finally.
No noble shield.
“What happened when the curriculum changed again?”
“Years later, another revision put the harder finish back in.”
“Who approved it?”
“A committee.”
“Voss?”
“He chaired it.”
“Did you object?”
“Yes.”
“Publicly?”
“Inside the committee.”
“Same problem.”
“Yes.”
He did not fight.
That made it harder to keep attacking.
“Why keep teaching?”
“Because if I left, someone else would teach the whole thing exactly as written.”
“That sounds noble.”
“It was also convenient.”
Good.
He continued.
“I could stay. Keep the title. Quietly teach the part I believed was safer.”
“And tell yourself that was enough.”
“Yes.”
A police cruiser moved somewhere beyond the fence.
Morning shift.
“Reed says someone was injured three months ago.”
Walter’s jaw tightened.
“I know.”
“Did you teach that officer?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Another instructor under the current manual.”
“Did you report the connection?”
“Yes.”
“To Voss.”
“What did he do?”
“Ordered an internal review.”
“Which found?”
“Training error.”
“Not curriculum.”
“No.”
“And that’s why Reed is here.”
“Yes.”
I looked at the cap.
“You knew this was coming.”
“No.”
“But you knew it could.”
“Yes.”
“What did Mom say when you told her I was in your class?”
Walter looked at me.
“She said not to punish you for being hers.”
I swallowed.
“And?”
“I said I wouldn't.”
“You read my file anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To see whether you were like her.”
My anger returned.
“That’s punishing me in advance.”
“Not necessarily.”
“Did you find what you wanted?”
Walter almost smiled.
“Unfortunately.”
I stared.
He continued.
“Smart. Confrontational. Convinced refusing help is the same thing as independence.”
I wanted to argue.
Couldn't quickly.
Then Walter picked up his cap.
“You also came onto my yard already knowing my name.”
I froze.
He saw it.
“Your mother never told you what happened?”
“Not details.”
“But enough to dislike me.”
I looked away.
“I knew you were the guy she used to call Captain Compromise.”
Walter laughed.
Actually laughed.
“That sounds like Dana.”
“So yes.”
“You kicked my cap because of that?”
“Partly.”
His smile disappeared.
“Then put that in your own report.”
“What report?”
“Professional standards wants statements about yesterday.”
My stomach tightened.
“You reporting me?”
“You kicked equipment out of an instructor’s hand, shoulder-checked me, then swung after being uncuffed.”
All true.
“You want me out?”
“No.”
“What do you want?”
May you like
Walter looked at me.
“For once in this entire mess, I want somebody to put their own name on what they did.”
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