Chapter 11 - THE PEOPLE WHO HAD HELPED WITHOUT KNOWING
Cassidy did not speak to Frank for two days after learning what Brock had said.
Not because of Brock.
Because the strategy Trent used had worked only because people already found it easier to explain Cassidy than listen to her.
Megan had believed him.
Brock had believed him.
Frank had believed him.
Even Cassidy had started questioning herself.
She remembered standing in her own kitchen while Trent calmly told Brock she had been drinking.
Instead of screaming that he was lying, she had tried to sound reasonable.
Quiet.
Controlled.
Safe.
“I was performing sanity in my own house,” she told her therapist.
That sentence stayed with her.
Brock’s administrative case moved separately from the criminal investigation.
He remained on leave.
The department stated only that his conduct was being reviewed.
No dramatic firing.
No public spectacle.
Just interviews, policies, timelines, lawyers.
Frank found the slowness infuriating.
Cassidy did not.
“I spent years wanting everything fixed in one conversation,” she said. “That’s part of how Trent kept getting away with it.”
The criminal case against Trent also developed gradually.
Investigators had Cassidy’s medical records, her statement, Lydia’s professionally conducted interview, the neighbor’s observations, communications showing Trent’s efforts to characterize Cassidy as unstable, and Brock’s account of the earlier visit.
It was enough to move forward.
But not enough to undo the damage.
One evening Frank apologized again.
Cassidy shook her head.
“Stop apologizing like the right sentence gets you back where we were.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Be different when there isn’t a crisis.”
Frank nodded.
He could repair equipment.
Replace lumber.
Write checks.
May you like
This required something harder.
Waiting long enough for somebody else to decide whether he had changed.
