“It’s a lieutenant with 50 witnesses and a JAG referral and two prior complaints in your record,” he said.
Reeves was quiet. The prior complaints. He had not expected them to be cited. They had been informally resolved.
They had been, in his understanding, managed and closed. “The incidents were informally resolved,” he said.
“They were informally managed,” Patterson said. “There’s a distinction.”
“Informally managed means they exist in your record,” he said, “as a pattern, a documented pattern that a JAG officer noted.”
“What does that mean for the investigation?” Reeves asked. “It means the investigation is not about one incident,” Patterson said.
“It’s about conduct, documented conduct across multiple documented incidents.” He paused. “Do you understand?” Reeves said yes.
He did not look like he fully understood, but he said yes, which was the only thing available to him.
He went back to Alpha Company. He sat in his office.
He thought about a cup of coffee and 50 witnesses and a report that had been filed while the reporting officer was still wet.
He had poured the coffee because he had been certain she would not file.
She had seemed, in his assessment, like someone who would absorb it. She had absorbed it in the motor pool.
She had not responded. She had walked away. What he had misread was what walking away meant.
For the other two informal complaints, walking away had meant what he thought it meant.
For Kaylee Brooks, walking away meant, “I am going to my office to document this correctly.”
It is one of the most expensive misreadings in this story…
