“I don’t think your son has given you the full picture about Monday.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He’s not under arrest,” Daniels said.

“Nobody’s being arrested here.

But there’s a situation involving a transaction, and there’s somebody who needs to speak to both of you, and I’d ask you to come with us.”

And Officer Cooper, who was younger and who I later learned had been out of the academy fourteen months, said the sentence that got repeated in our town for a year, and that I am now fairly sure he had not thought through.

“You need to hear the truth about what your son set in motion.”