Page 68 of Logan’s Way

Angus arrived at the county administration building fifteen minutes early and sat in his truck, watching other vehicles pull in—people whose Monday mornings didn’t include accounting for choices that had seemed necessary at the time but looked like insubordination in official reports.

At ten fifty-five, he walked through the glass doors into the lobby. The security guard directed him to the third floor, conference room C, where the administrative review panel would be waiting.

Carol Henderson met him outside the conference room, her expression professional but not unkind.

“Sheriff Reid,” she said, offering her hand. “Thank you for being punctual.”

“Carol.”

“The panel consists of three members: myself representing Human Resources, Deputy Director Calloway from County Administration, and an external reviewer from the State Law Enforcement Standards Board. They’ve reviewed your file, the incident reports, and the documentation we discussed on the phone. This hearing is your opportunity to respond.”

“I understand.”

“The process is straightforward. They’ll ask questions. You answer. When they’re satisfied they have sufficient information, they’ll excuse you while they deliberate. You’ll be called back in for the decision.” She paused, her voice lowering slightly. “I meant what I said on Friday. The evidence is substantial. But the panel is fair. They want to understand what happened, not just document violations.”

Angus nodded, and Carol opened the conference room door.

The room was smaller than he’d expected—a rectangular table, six chairs, windows overlooking the parking lot he’d just left. Three people sat on one side of the table: Carol in the center, a man in his fifties with graying hair and reading glasses to her left, and a woman roughly Angus’s age in law enforcement dress blues to her right.

Carol made introductions. “Sheriff Angus Reid, this is Deputy Director Douglas Calloway and Commander Brenda Kovak from the State Law Enforcement Standards Board. Please, have a seat.”

Angus sat across from them, hands resting on the table, his posture neither defensive nor casual. Present. Accountable.

Deputy Director Calloway opened a folder in front of him and began without preamble.

“Sheriff Reid, this review concerns a pattern of decisions made during your leave of absence from active duty. We’re not here to relitigate the circumstances that led to that leave, but to assess whether the choices you made during that period indicate you can no longer function effectively within departmental guidelines.” He looked up. “Do you understand the distinction?”

“I do.”

“Good.” Calloway consulted his notes. “During your leave, you accessed restricted case files through your credentials which, while not technically revoked, were understood to be suspended during the administrative review period. Can you explain why you accessed those files?”

Angus kept his voice steady. “I was following up on a missing persons investigation that had originated during my active duty. The case involved potential connections to other open investigations, and I believed reviewing those files was necessary to understand the full scope of what I was looking at.”

“The files you accessed included sealed records from cases predating your tenure as sheriff,” Commander Kovak said, her tone neutral. “Cases that had been closed by the previous administration. What prompted you to access those specific files?”

“Pattern recognition. The missing persons case I was investigating showed similarities to incidents that had occurred years earlier. I needed to confirm whether those similarities were coincidental or indicative of something larger.”

“And were they?” Calloway asked.

“They were indicative of something larger.”

“Which you pursued outside official channels.”

“Yes.”

Calloway made a note. “You also made contact with several individuals involved in active investigations being handled by other members of your department. Deputy Garcia documented at least three instances where you interacted with subjects or witnesses without coordinating through proper channels. Why?”

Angus chose his words carefully. “In two instances, the individuals contacted me directly seeking information or assistance. I provided what help I could without interfering with Deputy Garcia’s active investigations. In the third instance, I encountered the individual during the course of my own investigation. The contact was incidental, not deliberate.”

“Did you document these contacts?” Kovak asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I was on leave. I didn’t have access to departmental systems for filing reports, and I believed the contacts were informal enough not to warrant documentation.”

Carol leaned forward slightly. “Sheriff Reid, several witnesses have indicated you were conducting what appeared to be an active investigation while officially on leave. You visited locations, interviewed subjects, and followed leads in ways that looked identical to normal investigative procedure. Can you explain how this differs from insubordination?”