"No, it's very personal," Alex replied. "He looks at you as his son. He'd be proud if you'd take the chief job."

Ben rolled his eyes. Alex wouldn't stop bringing it up.

"What, Ben?" she said. "Everyone wants you to take it. You want them to bring in someone from the outside? How will that go over?"

"I told you, I'll think about it. There's no rush."

"I think you should talk to Dad about it."

He and Lars had been spending a good deal of time together. More in the past few weeks than in the past ten years. Lars knew that if Ben put his mind to it, he could blame Lars for all that had happened to his family. After all, it had been the sham Lars ran on Harlan Lee that had begun the entire series of events. Another one of those chain reactions, Ben thought.

Lars had tried his best to discuss it with Ben, to explain how the everything had gotten out of control. How it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. How police work had changed. Most of all, how he now understood that no one ever knows how his actions today might affect events years, decades down the road.

The two men had been sitting alone on the porch of the convalescent center looking out over the pond surrounded by grass grown long over the summer months. "It's over, Lars. What happened then has nothing to do with us now. From now on, we look ahead."

The old man reached out just the same and put his hand on Ben's cheek. The words were coarse but clear. "I'm sorry, Ben. Sorry for everything."

Alex's voice brought Ben back to the present.

"What do you hear from Tia? How's she coming along?"

"I talked to her this morning. She said it felt good to speak English. She plans on staying on with her parents for a couple more weeks, but Jalisco isn't Newberg and she's just about ready to get back to work. She told me to say hello."

"And the case against McKenzie. Is Dad going to have to testify?"

"Naw. McKenzie's not that stupid. He's going to cop a plea."

Alex shook her head. "Could've been me, Benny. A life in a prison cell."

"But it isn't you." Ben put his arm around his wife. "That isn't your life. This is." He gazed out past the quiet backyard to the warmly lit houses nearby. "We could do worse, right?"

Alex looked at her husband, tears welling in her eyes. "Thanks, Benny. I'll never stop thanking you. I could've..." Her voice broke.

"Alex, we go through this every night. You've said enough. I know. I-"

She cut him off with a hand to his lips. She caressed the jagged red scar that trickled down his forehead and breezed the back of her hand across the uneven rise that marked the healing fracture of his cheek. The subtle changes to his expression served as physical testimony to his trial and victory.

"No. You don't know, Ben. You'll never know."

He knew better than to argue with his wife. He understood her gratitude and it meant the world to him. He lightly touched her stomach and thought of the life growing inside her. He put his arm around her and looked into her eyes until she lowered her head onto his shoulder. Alex nuzzled his neck, and he breathed deep to smell her hair and skin. They sat together on the porch swing of their home, and his focus fell on the billion stars of the clear Wisconsin sky. He held his wife and thought again of all they had been through, everything that had brought them to this place. To this point in their lives. He decided that when all was said and done, he wouldn't change a thing. And with that, he pulled his wife a little closer, held her a little tighter, and enjoyed a moment of silent perfection.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Growing up in west-central Wisconsin on a steady diet of Joseph Wambaugh novels and episodes of Police Story, Neal Griffin always wanted to be a cop. A former marine, Griffin has been a police officer in California for more than twenty-five years. Since his days on patrol, he's been a field training officer, tactical operations team leader, hostage negotiator, narcotics investigator, gang enforcement specialist, and supervisor of a homicide unit.

Griffin received special recognition from the FBI for capturing a serial bank robber and is a graduate of the prestigious FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia-an invitation-only program for senior law-enforcement professionals from around the world.

He's a master instructor in law-enforcement leadership and ethics and has created training materials used by police departments throughout the United States. Articles written by Griffin on police ethics and the relationship between the police and communities they serve have appeared in Police Chief magazine, on CNN.com, and in more than seventy newspapers.

He holds a political science degree from California State University. Neal Griffin is married to Olga Diaz, and they have four children. They travel regularly and often return to Neal's beloved Wisconsin.

nealgriffin.com.

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BY NEAL GRIFFIN.

Benefit of the Doubt.

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