Excluded and Uninvited novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: No Cause for Discipline

The review panel took ten minutes.

Three people sat at a long table in the fire district's conference room, with the chief at the end of it and a laptop open in front of her.

The captain sat beside me in his dress jacket.

Jo sat behind us with a notebook on her knee.

She had said she would take a record, and she did.

The chief did not look at her notes.

She looked at me.

"Mr. McPartland, the complaint against you has been withdrawn by the complainant," she said. "The complainant's account has been deleted."

"Yes, ma'am."

"We have viewed the bar's footage, and the statement of a witness, and a recording from a brewery on Second Street."

I glanced at Jo.

She stared at her notebook with great innocence.

"The panel finds no cause for discipline," the chief said. "Your leave ends today. You'll be back on shift Thursday."

I nodded.

I couldn't make my mouth do anything else.

"There's one more thing," the chief said, and slid a sheet of paper across the table.

It was the department's statement, one paragraph long.

It said that Paramedic Caleb McPartland had been the victim of a staged attack, that he had acted with courage, and that the department regretted the harm done to his name.

At the bottom the captain had signed it, and then, in small letters, so had the chief.

"I'm sorry it took this long," the captain said quietly.

"You gave me a Friday."

"I should have given you a week."

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