Harmony Wright poisoned much of the ground in the Kate Meadows case very early on. She was Shirley Stanley’s original partner. She was one of the longest serving cops in Berlin. She should’ve known better. But she’d simply been a bad cop her whole career.
She ignored most of what was discovered by later investigations. She didn’t have the first clue how the sword had entered the picture, that it had been in the family for generations. She heard that it had been in the pawn shop, and that was enough. That was how it entered the record, and that’s how it stayed.
She sketched out Kate’s relationship with Tommy Bishop and Tom Malkovich. She knew what everyone always assumes, that the simplest, easiest story is usually the right one. Everyone in town already knew, had already been talking about Bishop, about Malkovich, and it was Harmony who entered that into the record, too. Shirley Stanley had no idea how many preconceived notions she was guided along. She trusted Harmony. Why wouldn’t she?
All this was in the earliest days. It was Harmony who led the investigation into the disappearance, who was the point of contact when the nation caught wind of the missing persons case, when Kate’s face was plastered all over the news and people were sympathetic mostly because she was an attractive young woman, and Bishop just came off as sketchy, and Malkovich, creepy. Love triangle. One of the oldest stories in the book, right?
Harmony had been there for the other disappearances. She’d covered the Priscilla Foster case. She was the expert. Everyone trusted her.
When Kate turned up dead and it was officially ruled a tragedy, a murder, no one stopped to wonder why it was Harmony hadn’t been able to prevent it. Except that she hadn’t accounted for the timeline of events, she hadn’t bothered to do much more than sketch what anyone could’ve sketched.
Except Shirley Stanley. It was Shirley who finally confronted Harmony. They’d had disagreements, here and there, all along, really, and Harmony had put them down to Shirley’s inexperience. Harmony had a temper, and she tended to handle all problems the same way, by getting mad and elevating the situation. But then, she worked in a small town like Berlin. She’d always been able to hide. Shirley had always been told she was the problem.
When the questions from other investigations started filtering their way into the station, Harmony was asked to step down. It was handled like an early retirement. She was allowed to keep her dignity.
The damage, though, had already been done. Malkovich, particularly, had already been in one holding cell or facility for months, for close to a year, had sat in various courtrooms, had been demonized around the country. Bishop had lost his job, had been ostracized by his family, and was in fact now homeless. These are things that don’t show up in the news. He was now an addict.
And Harmony Wright sat comfortably at home. She still thought she was right. And not one person affected by her decisions ever bothered her thoughts. She was probably the one person in the country who didn’t even know what Kate Meadows looked like.
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