Photographs.
Bank records.
Copies of dispatch logs.
Names.
Thirty years of corruption.
Tyler looks at his father.
“You had all this.”
“Not enough to convict Pike back then.”
“What about now?”
Mara turns a page.
“Now we have Vance’s recording.”
She looks at Walker.
“And Dolan.”
Walker glances at her.
“If he talks.”
“He will.”
Tyler shakes his head.
“You could’ve brought this forward years ago.”
Walker looks at Elizabeth’s grave.
“Yes.”
Tyler can’t contain himself anymore.
“You keep admitting things like that makes them better.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then why?”
“Because lying to you would make it worse.”
Tyler steps closer.
“You taught me what the badge meant.”
“I know.”
“You stood at graduations. Funerals. Schools. Told everybody in this county that law matters.”
“I know.”
“And all that time you were sitting on this?”
Walker faces him.
“Yes.”
Tyler punches him.
Hard.
Walker stumbles backward.
Mara moves.
Walker raises one hand.
“Don’t.”
Tyler breathes heavily.
His father wipes blood from his lip.
“I deserved that.”
Tyler’s eyes fill.
“No. That’s the problem.”
His voice breaks.
“I don’t know what you deserve.”
Walker looks at him.
“Neither do I.”
Tyler turns away.
Walker speaks behind him.
“But you don’t have to decide tonight.”
Headlights appear between the trees.
Several vehicles.
Mara immediately draws her weapon.
“Company.”
Walker looks toward the road.
Black SUVs.
Pike.
“Take the evidence.”
Tyler turns.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you time.”
“No.”
Walker pulls his old service revolver.
“You and Mara get to the north gate.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
Walker smiles sadly.
“Now you sound like me.”
The SUVs stop.
Armed men step out.
Tyler counts six.
Then Vernon Pike emerges.
Sixty-four.
Expensive coat.
White hair.
The appearance of a respectable man who has spent decades ensuring other people commit his crimes.
“Daniel!”
His voice carries across the cemetery.
“Let’s stop pretending.”
Walker steps into the road.
Tyler grabs his arm.
“Dad.”
Walker looks at him.
“Your mother made me promise one thing before she died.”
“What?”
“That I’d raise you into a better man than me.”
Tyler shakes his head.
“Don’t make this goodbye.”
“I’m not.”
Walker hands him the sheriff’s star.
“I’m making it an order.”
Tyler looks at the badge in his palm.
Walker pushes him toward Mara.
“Go.”
Tyler and Mara move through the cemetery carrying the evidence tube.
Behind them, Walker walks toward Pike.
The two men meet among the graves.
Pike smiles.
“Still trying to be righteous?”
Walker raises his revolver.
“Getting there.”
“You had eighteen years.”
“Some men are slow learners.”
Pike glances toward the north end of the cemetery.
“Your boy has the records.”
Walker says nothing.
Pike nods.
“Good.”
Walker frowns.
“Good?”
Pike smiles.
“I was hoping he would.”
Walker’s face changes.
He understands too late.
This isn’t about destroying the records.
It is about Tyler.
Again.
Pike raises one hand.
The armed men ignore Walker.
They run toward the north gate.
Walker fires.
One drops.
Gunfire erupts.
Tyler hears shots behind him.
He stops.
Mara grabs him.
“Keep moving!”
“My dad—”
“Did this so you could move!”
They reach the north gate.
A patrol car is waiting.
Tyler recognizes it.