that evening in his apartment , he spent a large chunk of time trying to reason through everything.-the sheriff did n't really have a `` chief deputy '' as such.-maybe he could understand now why finkley seemed to be sort of a loner.-if he had gotten very chummy with anyone , they might have figured out he was on the take.-a second in command would have possibly been privy to too much information that the sheriff could n't afford to have revealed.-damn , he hated a crooked cop ! -they gave the decent officers a bad name and ruined the credibility of the entire force.-that , in turn , had an adverse impact on their effectiveness .