State Police

The State Police are a law-enforcement organization whose role in the novel is shown chiefly through Paul Duffy, an investigator and friend of Andrew Barber. Duffy’s actions make the institution’s authority consequential in two different ways: he testifies against Jacob, helping expose the family to the prospect of a life sentence, and later undertakes a personal project when the family’s lawyer cannot make progress locally. That shift does not restore his friendship with Andrew, but it complicates the boundary between professional duty and personal allegiance.

Institutional Role and Professional Boundaries

The State Police enter a story in which professional roles are repeatedly strained by personal ties. Andrew, a prosecutor whose son attends the school at the center of the case, faces questions about whether he can handle the investigation; the conflict makes clear that the authority to investigate or prosecute is not separate from the risk of perceived bias. The novel’s attention to those boundaries places State Police work within a larger contest over who can act, whose interests they serve, and how public confidence is affected when a case touches an official’s family.

The school investigation also illustrates the practical constraints surrounding law enforcement. In testimony, Andrew explains that investigators did not initially interview the victim’s classmates because of delays and disputes over access to the school, whether interviews required lawyers to be present, whether investigators could enter the building and lockers without a warrant, and which students could be interviewed. The account presents investigative work not as unrestricted authority but as a process shaped by legal and community objections.

Paul Duffy and the Case Against Jacob

Duffy is the organization’s most visible representative in the supplied episodes. His State Police affiliation is made explicit when he arrives at the Barber home in plain clothes, wearing a State Police windbreaker and carrying a badge. He intervenes as Andrew confronts a man outside the house, telling Andrew to go back inside before approaching the man himself. The episode shows Duffy acting with the authority and resources of his office, even as Andrew’s reaction is complicated by their damaged relationship.

That damage stems from Duffy’s testimony against Jacob. Andrew understands that Duffy did what he believed necessary in testifying, but he also recognizes the stakes: if Jacob were sent to prison for life, Duffy would have helped put him there. Andrew can no longer regard Duffy as an enemy, yet believes they will never again be friends. Their encounter leaves the institutional act and its private cost side by side, with neither man directly addressing what has happened between them.

Personal Intervention and Aftermath

After Jacob’s case, Duffy tells Andrew that Jacob’s lawyer had contacted him because he was making no progress in Newton or Cambridge. Duffy says he took up the matter as a personal project. His intervention therefore sits outside the simple opposition between prosecutor and defense: he had testified against Jacob, but later chose to help the family when its lawyer encountered local obstacles.

The gesture does not erase the consequences of the case. The Barbers remain socially isolated in Newton, where neighbors are unsettled by the evidence and by Jacob’s family history even after the trial ends abruptly. They do not send him back to school; instead, he is homeschooled, and his preference for a remote fresh start reflects how narrow his social world has become. In this aftermath, State Police involvement is neither a clean instrument of justice nor a solution to stigma. Duffy’s personal help matters precisely because official action has already left a lasting breach between Andrew, his former colleague, and the family.