It took a year and a half. Deputies watched it happen, day by day, this strange fog lifting only slowly inside a man’s mind. Along the way Rob Burd became the first addict many cops in the department got to know without handcuffs; they watched his struggle, saw that he didn’t quit, and came to feel for his befuddlement. “It softened us up a bit,” said Holbrook. “Once you see somebody, knowing them personally, you start looking at other people and you see them a little bit differently, too.”
