There can be only three reasons why Gov. Tom Wolf has taken charge of the investigation into allegations of verbal abuse by his lieutenant governor, Mike Stack, against his house staff and security detail. Two of those reasons are no good, and they cast doubt on the third.

Wolf this week said he had met with Stack multiple times regarding complaints about Stack’s treatment of the state employees after it was disclosed last week that Stack is under investigation by the state inspector general.

A week earlier, Lt. Gov. Stack’s office issued a statement confirming the Office of Inspector General’s investigation into what it called “staffing issues.” The statement followed reports that the inspector general was looking into potential verbal abuse by Stack and his wife toward staff at the lieutenant governor’s mansion at Fort Indiantown Gap. The abuse was reported to have extended to the Stacks’ state police security detail.

Wolf was the one who ordered Inspector General Bruce Beemer to look into the complaints.

This week, Wolf disclosed that he last met with Stack in mid-March. It was the most recent of numerous meetings about the complaints, and Wolf told him “you need to stop,” Wolf told reporters after an unrelated public event in the Capitol.

Wolf said he expected to receive a completed report from his inspector general soon but had not decided whether he would release it publicly. That seems like unprecedented control of the investigation, and the flow of information coming out of it.

This seems highly unusual. The inspector general’s office normally works to ferret out fraud and abuse in Commonwealth entitlement and other programs. Normally the state police would investigate, and the Attorney General’s office would prosecute any wrongdoing.

Did Wolf have other motivations in ordering Beemer to handle the investigation? It’s easy enough to speculate on a few possibilities.

Could it be that Wolf is trying to protect a political ally by steering the investigation himself?

Or, as the governor’s campaign for re-election approaches, could Wolf’s intent be, at least in part, to neutralize a potential political rival within his own Democratic Party? It’s widely known that Stack and Wolf are not particularly friendly. While they share the state’s executive title, Wolf has not relied on Stack and has not delegated any authority or special assignments to his lieutenant governor.

Either way, it could simply be that Wolf is anxious to avoid any guilt by association — to isolate Stack’s conduct from his own.

The other possibility is that the decision was the right and noble one, and that the governor acted strictly in the interest of the state and its people.

Perhaps that’s the likeliest explanation, and the one most people would like to believe. However, there’s too much skepticism and doubt to allow the public to take it on faith.

The Legislature should be looking into Stack’s alleged misconduct, and Wolf’s investigation of it.