Waist Deep

61

I thought they might just book me straight into jail.In fact, I was pretty much petrified that they would.Stone was right about that.But he didn’t leave me any choice but to lawyer up.He wasn’t going to listen.

When they left me in the interrogation room for another forty minutes, waiting for a lawyer, I was surprised.Maybe Stone thought he’d let me stew and then come and make another pass at me, even though it violated the hell out of my Constitutional rights.Stone was the kind of guy that viewed those rights as an obstacle, something that criminals hid behind.It never occurred to him that they were in place to protect people like me from cops like him.

I was glad my back was to the door.Every time I heard the scuffle of feet stop at the observation window in the door, the hair on the back of my neck bristled.The word was definitely out that I'd been brought in.

When the door opened, I sat still.Then I caught her fragrance and I knew who it was before I ever saw her.

“Stef,” she whispered and sat down.“What the hell is going on?”

I shook my head.“It’s all messed up, Katie.No one will listen to me.”

“It’s not true, is it?” she asked, her eyes unsure of me.“You didn’t use me to find some girl so you could put her on the Internet, did you?”

My gut twisted.“No. How can you even think that?”

She gave me a look that said a hundred things at once. That she didn’t want to believe it, but she couldn’t quite not believe it. That I’d hurt her. That maybe she still cared but that she couldn’t let herself still care.

Or hell, maybe I saw those things in her eyes because I wanted to see some of them.

“Katie, I called you because I needed help finding that girl for her father.Just like I told you at lunch. That’s the truth.”

She bit her lip.“They’re saying your prints are all over the basement where they made these movies.That you had pictures on you when they arrested you.”

I sighed.“I broke in to his house, all right?”

“You broke in?”

I nodded.“Yeah.I broke in looking for herand instead, I found his little porno den downstairs.”

“What about those pictures?”

I nodded.“I found those, too, and I took them.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted to erase her existence from his life.Wash it away.”

She stared at me.“I want to believe you, Stef.But…”

“Then believe me,” I said.“Look, Katie. Matt Sinderling is Kris’s father. He hired me to find her.Call him and ask. He’ll vouch for me.”

She didn’t reply. I knew what she was wondering. How did I end up at Roger Jackson’s house with Kris in my car?“ After I talked to you, I worked East Sprague because of the FI,” I explained.“I talked to someone-“

“The pimp?Rolo?”

I shook my head.“It doesn’t matter.I found out about Jackson and the movies he was making.I went to Jackson’s house. He wasn’t there. So I broke in, looking for Kris or some sign of where she was.That’s what happened.”

“Was he home at the time?”

“No,” I said.“Well, not at first.He eventually came home.We had some words and he told me where to find Kris.”

“And you went and got her.”

“Yeah.Is this an official interrogation?Because if it is, I guess I just copped to a first degree burg.”

An expression of genuine hurt sprang onto her face.“No,” she said.“Stone would pitch a fit if he knew I came in here to talk to you.”

“Sorry.”

Katie paused, staring at me and biting her lip.“Why’d you go back to his house, Stef?I don’t understand that.”

I stared at Katie for a long time, wondering if I could trust her and if she could trust me.In the end, I realized it didn’t matter either way.I said, “I had to let Jackson know it was over between him and Kris.And for him to leave her alone.”

Katie looked at me. I could see she hadn’t made up her mind yet.I looked back at her, feeling like someone had kicked me in the stomach.That moment suddenly became the worst moment of my life since the day Amy Dugger died.

“Your lawyer is on the way,” she told me, a touch icily.“Since when did you become friendly with Joel Harrity?”

Joel Harrity was the gadfly lawyer in River City, one who was frequently bringing charges of police brutality and illegal police searches against the department.He stopped short of characterizing cops as malicious, but he wasn’t afraid to call them inept or deliberately sloppy and he frequently did both.When I was on the job, I hated him.After I left the job, I figured out that he was never talking about me when he made those accusations.They didn’t apply, at least not until the Amy Dugger case.I also learned that he was a hell of a good lawyer and more importantly, that he had the prosecutor’s ear.

“I’m not friendly with him,” I told her.“I need a good lawyer.He’s a good lawyer.”

“He a parasite,” Katie said with a scowl.

I shrugged.“He’ll fix this mess for me.”

She didn’t reply.

There was another long silence. I finally broke it, saying, “I’m not going to tell them about you helping me, Katie.You don’t have to worry about that.”

She didn’t answer for a long while.Finally, she muttered, “Thanks,” then stood up and left the room.