“So you think you can do anything and just get away with it?”
“Sure, why not?” he said. “It’s not like I’ve been caught for anything yet.” At that, he laughed. “Of course I haven’t done anything serious, just stupid childish pranks. Right?” He looked over at his lawyer.
The lawyer immediately nodded. “That’s correct. My client is high-spirited and doesn’t always make the best decisions, but that, in itself, is not a criminal act.”
“We need to confirm things with your buddies. Please stay here for now.”
She stood, about to exit. “Should you pull out your phone and send a text, make a phone call, or communicate by any means, in an attempt to warn your friends, we will take the device as evidence, and you will forfeit your phone.”
“You can’t take my fucking phone,” he said.
She smiled. “If you try to collude with your friends to align your stories, that is also a criminal act.” She focused on the lawyer. “It’s up to you to try to keep him on the straight and narrow.” As soon as she went out the door, she heard the lawyer talking to him.
She didn’t know what kind of lawyer would want to be on this family’s payroll if the whole group of them were lawyers. She shook her head at Rodney.
“I’ll go make some phone calls,” he said.
“I’ll stand in the observation room and see what the idiot does.”
“We probably should have taken his phone away from him in the first place,” Rodney said.
“We should have, but he wouldn’t have handed it over easily. And we didn’t have legal cause.”
“No, he wouldn’t have given it up. All you can do is hope that he texts his buddies.”
“Even if he does, we’ll have a hard time proving it was anything other than stupid childish talk, like his previous tale.”
“Do you believe his story?”
“Parts of it. As you know, the best liars always weave in a little truth. That whole transvestite mess was BS, just trying to divert our attention, I’m sure. I already talked to Paula’s mother.”
“What a jerk,” Rodney said.
“I know, right?” she said. “Is he stupid enough? Yes? But is he also smart enough, laughing at us for this whole thing? Yes. I really don’t like his attitude. I don’t like the lawyer either.”
“I feel sorry for the lawyer.” Rodney dialed a number on his phone. “Must be a royal pain dealing with guys like this all the time.”
“If the family is full of lawyers, why do they need him anyway?” she asked.
“Oh, because they’re not criminal lawyers. They’re all corporate.”
“Interesting. So they’re all about business deals, right?”
He nodded. As soon as somebody came on to the call, he took a few steps away from her. She looked back to see the others in the interrogation room. The lawyer and Brandon were arguing over possession of the phone. She smiled when the phone flew out of his hand and came toward the door. He bolted to his feet, but she quickly opened the door, picked up the phone. “I’ll take that off your hands for now.”
“You can’t touch that.”
“I wouldn’t be able to, except that, right here, on your screen, is a text to your buddy saying…”
“I didn’t get a chance to send it.”
“I see that.” With her own phone, she took a picture of it. “And now I’ll get a warrant for your phone and your laptop and everything else in your room.” She waved his phone before his face. “I’ll be back in a moment.” And, with that, she walked out again. She immediately called the local prosecutor. “I need a warrant.” When she explained the situation, he whistled. “An arrogant smart-ass of a kid, huh?”
“Yep.”
“So he was really trying to set up a story?”
“Trying to shut them up at least, but he didn’t get a chance to send it. That’ll make it dicey. And apparently he comes from a family of corporate lawyers.”