“Did you see anybody around the truck? Why were you even in that area?” Rodney asked.
“I was meeting some friends,” he said. “There’s a, you know, like a casual pool hall around the corner. It’s just an old building, and we go in there, and, for a couple bucks, we play pool,” he said.
“So you left the pool hall and came out when?”
“I don’t know when,” he said. “I mean, I lost track of time as it was. I was on a day off, so I didn’t care. I was just having fun.”
“Doing drugs?”
He flushed. “Just a little weed.”
“And what about the harder stuff?”
“No, my dad gets really pissed at me and won’t let me work if I do anything hard-core.”
“Well, there are a lot of levels between hard-core and weed.”
“No, man, no. I didn’t do anything else, just a little weed. I was just happy.”
“Too happy apparently.”
He flushed. “Yeah, that might have had something to do with it. My dad says it makes me different. Like, I’ve got no worries, and it’ll all be fine.”
“Ya think? Now that you hopped into a truck and stole it while you were on weed, how do you feel?”
“Like I need to reassess,” he said, rubbing his face. “I’m in so much shit.”
“Well, and then there’s your father you have yet to face.”
At that, he paled, and his bottom lip trembled. “Is there any way we can…nottell him this?”
“I’m pretty sure he’s already on the way to the station,” Rodney said. “He called, asking why you were being held.”
At that, the kid deflated completely. “My old man,… he’ll kill me,” he said quietly. “That’s just all there is to it.” But there was no heat, so he wasn’t actually in danger; it seemed more a case of having some consequences for his behavior and choices.
“And what do you think?” Rodney asked. “Do you think you deserve it?”
“Yeah, I do, but that ain’t gonna make a damn bit of difference. I’ve already been warned a couple times.”
Just then the door opened, and Lilliana looked in and motioned at Rodney to come out. With that, Rodney got up and stepped out of the interview room.
The kid looked at her. “How much shit am I in?”
“Quite a bit,” she said.
“But, on the other hand,” he said, some wily intelligence showing through, “because of me, you got the truck.”
“And, because of you, we didn’t get the driver.”
At that, his face fell again. “Holy shit. He really killed two guys?”
“This time,” she snapped.
“Oh, jeez.”
“Now tell me what you saw.”
“Honestly I just… I came out of the pool hall, and people were walking around. I just saw this truck sitting there, idling. I checked the door handle and it was unlocked, and it was just one of those things. I didn’t even think,” he said. “I just hopped in, whistled at what a sweet ride it was, and then,” he said, “I closed the door and put it in Drive.”