Frank Zafiro - Waist Deep

I turned to Stone.“And you can go straight to hell.”

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.

Joel Harrity was older than his picture.I’d seen it in the newspaper and on a couple of billboards. The shot they usually used had to be at least ten years old.His jet black hair had strands of gray throughout and his sharply etched face was a little softer.But his eyes were just as shrewd and his voice was melodious and comforting.I imagined him using it to woo a jury and could see why he was so successful.

We’d spoken for almost an hour.At first, he asked a lot of questions and wrote down everything.As the hour progressed, he stopped writing except for the occasional note and hardly interrupted at all.When I was finished, he sighed.

“We’re in a tough spot,” he said.

He was looking at me as if waiting for a response, so I said, “No shit, counselor.”

Harrity didn’t smile.“I just want you to be clear.By your admission, you’ve committed three burglaries, all of them first degree because of the assaults and, of course, the firearm-“

“Wait a minute.Three?”

He counted off on his fingers.“Gary LeMond’s fenced back yard, RogerJackson’s house and the apartment Kris Sinderling was living in.”

“That last one is pretty weak.”

“True, and from the sounds of it, she won’t be choosing to press any charges.Still, I’m only going over the facts.You did those crimes.You also failed to report LeMond’s affair with the girl, Yvette.That doesn’t make us any friends.”

“If I hadn’t promised not to dime him out,” I explained, “he’d never have told me about Kris.”

Harrity nodded.“Which he, in fact, did not do.He lied.I would say that was a breach of oral contract on his part.”

I smiled at his choice of words, imagining Rolo and Harrity sitting down and talking about the legalities of contract breaches.

Harrity seemed to notice my smile, but decided to ignore it. He continued without missing a beat. “The police raided Jackson’s house and found his film-making setup, as well as his website server.According to what little they are telling me, Jackson looked like he’d been in a fight.When they swept through the house, he was in the basement, deleting files off of his computer.I spoke to his lawyer-“

“He lawyered up?”

Harrity nodded.“Immediately.Which is what you should’ve done, by the way.His lawyer is a guy I went through law school with at Gonzaga.He told me that his client is not intending to submit to any interviews or make any statements.He won’t mention your name.He doesn’t care about the burglary or the assault.Unless, of course, the police come to him with a signed statement from you giving up him and LeMond.”