“Jailbird mode, activated!” She giggled. She spent the entire time we were booked and processed singing ’80s power ballads to the annoyance of all.
Rue County Police Department shared a building with their tiny county jail. After I was booked, processed, fingerprinted, and photographed, Indigo was led to a holding cell while I was placed in an interrogation room. My wrist throbbed viciously, but when I told the officer escorting me that I was hurt, she just rolled her eyes. I’d had towait over an hour for my phone call even though no other people were being booked in sight. Thank God Duke answered my call. Hopefully, he’d get ahold of Reid Grigson, and Indi and I would be out of this mess soon.
I cradled my right arm to my chest and gritted my teeth at its dull, relentless throbbing. I was pretty sure my radius was fractured. Exhaustion weighed me down. The adrenaline that had kept me pumped up and ready when we made our escape had long since faded, and a bone-deep weariness settled over me. I licked my chapped lips, trying in vain to moisten them. I hadn’t had anything to drink since yesterday, and I was dehydrated.
Officer Richards, the highway patrolman who’d arrested me, stood in the corner of the interrogation room, doing his best to appear intimidating. I’d asked him for a bottle of water an hour ago, but he’d yet to give me one. Unabashedly looking him over, I fought a sneer at how tiny his trooper hat looked on his enormous head. It was probably the pain and exhaustion getting to me, but the trooper looked like a man-sized Blow Pop with his big-ass head and his stick-figure body. I’d have to ask Indi later if she thought he looked like a Blow Pop, too. If anyone would see the humor in this situation, it’d be my crazy little friend.
The door to the interrogation room opened a few minutes later, and the young female officer who had placed me here entered, followed by a plainclothes detective. His suit was ill-fitting and wrinkled, a sharp contrast to the zealously professional Officer Davidson in her pristine uniform.Christo, it looked like she starched the pleats in her khaki slacks. Where her blond hair was pulled into a severe bun at the nape of her neck, the detective looked like he hadn’t combed his hair in some time. The only thing sharp about him was the look in his eyes: hunger.
“Hello, Mr. Santiago Rodrigez, you seem to have gotten yourself into quite the predicament.”
I shrugged nonchalantly, sliding down slightly in my chair and spreading my legs under the table, silently expressing my ease and giving the cops a nonverbal “fuck you.”
“I’m Detective Collins, and this is Officer Davidson,” Collins said, gesturing to the female officer behind him. “Officer Richards clocked you going ninety miles per hour in a fifty-five zone. That’s amisdemeanor in the state of Nevada, son.” My lip curled in disgust at his use of the wordson.
“The fact that you did so in a stolen vehicle is highly problematic.” I remained silent, refusing to acknowledge him. “Then there’s the matter of the blood all over your ‘sister.’” The detective narrowed his eyes at me. “There isn’t much of a family resemblance, is there?”
Davidson snickered under her breath. “Must have differentdaddies.” Collins lifted his lip in a half-hearted smirk, which never quite made it to his eyes.
“Whose blood is it, Mr. Rodriguez? It would be best for you to take this opportunity to be honest and explain to us what happened tonight.” I wanted to tell the detective to go sit on a fucking cactus and demand to know what they had done with Indi.
Instead, I smiled mirthlessly at the cops and uttered only a single word. “Lawyer.” I’d asked to see my lawyer as soon as I was put into the interrogation room and had refused to say anything else until they appeared.
“Probably wise,” Officer Davidson commented in a bored tone, eliciting snickers from Officer Richards. “Maybe we should try talking to your sister instead?”I barked out a laugh, causing Davidson to jump slightly, which led to a deep blush staining her cheeks. I gestured to the door with a smirk. She could be my fucking guest. If it came down to chica loca or Officer Davidson, I’d bet on our girl every time.
Collins dismissed Officer Richards, probably so he could go find a new lonely stretch of highway to haunt with his speed trap. Collins and Davidson continued to speculate and banter, hoping to draw me into an incriminating conversation. They especially wanted to know whose blood had been on Indigo’s hands. The town of Lawson and the rest of Rue County were largely rural. The lack of serious crime probably left the cops working here bored out of their skulls, so they must be creaming their pants at the thought of catching a violent criminal and making the front page of their piddly podunk town news blog.
After what felt like an eternity, the door to the interrogation room was opened, and the silhouette of a woman filled the doorway. Collins and Davidson quit theirLaw & OrderLARPing mid-sentence, taking in the measure of our new arrival. The woman looked out of place in the drabinterrogation room. Her chestnut hair was twisted into a complicated knot high on the back of her head, baring a long and graceful neck. A long-sleeved black sheath dress hugged her form tightly, stopping mid-calf. Her red-bottomed shoes clicked menacingly as she strode into the room and over to my side. She radiated the shrewd confidence of a seasoned attorney, but she couldn’t have been a day over thirty.Something about her was vaguely familiar, and the thought niggled at the back of my head that I’d seen this woman somewhere before.
With my left hand, I awkwardly grasped hers when it was offered. She introduced herself as she sat down. “Good day, Mr. Rodriguez. My name is Sutton DeVries, and I’ll be representing you and Ms. Indigo Evans today.” She smiled at me briefly, but the smile didn’t reach her honey-brown eyes. She turned her gaze to the officers, and her entire demeanor went from polite professionalism to downright frosty disgust.
“Detective Collins, Officer Davidson, I assume, based on your appalling conduct, that this must be your first day on the job?”
Davidson started, her mouth agape, as Collins bristled in his seat.“Excuse me, young lady?” he blustered, his craggy face turning red. “I’ll have you know—”
“No, Detective, I’ll haveyouknow that my client appears to have an injured arm. Mr. Rodriguez, have you been offered medical care?”
I chuffed a laugh, looking down at the table and shaking my head. “Nah, I’m still waiting on that bottle of water I asked for.”
Ms. DeVries lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve been here for over four hours and haven’t even been given a drink of water? Detective, is it common here in Lawson to ignore your constitutional duty to provide care? I wonder what your Internal Affairs will think when I’m done filing a laundry list of complaints against you? I sincerely hope you enjoy bureaucracy because you’re about to get buried beneath a mountain of it.” Internal Affairs was the bane of most cops’ existence. DeVries wasn’t pulling any punches.
“Well, uh…” Collins muttered, looking nervous, “Officer Richards stepped out a few moments ago to get that water. Davidson, why don’t you go see what’s keeping him?”
My shark of a lawyer grinned at the detective. “Oh, there’s no need for that now. Mr. Rodriguez can have a bottle of water in the car. We’re leaving.” Reaching into the leather portfolio she’d carried in with her, she withdrew a packet of papers.“Judge Austen approved a Knapstad motion, dismissing the misdemeanor charges against my client. He has no prior record and is a pillar in his community. Included are letters of character from the mayor of Reno and the District Court Judge in Carson City. Judge Austen felt confident that the extenuating circumstances existing around the arrest of my client were great enough to merit consideration before taking the matter any further.”
Davidson’s jaw dropped. “You can’t expect to waltz in here and just leave with him! He’s under arrest!”
Collins shushed her, making a dismissive gesture with his hand. “His sister had blood all over her when Officer Richards arrested Rodriguez.”
“You’re telling me Officer Richards was so concerned with her well-being that he brought her here and sought medical attention for my other client, Ms. Evans? What a prince.”
Collins backtracked immediately. “Not exactly—”
“Is Ms. Evans under arrest, detective?”
“Well—”
“Where is she then?” Ms. DeVries interrupted and quirked her head to the side mockingly.The sheepish expression on Detective Collins’s face spoke volumes.“Detective, please tell me that you didn’t place my client—who may or may not require medical care, is not under arrest, and has not been made aware of her rights—into a holding cell.” The expression on my lawyer's face was truly terrifying. If I listened carefully, I could probably hear the sound of Collins’s balls ascending back into his abdomen in search of safety.
