“Well, you tried to rob a woman at Creekside Park in Stafford, so I’m going to guess that you aren’t.”
Steve’s eyes narrowed.“Lawyer.”
Faith sighed.She couldn’t put this off any longer.“Jessica, tell Meyers to get a public defender as soon as he can.”
Jessica got reluctantly to her feet, glaring at Meyers as she left the room.Meyers was behind the two-way mirror and heard every part of this conversation, but they still needed to put on a show, so Steve didn’t know that he was being watched.Actually, he probably already knew, so this was probably just another pointless ritual they were going through.
“Look, Steve,” Faith said, leaning forward and folding her hands on the desk.“We’ve got you pretty dead to rights at Creekside.We have your description from your intended victim and from the man who chased you off like a scared little rabbit.”
Steve chuckled bitterly.“Ooh.That hurts.Good one, agent.”
Faith shrugged.“Hey, I get it, man.I saw your place.Hard to find a job when you’ve got a rap sheet longer than the Beltway.”
Steve scoffed.“It was hard to find a job before I got the rap sheet.My mom was a crack whore, and my old man was a pimp.I dropped out of middle school.People take one look at that and assume that you’re a piece of crap.So, you’re left with no choice but to become a piece of crap.Fucking ironic, right?”
“Like I said, I get it,” Faith said.“The thing is, that doesn’t give you a right to rob people, and it definitely doesn’t give you a right to kill people.”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Steve insisted.
“Where’s the gun, Steve?”Faith asked, using a conversational tone.
Steve’s eyes narrowed again.He clammed up, and when Turk growled again, he ignored him.
The door opened, and Jessica said, “The lawyer’s on the way.Fifteen minutes.”
Damn it.“Hear that, Steve?You’ve got a representative on the way.We can’t do anything to make you incriminate yourself.But if youaren’tour killer, then it would be really nice if you could help us clear you.Then we could move on and find the actual killer.
“Look.”Faith leaned over the table again.“I’m not gonna throw the book at you over a botched robbery.Don’t get me wrong, strangling that girl was a big no-no, but considering that she suffered no permanent injuries, and I got a guy out there causing someverypermanent injuries, I’m fine with making a deal with you to make the aggravated assault and assault with a deadly weapon charges go away.That takes your triple enhanced felony down to a simple felony of attempted robbery.That can be argued down to probation.”
Steve’s eyes flicked right and left as he considered this.He drummed his fingers on the table and said, “Okay.I robbed her.Tried to, anyway.She had a boyfriend or something, real musclebound guy.He came up on me, and since I didn’t actually have a gun, I figured it wasn’t worth getting my ass kicked.”
Faith frowned.“So you didn’t have a weapon?”
Steve shook his head.“No I didn’t actually want to hurt her.I just wanted her freaking money.”
“You didn’t want to hurt her, so you wrapped a purse strap around her neck and tried to choke her out?”Jessica asked.
Steve flinched and lifted the hand not shackled to the chair to his forehead.It looked legitimately like a trauma response, and Faith’s confidence ebbed.
“I thought she’d just pass out,” he whispered.“But she started convulsing, and I freaked out.She’s not hurt, you said, right?Not seriously?”
Andthatlooked like legitimate concern.God damn it.“No, she’ll be okay.”
Steve sighed.“Okay.I just wanted money, man.I’m hungry.Like, really.”He chuckled.“I haven’t had a good meal in a few days.That’s another reason I didn’t stick around to mess with muscle dude.”He laughed.“I mean, it’s kind of funny that you guys think I’m a killer.I’m pretty sure even that old woman could have kicked my ass.”
“You put up a pretty good fight against me.”
Steve tapped his finger on the table.“Yeah, I mean… Ireallydon’t want to go to prison.”
Faith looked at Jessica, then back to their suspect.“Do you have an alibi for the times of the murders?”
“What times are those?”
“Yesterday afternoon, and the prior two mornings.”
Steve laughed.“Well, the mornings I was on the corner of Westchester and Garfield.Three days ago, I was buying crack.Two days ago, I was buying a different kind of crack, if you know what I mean.”
Faith grimaced, then looked at Jessica.
