Larry, remember Mark said something, or maybe I said something about ‘L.A. Law,’ and then Mark said he might need a lawyer, but he was sort of kidding and we, or at least I, took it as a joke. Remember, Larry?”
Larry now remembered. “Oh, sure, yeah, something about ‘L.A. Law.’ Just a joke though.”
“Are you sure?” Reggie asked.
“Of course I’m sure,” Trumann protested. McThune frowned and nodded along with his partner.
“He didn’t ask you guys if he needed a lawyer?”
They shook their heads and tried hopelessly to remember. “I don’t remember it that way. He’s just a kid, and very scared, and I think he’s confused,” McThune said.
“Did you advise him of his Miranda rights?”
Trumann smiled at this and was suddenly more confident. “Of course not. He’s not a suspect. He’s just a kid. We need to ask him a few questions.”
“And you did not attempt to interrogate him without his mother’s presence or consent?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
“And you did not tell him to avoid lawyers after he asked your advice?”
“No ma’am,”
“No way. The kid’s lying if he told you otherwise.”
Reggie slowly opened her briefcase and lifted out the black recorder and the micro-cassette tape. She sat them in front of her and placed the briefcase on the floor. Special Agents McThune and Trumann stared at the devices and seemed to shrink a bit in their seats.
Reggie rewarded each with a bitchy smile, and said, “I think we know who’s lying.”
McThune slid two fingers down the bridge of his nose. Trumann rubbed his eyes. She let them suffer for a moment. The room was silent.
“It’s all right here on tape, fellas. You boys attempted to interrogate a child outside the presence of his mother and without her consent. He specifically asked you if you shouldn’t wait until she was available and you said no. You attempted to coerce the child with the threat of criminal prosecution not only for the child but also for his mother. He told you he was scared, and twice he specifically asked you if he needed a lawyer. You advised him not to get a lawyer, giving as one of your reasons the opinion that lawyers are a pain in the ass. Gentlemen, the pain is here.”
They sunk lower. McThune pressed four fingers against his forehead and gently rubbed. Trumann stared in disbelief at the tape, but was careful not to look at the woman. He thought of grabbing it, and ripping it to shreds, and stomping on it because it could be his career, but for some reason he believed with all his troubled heart that this woman had made a copy of it.
Getting slapped with a lie was bad enough, but their problems ran much deeper. There could be serious disciplinary proceedings. Reprimands. Transfers. Crap in the record. And at this moment, Trumann also believed that this woman knew all there was to know about the disciplining of wayward FBI agents.
“You wired the kid,” Trumann said meekly to no one in particular.
“Why not? No crime. You’re the FBI, remember. You boys run more wire than AT&T.”
What a smartass! But then, she was a lawyer, wasn’t she? McThune leaned forward, cracked his knuckles, and decided to offer some resistance. “Look, Ms. Love, we—“
“It’s Reggie.”
“Okay, okay. Reggie, uh, look, we’re sorry. We, uh, got a little carried away, and, well, we apologize.”
“A little carried away? I could have your jobs for this.”
They were not about to argue with her. She was probably right, and even if there was room for debate, they simply -were not up to it.
“Are you taping this?” Trumann asked.
“No.”
“Okay, we were out of line. We’re sorry.” He could not look at her.
Reggie slowly placed the tape in her coat pocket. “Look at me, fellas.” They slowly lifted their eyes to hers, but it was painful. “You’ve already proven to me that you’ll lie, and that you’ll lie quickly. Why should I trust you?”
Trumann suddenly slapped the table, hissed, and made a noisy show of standing and pacing to the end of the table. He threw up his hands. “This is incredible.
We came here with just a few questions for the kid, just doing our jobs, and now we’re fighting with you. The kid didn’t tell us he had a lawyer. If he’d told us, then we would have backed off. Why’d you do this? Why’d you deliberately pick this fight? It’s senseless.”
“What do you want from the kid?”
“The truth. He’s lying about what he saw yesterday. We know he’s lying. We know