“That’s an interesting theory,” I mumble. But of course it’s not true.
“It turns out there aren’t any cameras in that parking lot. The building is too new. It would come down to eyewitnesses. Those are thin on the ground, too.”
“Oh, hell.” I see where he’s headed, but this is a terrible idea. The only eyewitness was Daphne. And I’m never asking her to take the witness stand and lie on my behalf. “My girlfriend has been through a lot,” I say softly.
“Fine. Maybe you’d rather hear my other theory,” he says. “Let's say the senator's son is a top-level creep who had it coming. I notice he was real quick to call the police after you two fought. He memorized your license plate. He mobilized the entire police force in two counties to hunt you down. That's how an entitled schmuck behaves.”
“Sure.” He’s got that right. “But I don’t see how that helps me.”
“Right. So he did his thing, and now they've booked you on an assault charge that will derail your life for the second time in three years. That’s really bad news, so you'll have to fight it. And now it’s morning time, and daddy's lawyers have begun explaining what a trial will entail. For example, any history between the defendant and the victim will be examined in court. One potential eyewitness is your girlfriend, who used to be his girlfriend. So that will come out, too…”
My stomach lurches. "I won't throw Daphne under this bus. I'm never doing that."
“Uh huh. That's admirable. But I need you to think this all the way through. The Halsey family has got you in lockup. They don’t want you to hit their baby boy. But on the other hand, they don’t want a trial. Maybe you’re willing to delve deeply into your history with the Halsey kid. Maybe your girlfriend has a few things to say about him, too. So this morning they’re hoping you get a lazy lawyer who urges you to take this plea. You're still convicted of a violent crime, which you may or may not have committed. It’s a deal, but it’s not the best deal you could get.”
“What is the best deal?” I have to ask.
“I got a real sensitive nose, Richard. I can smell fear. And I smell a lot of it this morning. If you plead not guilty, the judge sets bail and gives you a trial date. Then I'm going to start digging into the Halsey boy to try to defend you. Now, court cases are very public. Everything is on the record. If you'd been, say, assaulted by the victim before, we could introduce that at trial. If the victim has been expelled from a prestigious educational institution, he may not want that made public. Maybe the pain of going to trial is greater for him than the pain of his own broken nose.”
Now I get it. And, yeah, Halsey doesn’t really want me telling a packed courtroom where I met him. He has plenty to hide. “Maybe he hurt people before. Like me. Maybe he also threatened his girlfriend, and he doesn’t want people to hear about it when she testifies.”
“Now you’re getting it.” His grin is smug.
“Suppose they don't want a trial at all. So how does that work?”
“You plead not guilty. And then bail is set and the state’s attorney has to dig in and make his case. So the newspapers get hold of this story and start writing about every motion that’s filed. That gets more and more uncomfortable for them until the senator asks for the charges to be dropped.”
“There’s a lot of maybes in your theory, here,” I point out. If I turn down that plea deal, then I have to expose myself to scrutiny, too. I’ll have to tell people what happened to me. And, by extension, to Paul.
Shit. He’ll get called as a witness. He’ll be asked to describe a horrible thing in great detail. The same horrible thing that landed him in a mental institution. I don’t know if I can ask that of him, just to avoid a misdemeanor charge that, let’s face it, isn’t frivolous.
And then there’s Daphne. She’d also have to sit up there and admit to her relationship.
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “Do I have to make this decision without speaking to anyone else?”
“Yes,” he says. “And you’ve got an hour, tops.”
That hour goes fast.
I’m given a rubber bagel and some brown water that’s supposed