patient should not be distracted by her appearance. Beth Ann's appearance was distracting the hell out of me.
'Did you pursue that?' I said.
'He refused to come back. Said shrinks were all crazy anyway, and he wasn't.'
'Have you talked with him since the event?' I said.
'After he was arrested, the police asked me to speak with him.'
'And?'
'He said he did what he had to do and there was no turning back from it.'
'And on that you're going to try for an irresistible compulsion plea?'
'We are hoping that he will talk with me more freely before we get to trial. If we went to trial today, I really couldn't argue the compulsion very well.'
'Prosecution send in a shrink?'
'Yes. But Jared refused to speak with him.'
Outside the window of Beth Ann's office, the rain still fell. It was colder rain today and was pushed a little more by the wind. Inside the office, it was bright and warm.
'Do you, in fact,' I said, 'regardless of what you can testify to, think Jared was in the grip of compulsion?'
'I don't know.'
We sat for a time then. Beth Ann seemed comfortable enough with the silence. She rearranged her legs again. If she kept doing that, it was possible that I might begin to bugle like a stallion. Which would not be dignified. Beth Ann smiled at me and took a business card from her desk and wrote on the back.
'Perhaps you will want time to digest what we've discussed,' she said. 'I've written my home phone number on the back, should you need to reach me. Call anytime. I live in Lexington.'
'Thank you,' I said.
My voice sounded hoarse to me. I put the card in my shirt pocket and stood up.
'I'm sure we'll be in touch,' I said. My voice was hoarse.
'I do hope so,' Beth Ann said.
Chapter 10
HEALY GOT ME an interview with Jared Clark at the Bethel County Jail. DiBella took me over and walked me to the interview room.
The room was gray-walls, floor, and ceiling-with no windows. The gray door was metal and had a small window in it, covered with wire mesh, through which a guard could watch the proceedings. There was an oak table in the room, and four straight chairs. I sat at the table. DiBella waited outside.
Jared Clark looked badly out of place in his jail coveralls when two guards brought him in. He wasn't very big, and I was pretty Sure he didn't shave yet.
One of the guards said, 'You're with Sergeant DiBella.'
I said I was.
The guards put Jared in a chair opposite me.
'Be outside,' the guard said. 'Bang on the door when you're through.'
I said I would.
Jared sat back in his chair with his arms folded and looked at me scornfully. I took out one of my business cards and put it in front of him. He looked down and read it without touching it. Then he looked at me, and snickered faintly and shrugged. I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back in my chair and shrugged back at him. Neither of us spoke. The Bethel County jail was a new facility. It was air-conditioned. I could hear the white sound of cool air moving through the vents. In the far background, I could hear the darker sounds of jail life.
We did this for a while.
Jared had light brown hair cut short. His nose was small and sharp. His mouth was thin and not very wide. He was short and seemed wiry. His hands were small. It was possible, of course, that Jared would outlast me. I knew he had noplace special to go, and that staring it out with me was as pleasant as his day was going to get. On the other hand, he was seventeen and alone in a scary place, whereas I was not seventeen, and I was tougher than Bill O'Reilly. I might mean something to him. He'd need to know what.
And he did.
'So, what are you,' he said finally.
'I've been hired to save your ass,' I said.
He snickered again. We went back to quiet again.
'Who hired you to do that?' he said after a while.
'Your grandmother,' I said.
He nodded.
'She thinks you're innocent,' I said.
He nodded, and shrugged and smirked. I was tiring of the smirk.
