Helpless

charges against me into a tailspin. That Leterg thing, those images, this money that I didn’t even know I had.”

Marvin frowned. He set down the indictment, picked up his pencil, and twirled it even faster. “I’m not sure a jury is going to care about a fifteen-year-old girl’s testimony,” Marvin said. “They’re going to see computer logs and other forensic archives that the D.A. will insist prove your guilt. I don’t know a single superior court judge who won’t give you the maximum sentence allowed if you’re convicted. Prison for sex offenders is an ugly place. Uglier still for child pornographers. That’s why I’m suggesting we plead. Maybe do a couple years, tops.”

“And live my life as a convicted sex offender? No thank you,” Tom said. “I can’t believe what you’re even suggesting. You’re my lawyer, Marvin. I’m innocent of all these charges!” Tom slammed his hand against Marvin’s conference table for emphasis.

Marvin didn’t flinch. “What is it you want me to do, Tom?” he asked.

Tom gave a pitiable laugh and threw his hands up in the air in a show of defeat. “You’re my lawyer, Marvin. What is it I want you to do? I want you to prove that I’m innocent, that’s what.”

“And if we lose? Are you ready to face that possibility?”

“We’re not going to lose,” Tom said. “Because you’re going to fight for me and we’re going to win. If it’s not Lange setting me up, then we need to figure out who else it could be. When I was a SEAL, I never went on a mission believing I was going to fail. I went knowing with every fiber in my being I was going to succeed. This is a battle I can’t lose, Marvin. I need to know that you’re going to fight for me. I need to know that you’ll take this all the way.”

Tom’s eyes narrowed on Marvin. The pencil spinning about Marvin’s fingers fell to the floor. Marvin held Tom’s hard-edged stare with his own unblinking eyes. Then he smiled.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Marvin said.

Tom let go of the breath he’d been holding. “So what’s our next move?”

“Well, police brought the FBI into this case,” Marvin said.

“So?”

“So, I suggest that we do the same.”

Chapter 43

The Shilo Wildcats won the Thursday night football game against Cumberland by a score of 37 to 17. Rainy Miles hadn’t come to watch football, though. She’d come to talk with Tanner Farnsworth.

After the game, she spotted Tanner in the parking lot, hanging out by a red Mustang.

Nice car, she thought.

Tanner was out of shoulder pads and into his street clothes. He was also surrounded by a group of a dozen or so other teenagers. As a collective, the group seemed to be competing with each other for top prize in the Most Uninterested Teen contest.

Dressed in dark jeans and a suede jacket, Tanner radiated the sort of magnetism that drew the girls’ glances and kept the boys hovering nearby. He was tall, well built, and handsome, coolly detached in a way that suggested he was the leader of this pack. Through her investigative work, Rainy had seen her fair share of boys like Tanner Farnsworth. One of them had passed around a naked picture of Melanie Smyth.

Rainy stepped out from the shadows and approached the group. Their expressions all said, “You’re not thinking of talking to us, lady.” But as she neared, that hostility dimmed as one by one they stopped paying attention to her. It was as if by tuning out this stranger, they had somehow become invisible to her. Of course they hadn’t. They just wanted to be.

“Are you Tanner Farnsworth?” Rainy asked. She tried to sound friendly, but years spent arresting people tainted most everything she said with a hint of menace. The other boys took a few cautious steps in retreat, leaving an island of space around her and Tanner. He was tall, and Rainy had to crane her neck to make eye contact.

“Who are you?” Tanner asked.

“Agent Loraine Miles. I’m with the FBI.”

Rainy flashed her badge and studied Tanner’s expression for any sign of a tell. Rapid blinking. Head turning. Eyes averting her gaze. A hand to the face, throat, or mouth, some reflexive gesture to scratch away the invisible itch of guilt. Tanner did none of those things. Even so, Rainy’s internal radar blinked out the word creep like a neon sign.

“Weren’t you at our school?” Tanner said.

Tanner produced a cocky smile that Rainy disliked intensely. It suggested that he recognized her as an adversary, and that awareness brought him a degree of pleasure.

“Yes, I was,” Rainy said. “I’d like to talk with you about Lindsey Wells.”

Tanner’s cocky armor began to crack. “What about her?” he asked.

Rainy had already sent a preservation request to Tanner’s cell phone provider. Any evidence against him would remain on the servers.

“Are you two dating?”

“We were,” Tanner said. “She dumped me. I guess she prefers older men.”

“When did she dump you?” Rainy asked.

“A couple days ago. Are you here to investigate why we broke up?” He smiled a wry, unpleasant grin. The boy’s arrogance was as repulsive to her as what she now believed he’d done with Lindsey’s pictures.

“Did Lindsey Wells send you any pictures of herself?” Rainy asked.

“What sort of pictures?”

“You know what sort of pictures, Tanner. Ones she’d want only her boyfriend to see.”

“No,” he said.

“Would you be willing to submit to a consent search?”

“What’s that?”

“Something that would let me check your phone. See what information and communication you’ve got stored there.”

“I don’t think I would.”

“No. I didn’t think you would, either. Did you encourage her to take pictures of herself and send them to you?”

“Nope.”

“Do you know that constitutes a crime in the federal system? You could go to jail. Or were you one of those boys who weren’t listening at my talk?”

“I was listening,” Tanner said.

Rainy could see that she’d punched another small hole through his defenses. She was within her legal rights to question Tanner, a minor, without his parents present. But she wondered how much more she could press him before he figured out he was under attack and asked for a parent or attorney to be present. In truth, she’d love for that to happen. It became harder to hide the truth once a suspect officially entered the system. Go ahead and lawyer up, Rainy thought as she decided to push ahead with the informal interview.

“So if you were at my talk and listening, you’d remember how much hard time you’ll do. Fifteen years. Maybe more. And that you’ll be registered as a sex offender.”

“What is it you want from me?” Tanner asked.

“The truth. Any idea why Lindsey thinks that you did something with those pictures?”

“You’re the cop.”

“FBI.”

“Whatever.”

“So, any ideas?”

“I told you, I don’t have a clue. She dumped me, remember? If she said anything to you about any pictures, it was probably just to get back at me. Don’t ask me for what. I’m not the one getting Tom-a-Hawked.”

Rainy grimaced. “I’m assuming that’s your crude euphemism for sex,” Rainy said.

“Euphe-what?”