'Of course not,' Lena said, which was odd, because he had asked her this question on other cases and gotten a straightforward answer with none of the attitude. As if to get a jab in, she said, 'Ask your girlfriend. She saw him before I did.'
'Someone chased him?' Jeffrey asked, moving along. 'Or was he chasing someone else?'
'One or the other,' she said. 'Defensive wounds on his arms, too.'
Jeffrey thought about Arthur Prynne, and how he had covered himself with his arms to keep Jeffrey from hitting his face.
Lena said, 'We bagged his clothes. I think Dr. Linton's gonna run the blood on his shirt for the DNA match.'
'Did you ask him about his sister?'
'If he cares, he's not showing it. Like I said, he's not talking about anything.'
Jeffrey's phone beeped, and he pressed the intercom button.
Maria said, 'Pastor Fine is here to see Mark.'
Jeffrey and Lena exchanged a look. 'In what capacity?'
'He says the parents asked him to act as proxy during your interview.' Maria lowered her voice. 'Buddy Conford is here with him.'
'Thanks,' Jeffrey said, pressing the button again. He sat back in his chair, staring at Lena.
She finally asked, 'What?'
'You've got this connection with Mark. I don't know what it is, but you need to be careful in there.'
'I don't have a connection with him,' Lena said, obviously uncomfortable with the thought.
'Maybe he's transferring some emotions on to you because his mother's sick.'
Lena gave a half-assed shrug. 'Whatever,' she said. 'Can we just get this over with?'
Buddy Conford had lived a hell of a life. At seventeen, he had lost his right leg from the knee down in a car accident. Later, he lost his left eye to cancer and a kidney to a dissat-isfied client with a gun. These losses seemed to have made Buddy stronger rather than weaker. He could fight like a dog with a bone when he put his mind to it. On the other side of that, Buddy was a logical man, and, unlike most lawyers, he was able to recognize right from wrong. He had helped Jeffrey on more than one occasion. Jeffrey approached Mark Patterson's interview hoping this would be such an occasion.
'Chief,' Dave Fine said, 'I wanted to thank you for letting me be present during this. Mark's mother has taken a turn for the worse, and they wanted me to be here in their stead.'
Jeffrey nodded, trying not to point out that he did not really have a choice. Whatever crimes he had committed, Mark was technically still a child. It would be up to the courts to change that designation, if it ever came to that.
Fine asked, 'Is there any word on his sister?'
'No,' Jeffrey said, staring at Mark, trying to figure out what was going on with the sixteen year old. He looked horrible, and the bruise on his eye was turning blacker by the minute. His lip was cut down the center and his eyes were as bloodshot as Lena 's. The orange prison jumpsuit they had given him made the boy look even more pale than he already was. He seemed smaller, too, somehow reduced by his circumstances. His shoulders slouched and he looked slight, even compared to Buddy Conford, who was not exactly tall.
'Mark?' Jeffrey asked.
Mark's lips moved silently, and he kept his gaze on the table, as if he did not want to look up and recognize the situation he was in. There was something pathetic about the boy that made Jeffrey feel something like compassion. Sara was right. No matter what Mark had done, he was still just a kid.
Buddy shuffled through Mark's paperwork. 'What are the charges here, Chief?'
'Assault,' Jeffrey told him, still staring at Mark. 'He hit Sara in the face.'
Buddy frowned at his client. 'Sara Linton?' he asked, surprise making his voice go up. Buddy had grown up in Grant, and like most natives he considered Sara sort of sacred for the work she did at the clinic.
A jangling noise came from under the table. Mark was handcuffed, and Jeffrey guessed the sound was the cuffs bouncing up and down on his thigh. Jeffrey had heard this sound before in several interviews.
'In front of about ten witnesses,' Jeffrey said, talking over the noise. 'He was also threatening his sister with bodily harm.'
'Uh-huh,' Buddy said, stacking the papers. 'He get those bruises on his face before or after he was arrested?'
Lena snapped, 'Before,' with a silent but understood, '…
Buddy gave her a chastising look. 'Witnesses back that up?'
'We took photos,' Jeffrey said, pulling the Polaroids Lena had given him out of a folder. He slid them across the table to Buddy. Mark flinched a bit at the movement, and again Jeffrey was struck at how fragile the boy seemed.
Buddy thumbed through them, not looking at Mark until he was finished. 'Who did this to him?' he asked Jeffrey.
'You tell us,' Jeffrey said.
Mark kept staring down, the cuffs jangling like a metronome.
Buddy slid the photos back to Jeffrey. 'Don't look like he wants to talk.'
Lena said, 'What's going on, Mark?'
Mark looked up, seemingly surprised that Lena was speaking to him. The noise stopped, and he appeared frozen in time, waiting for Lena to say more.
Lena's voice was softer than Jeffrey had ever heard it, and it felt like Lena and Mark were the only two people in the room when she said, 'Tell me what's wrong, Mark.'
He continued to stare, and his breathing became more pronounced.
'Who hit you?' she asked, using the same concerned tone. She reached across the table to him, and Mark lifted his hands so that she could touch him. A small sob escaped from his lips when her hand covered his.
Buddy shot Jeffrey a look, and Jeffrey shook his head once, willing the lawyer to stay silent. Dave Fine was silent without prompting, staring at Mark and Lena 's hands.
Lena used her thumb to smooth Mark's tattoo. Jeffrey did not need to look at the other men in the room to know that they were a bit uncomfortable with the gesture. The air seemed charged with something unspeakable.
Lena said, 'What's going on, Mark? Tell me.'
Tears came to his eyes. 'You've got to find Lacey.'
'We will,' Lena told him.
'You've got to find her before something bad happens to her.'
'What will happen to her, Mark?'
He shook his head, sobbing, 'It's too late. No one can help her
