Lucy met Jerry, the family lawyer for the first time in the middle of the night when she was seventeen. Somehow the combination of being dumped by her Scum-of-the-Month Club boyfriend, two cases of Corona, three friends, and a spirited game of Tombstone Hold’em had, with the arrival of LA’s finest, turned into illegal possession of liquor, trespassing, and disturbing the peace. Lucy still had a fuzzy memory of being dragged from the cemetery knocking on every headstone she could reach and shouting “Hello? Hel-LO-O-O!” to make the point that the locals here, by and large, enjoyed a peace that was pretty damn hard to disturb. Later, when she had sobered up, Jerry had sat her down and patiently explained. “You don’t have to talk to the police,” he said. “You ask one question. Am I under arrest? If they say yes, you call me. If they say no, you can leave and they can’t stop you.” Which is why, “Am I under arrest?” were the first words out of her mouth when the two cops showed up at her door. “Yes, Miss. You’ll have to come with us.” “Can I get my purse?” Technically not one of the questions that Jerry said she could ask. But what the hell. It had Jerry’s number. Of course, she couldn’t call Jerry anymore. She owed him money. And Jerry was AA and hard core about 12 steppers taking responsibility for what they did. Maybe she could explain to him that she really hadn’t done anything this time, but she doubted it. She’d lied so many times she had burned those bridges down to the waterline. At least she knew enough to shut up…until she saw Clay’s car parked on the street. Of course he would choose this moment to show up. “What the hell do you think I am? A Dunkin’ Donuts?” The cops stiffened. Cops were funny about donut jokes. She let them lead her out to the patrol car, ranting about whatever came into her head, just trying to keep their attention away from Clay. The back of the cop car smelled strongly of disinfectant. Which meant that something had gone down back here. Or come up. But they weren’t looking at Clay. She had never actually spent the night in jail, oddly enough. She wasn’t looking forward to it.
|