One phrase stood out from the police report. “The officer wrote that you started to indicate a lady friend was somehow involved and then you closed down,” Peter noted. “What’s the story? You still haven’t told me where you got this stuff, whatever it was. We won’t know for sure until the lab work is back, but we have to assume the worst.”
Lyndsey shrugged, his face sunk behind his clasped hands, elbows on the table.
Peter sighed and leaned back, tossing the report on the table between them. “If I am to act as your lawyer, you need to be completely honest with me. If you take this on yourself, Lyndsey, you may be looking at a very long sentence. I have to tell you, they are merciless these days with drug charges, especially ‘intent to distribute,’ even if they are first offenses. We might weasel out of ‘intent’ but they won’t cut you any slack until you reveal the source of the substance. The only mercy is that it’s not crack. That really sets them off. It helps that you’re not a teenaged boy from the wrong neighborhood too but then they might see an opportunity to make an example of these upper-middle class leeches who drive the drug trade.”
Lyndsey wiped at an invisible item on the table. His jaw worked, as if he struggled to swallow something. He rubbed at his face and returned his eyes to Peter. The lawyer’s gaze was hard to hold, the way it carried Polly’s disappointment in it, the way it conveyed the ice and fury Peter had learned to unleash on the judges and district attorneys in his profession, the way it hinted at the memory of Bobbi’s lit-up face as she reached for his attention on their patio. Lyndsey struggled to keep his eyes bored into Peter’s and his face frozen into the same determined mask his brother-in-law wore.
“You’ll lose your job at the university,” Peter said. “They won’t fire you outright but, since you’re close to retirement anyway, they’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.”
“Maybe it’s time that happened anyway.”
“What do you want me for, then, if you’re just determined to throw yourself under the bus?”
“I want the best deal I can get on my own terms and I want Polly and Bobbi to know that the best effort was made on my behalf and they did all they could. Most of all, I want someone I can trust to be that kind to them.”
“Whom are you protecting?”
“Someone well worth every bit of the worst of it.”
“If you’re cheating on my sister…I’ll throw you under every bus in town.”
“Please. I expect no less.”
