An officer escorts me to the interrogation room where Ashley is being held; hearing shouts and curses as we approach. As I enter, the man who was intimidating leaning over her stands upright. His red face returns to normal and he greets me, introducing himself as Avery Scott.

“I’m sorry, but this is a private interrogation.”

“Well, I’m her lawyer,” I lie smoothly, “so she has the right to have me here.”

“You’re the lawyer?” he asks, clearly amused. A small chuckle escapes as he mumbles something about ‘too easy’ and ‘rookie’ under his breath. He allows me to sit down, although he doesn’t back down on Ashley.

“So why’d you do it, huh? Tired of the groupies? Did you feel washed up and had to prove you had that old charm by taking a young, innocent girl?”

Ashley’s jaw clenches and unclenches as he continues to throw stinging insults at her.

“That’s not true,” she growls, breathing hard. I rest my hand on her knee, trying to get her to calm down.

“Oh yeah? Tell me why then. Why?”

“Because I got tired of your wife,” she quips.

The color returns to his face. “You little–”

“Excuse me,” I interrupted, “I’d like to have a moment with my client.”

“Take this time to get her in line,” he says angrily. I nod as he storms out the door.

I pretend to shuffle through my bag as I lowly mumble, “They record everything in this room so you have to speak lowly. I need your real lawyer’s number. They didn’t let me talk to you yesterday,” I explain hurriedly.

I pretend to explain something to her as I place a small post-it next to her, along with a pen. She scribbles something sloppily before passing it back to me. The note reads, ‘I have an idea of who my lawyer’ll be but you have to promise to trust me on this one.’ I give a small nod as she continues writing. ‘Kristal. 619-555-7369’

“Kristal!” I nearly yell. Her eyes go wide, silently telling me to lower my voice. I “whisper” at a slightly lower level, “Her? You’re kidding me. Why her?” My body reacts in an unpleasant way at the mere mention of her name.