Weekend Freewrite -11/9/2019 - Single Prompt Option: Towel (and, The Posture of Innocence, day 19)
In this portion of The Posture of Innocence, Captain Lee pivots from arresting Lilith DeVille, the woman whose perjury allowed the murderer of John Soames to go free for 25 years, to getting ready to deal with the actual murderer in the interrogation room ... meanwhile, the murderer decides not to take heed to his lawyer's good advice...
To get totally caught up on The Posture of Innocence, here are the prologue, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 3.5, day 4, day 4.5, day 5, day 5.5, day 6, day 7, and day 7.5, day 8, day 9, day 9.5, day 10, day 10.5, day 11, day 11.5, day 12, day 12.5, day 13, day 13.5, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 16.5, day 17, and day 18!
Captain Lee kept working -- it was 5:15pm. While others would have thrown in the towel on the day, he still had an interrogation to perform. Back to his office, where Lieutenant Anderson had put together several pieces of information that his captain had wanted.
“There was a lot, Captain; your hunch was right,” said the lieutenant.
“It wasn't a hunch, Lieutenant. A man who is casually getting away with murder and discussing it casually with his associates has gotten away with and discussed lesser crimes on his way to that boldness – and so have they. A goodly number of our cold cases went cold for that very reason. I knew that, but we had no way into it until now.
“In this next month, Lieutenant, we are going to begin to break cases that no one really wants broken. First thing in the morning, I will share protocols for record handling for the division to reflect those priorities.”
“Yes, sir. Looking forward to it.”
Lieutenant Anderson noticed the slight bud of a smile, and the flash of his commander's eyes.
“At 9:00am, look forward to it. For now, thank you for these files. Come with me to interrogate Officer Cadbury.”
Officer Cadbury was already demoralized by the perp walk he had taken to booking, and knew that things were likely to get bad when he was held in headquarters's small jail area. His brother was an attorney and came in a panic, knowing what his brother had done and knowing that if it had broken publicly, there was going to be difficulty, because …
“Didn't you tell me that you already confessed to this years ago?” he said.
“Yeah, but who would have thought that old woman would buckle like that at this point?”
“Do you know who it was that brought you in?”
“Yeah … Lee or something.”
“That's the one that took out your friend Orton Thomas – his own boss, and he's still working!”
“How can that be?”
“Brother, you committed a whole murder, and you worked until you retired – you can never get comfortable with associates like that!”
“But it worked for so long!”
“But it isn't working any more!”
Atty. Cadbury thought for a long moment, and then sighed.
“Just confess again, brother. Throw in the towel. Do it that way and get it done, and then nobody has to start digging into everything else you were connected with. If you don't, and Lee is given room to start digging around you and those you associated with, you're going to get killed in prison or out of prison or wherever – if all you've been bragging about is even half-true, you're a dead man.”
Officer Cadbury thought about it.
“I've run the table this long, esquire. One little old woman probably wanted to clear her conscience before dying. Things aren't that serious.”
Atty. Cadbury had one of those moments like when a relative had been given a fatal diagnosis and the relative was in obvious and complete denial ... frustration, sadness, and then acceptance. At this point, the attorney knew that he had to throw in the towel on his brother's future, and start making preparations to protect himself, his firm, and his family.
“I'm saying it again, as your brother who is an attorney – you want to fight it, hire somebody else. I will sit here through the interrogation that you are being held here for, and I will advise you when to stop talking, and I will give you my advice when I see where the police are going on their investigation, but I am telling you: you don't have a leg to stand on.”