Free The Poet by Michael Connelly Page B

“But I want to give you the chance to clear this up, maybe even walk out of here without wasting your money on a lawyer.”
    She opened the duffel bag and pulled out the camera and the bag of Starburst candy the kids liked so much.
    “What is all of this?” she asked.
    “Looks pretty evident to me.”
    She held the camera up and looked at it as if she had never seen one before.
    “What is this used for?”
    “Takes pictures.”
    “Of children?”
    “I’d like a lawyer now.”
    “What about this candy? What do you do with that? Do you give that to children?”
    “I’d like to speak to a lawyer.”
    “Fuck the lawyer,” Sweetzer said angrily. “We’ve got your ass, Brisbane. You were taking pictures of kids at the showers. Little naked kids with their mothers. You fucking disgust me.”
    Gladden cleared his throat and looked at Delpy with dead eyes.
    “I don’t know anything about that. But I do have a question. I have to ask, where is the crime? You know? I’m not saying I did it, but if I did, I didn’t know taking photos of children at the beach was against the law now.”
    Gladden shook his head as if confused. Delpy shook her head as if disgusted.
    “Detective Delpy, I can assure you that there are numerous legal precedents that have held that observation of acceptable public nudity-in this case, a mother cleaning up a young child at the beach-cannot be transcribed as prurient interest. You see, if the photographer who took such a picture committed a crime, then you’d have to prosecute the mother as well for providing the opportunity. But you probably know all of this. I’m sure one of you spent the last hour and a half consulting the city attorney.”
    Sweetzer leaned close to him across the table. Gladden noted the smell of cigarettes and barbecued potato chips on his breath. He guessed Sweetzer had eaten the chips on purpose, just so his breath would be intolerable during the interrogation.
    “Listen to me, asshole, we know exactly what you are and what you’re doing. I’ve worked rape, homicide … but you guys, you are the lowest form of life there is on the planet. You don’t want to talk to us? Fine, no sweat. What we’re going to do is take you down to Biscailuz tonight and put you in with the general population. I know some people in there, Brisbane. And I’m going to put out the word. Know what happens to pedophiles in there?”
    Gladden turned his head slowly until he was staring calmly into Sweetzer’s eyes for the first time.
    “Detective, I’m not sure but I think your breath alone might constitute cruel and unusual punishment. If by chance I am ever convicted of taking photographs at the beach, I might make it a point of appeal.”
    Sweetzer swung his arm back.
    “Ron!”
    He froze, looked at Delpy and slowly lowered his arm.
    Gladden had not even flinched at the threat. He would have welcomed the blow. He knew it would have helped him in court.
    “Cute,” Sweetzer said. “What we’ve got here is a jailhouse lawyer thinks he knows all the angles. That’s nice. Well, you’re going to be filing some briefs tonight, if you know what I mean.”
    “Can I call a lawyer now?” Gladden said in a bored voice.
    He knew what they were doing. They had nothing and they were trying to scare him into making a mistake. But he wouldn’t accommodate them because he was too smart for them. And he suspected that deep down they knew he was.
    “Look, I’m not going to Biscailuz and we all know it. What have you got? You’ve got my camera, which, I don’t know if you checked, has no pictures in it. And you’ve got some ticket taker or a lifeguard or somebody else who says I took some photos. But there is no evidence of that other than their word. And if you just had them looking through the mirror at me, then that identification is tainted as well. It wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination an unbiased lineup.”
    He waited but they said nothing. He was in charge now.
    “But the