Free Theodore Boone: The Accused by John Grisham Page A

“Any luck tracing his call?”
    “Sort of,” Hamilton answered abruptly, and it was obvious he did not want to be pressed by Ike. “It came from a pay phone near the hospital, so it will be difficult to determine who made the call.”
    “What time was it received?” asked Woods Boone.
    “Nine twenty,” Hamilton replied.
    Mr. Boone continued: “So, if the tablets were not in Theo’s locker at eight forty, when he stopped by, then the thief opened his locker at some point during the first period. After he dropped off the tablets, he either left the school and raced to a pay phone near the hospital and made the call, or he notified someone on the outside that the mission was accomplished and the police could then be notified. Probably the latter. So you have more than one member of some little gang at work here.”
    Detective Hamilton stared at Woods Boone, who stared right back. “Perhaps you should become a detective,” Hamilton said.
    “Perhaps you should see the obvious here. This was a plant. A setup. Don’t know who or why, but it’s pretty clear that Theo had nothing to do with it. Right now he’s a victim, not a suspect.”
    “I haven’t called him a suspect, Mr. Boone,” Hamilton said coolly. “The crime is less than twenty-four hours old, give us a break here. We’ve just begun the investigation.”
    “What’s next, as far as Theo is concerned?” asked Mrs. Boone.
    “He’s free to go. We’re not going to arrest him in the middle of the night. If we need to have another chat, I’ll give you a call.” Hamilton was getting a bit testy, probably because he was getting grilled by a bunch of lawyers. “Our job is to track down all leads and try to determine who committed this crime. We don’t know if Theo is telling the truth. He certainly sounds believable, but I’m a detective and I’ve talked to a lot of criminals who claimed to be innocent. Maybe he is, maybe he’s not. You folks have no doubts, but that’s not the way detectives go about their work. One day, soon we hope, we’ll know a lot more, and then I’d like to be able to say, ‘Theo, you’re telling the truth.’ Until that happens, though, I’m not believing anybody.”
    “You don’t believe me?” Theo asked, wounded.
    “Look, Theo, I don’t know if you’re lying, and I don’t know if you’re telling the truth. It’s too early for me, as the detective handling the case, to make that decision. We don’t have much evidence in this case, so far, but what we do have points to you. Do you understand this?”
    Theo nodded slightly, but it was obvious he wasn’t pleased with it.
    Hamilton looked at his watch, closed a file, and said, “Now, I thank you folks for stopping by, and, as I said, we’ll be in touch.”
    The Boones walked out of the police building in a small group. No one was smiling.
    Theo tried to study in his office at Boone & Boone, but he was too distracted. A new window had been installed, and the shattered glass had been removed. There was no sign of the damage from yesterday afternoon, but Theo could still hear the crash of the breaking glass, the sharp thud of the rock hitting the bookshelf, the splattering of debris, the shriek of panic from Judge, followed quickly by a furious round of barking in the frantic seconds afterward. Theo could almost hear something else. He thought he had heard it in a dream. He thought he had heard it once that morning at school during first period, before the police showed up and ruined his day. He could almost close his eyes, place himself at his desk when the rock came crashing through, and then, in the seconds that followed, he could almost hear footsteps. Someone was running away. The person who threw the rock was making his escape from close by. Theo wished a dozen times he had been able to catch a glimpse of the person running away.
    Who was this mysterious person? Was it an adult? Another student? Male or female? A lone gunman or a member of a gang?
    Even