The next couple of days were a haze. I slept a lot on account of the pain meds. And I didn't care. Sleeping was better than the alternative.
On the third day, Grady showed up. I heard Momz and him talking in the hall before he came in the room.
"Any change of attitude?" he asked.
"No, CW's still certain his friends are going to stick by him. And he still says he can't remember anything after he drank the coke."
"Let me talk to him alone, Patty," he said.
"Don't try to strong arm him," she said. "He's just a scared kid."
"Like she knows anything," I thought. "I wasn't afraid of a couple of cops. Jake and Marlow had my back."
Grady came into the room. He pulled a chair up beside the bed. "We need to talk about a plan of defense," he said.
"Why? I'm not under arrest."
"You may be soon. Jake is being moved to the infirmary in the jail today. The police are under a lot of pressure to make their case. If you stay mum, they will include you in the charges."
"So?"
"Let me read you a list of the charges being levied against Jake and Marlow," he said. "Breaking and entering, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, reckless driving, vehicular negligence, driving under the influence, possession of stolen goods, and possession of schedule II narcotics with intent to distribute."
"They're just bluffing," I said. "I told the cops I let Jake and Marlow in F2. I gave them permission to drive Popz bike. That gets rid of the first two charges and the stolen goods thing. We didn't drink enough to be over the legal limit, so the DUI is bogus. Where'd the narc charge come from? Did they have something in their pockets?"
"The police are not bluffing," Grady said. "I'll take your statements one at a time. You told the police that Jake and Marlow broke through the fence and climbed through a window. That makes it a B&E. It doesn't matter that you knew they were doing it. It's not legally your shed. All your knowledge does is make you an accomplice. The motorcycle isn't legally yours, so it doesn't matter if you gave them permission to drive it. It still belongs to your Dad, and he didn't give anyone permission to ride it, including you. Your alcohol level was not over the legal limit, so you don't have to worry about that charge. Both of theirs were over the limit. They'd evidently started drinking before arriving at your place and spiking the drinks. The narc charge came from this." He handed me a photo. It was a picture of about 10 bottles of Oxy sitting on the saddlebag of the fallen Blue Ox.
I stared at the picture. "It's a setup," I said. "Somebody planted these. Uncle Clarence cleaned out Popz stash. They couldn't have had these pills on them."
"The pills were in the saddlebag," Grady said. "They have your Dad's name on them. That makes you the prime suspect. Since they were on the bike, your friends share the charge, unless you want to claim they were yours and they didn't know anything about them."
"So are they coming to arrest me?"
"Not yet. They are giving you two days to 'get over,'" he made parentheses in the air, "your amnesia. If your memory doesn't return, they're going to charge you. If they charge you, they're going to petition the judge to try you as an adult."
"Isn't it your job to make sure that doesn't happen?"
"To make sure what doesn't happen? You getting charged or you getting tried as an adult?" He didn't wait for me to answer. "I'm sitting here trying to make sure you don't get charged with the same things as your homies. No matter what, I imagine you'll get charged with something. If you cooperate with the police, though, you can probably get by with some probation time."
"So rat out Jake and Marlow, and they can do jail while I get my hand slapped?"
"Telling the police what happened is not ratting," he said. "It's telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
"Truth is relative," I said. "I mean, they are going to charge the guys even though the cops know they didn't intend to break and enter."
"And you can get on the witness stand and tell the jury that if you want. Maybe you can convince them that truth is relative. But the law is the law, and they will be charged under the law."
"As far as you being tried as an adult," he said. "When you are arrested, it will be my job to convince a judge that you should be tried as a juvenile. If you insist on defending your friends to that judge, he may decide that you made an adult decision and need to be tried as such. As long as BJ is alive, I can probably convince the judge to stick with juvie. If he dies, all bets are off."
He stood up. "Just think about everything. Talk it over with your Mom or your Uncle. Don't end up behind bars because of some misplaced loyalty. They are going to try the three of you separately. That means that the police are working right now to try to get Jake and Marlow to roll on you. If they tell the cops that you were the driver or that the Oxy was yours or that you wanted to teach BJ a lesson, any of those things will put you in jail. Possibly for a long, long time."
He left the room. A few minutes later Momz came in. She was carrying a uniform.
"I thought you were off today," I said.
"I'm supposed to be, but Jeannie's Mom had a heart attack. You're improving, so I agreed to cover her shift."
"Where's my phone?" I asked. "I thought I'd Skype Sasha."
"It's in a police evidence bag. It was found in the street at the scene of the accident."
"Can they go through my tweets and texts and stuff?"
"I don't know. Ask Grady. All I know is that they have it and won't give it back."
She took her phone out of her purse. "Use mine," she said.
"Sasha won't know it's me.".
"Can't you sign in under your account?"
I turned red. Momz wasn't supposed to remind me about computer stuff I should know. "Oh, yeah," I mumbled. "Slipped my mind."
"That's not surprising." Her voice was tinged with sarcasm "What with the amnesia and all."
"Momz!" I said.
She smiled tightly. "I'm just going to get dressed and go grab a bite to eat before I have to show up for shift change. You keep my phone."
As soon as Momz was gone, I tried calling Sasha. There was no answer.
"Duh," I said out loud. "It's 10:15. She's in school."
"Who you talking to?" Uncle Clarence asked, pushing the door open.
"Nobody," I said. "And I told Momz to tell you I didn't want to talk to you either, you backstabber."
"I know what you told your Mom, and I've stayed away since you regained consciousness, but I told Paul I would talk to you."
"Oh, man. Did you rat me out to him?"
"If you mean did I tell him his son was in the hospital in a coma, of course I did."
"I mean did you tell him about how I hijacked Blue Ox and pretty much destroyed it?"
"Well, I had to tell him why you were in a coma. He kinda put two and two together when I told him you were in a motorcycle accident."
"So now he's not in my corner, either."
"What do you mean he's not in your corner? Of course he is. He organized a round the clock prayer vigil for you at the prison. That bike doesn't mean anything to him. It's just a thing. You're his son, man. Get real." He took a deep breath. "We're all in your corner. Your Mom has practically lived here. I was here as long as you were in a coma. Seth has been in and out. He even brought his pastor and elders in to lay hands on you and pray."
"If you're in my corner, then why did you set Jake and Marlow up?" I asked.
"What are you talking about? I didn't set anybody up."
"Well, you cleaned out Popz stash, so you were the only one who could have planted drugs on them." I glared at him. "Unless you gave them to Momz, and she did it."
"What? I didn't have Paul's pill stash."
"But I saw the video. You opened the hidden compartment and took out all of Dad's booze and drugs." I interrupted myself. "That's it, the video! It'll get the possession charge dropped."
Unk gave me a puzzled look. "I don't think so. I did look behind the fake back in the cabinet, but there weren't any pills in there. There were beaucoup bottles of Jack Daniels, some weed and a bong, but that's it."
I had Momz phone. I pulled up Livecam up on her phone, but there wasn't a way to look at past videos.
"So do you know if this Livecam place records and keeps videos?" I asked.
"I don't know, Bud. But if you saw the video, then you know I didn't take any pills."
"The angle wasn't very good," I admitted. "The box was sort of behind the chair. I could hear the bottles clinking and you talking, though."
"So, think about it, CW. Did you hear me say anything about Oxy?"
I played the video over in my mind. "No," I admitted. "I didn't."
"Jake and Marlow had to have already taken the pills out and hid them in the saddlebag," he said.
"But when?"
"You tell me."
"How should I know?" I scowled at him. "Why don't you just go? You're not helping, and I still don't believe you're in my corner. You had the key to Blue Ox the whole time and didn't tell me."
"I did have it. Paul made me promise not to tell you when he found out your Mom was letting you use the shed. I didn't want to do it, but he insisted. What was I supposed to do?" He threw his hands up in the air. "I didn't want to clean out his stash, either, but someone had to do it. With you hanging out with Jake and Marlow, it was dangerous to leave it there. And if your Mom found it..." He raised his eyebrows. "Fireworks for sure."
"Yeah, well she found out the same way I did."
"And you're the one who set off the fireworks." He handed me a bag he was carrying. "I'm gonna go, like you asked. I brought you these. Try not to eat them all in one sitting."
As he left, I looked in the bag. It was full of candy. Sour patch kids, sour worms, sour cherries, and sour Skittles. All my favorites.
After he left, I pulled the tray up in front of me. Momz had brought my school supplies, in case I was feeling up to doing the homework list the school provided. She had left a notebook and pen on the tray.
"If you can't do anything else," she said. "Why don't you write in your English journal? Maybe you can sort your thoughts out on paper."
I opened the notebook to the back. I wasn't going to share my thoughts with my English teacher, but I needed to try and sort things out.
I picked up the pencil with my left hand. It felt weird, but my right hand was in a cast. I tried writing my name. It looked like a two year old had gotten ahold of my notebook. "Oh well, it doesn't matter," I thought. "Nobody but me is going to read this."
I slowly wrote "Incriminating Evidence" across the top of a page.
"This is going to take forever," I thought. It didn't really matter though. All I had was time. I started listing. It was a good thing I had to stop and think between items. My hand got tired after a sentence. I did slowly get the hang of it, but it took me most of an hour to come up with the list.
1.) There were boxes in the trunk of Jake's car that contained at least a computer. 2.) Jake gave me a brand new I-pad. 3.) They always had money for booze and smokes. 4.) There had been a series of B&Es in our area. 5.) Jake and Marlow were living in their car. 6.)Marlow wanted to sell the Oxy, and the guys were down on their luck. 7.) Seth had put in cameras they day after Jake and Marlow broke into the house and raided the pantry. 8.) Jake had stopped Marlow from saying something he didn't want me to know and then told me about the raid on the pantry as an explanation. Could he have been covering? 9.) Jake and Marlow could have put the oxy in the saddlebags the same day they doubled back and raided my eats. 10.) When Jake raised the seat to hotwire the Blue Ox, the wires were already loose. 11.) Jake knew where to find electrical tape. 12.) Jake intentionally targeted BJ, but he said he just wanted to scare him.
I put the pen down and groaned. It sure didn't look good. "But it's all circumstantial," I thought.
Just then there was a rap on the door.
"Come in," I said.
A guy poked his head around the door. "Troy?" I said. "How'd your find me?"
He came into the room. He set a box on the recliner that Momz usually sat in and came over to the bed. He was sweating. The guy looked nervous.
He had a newspaper in his hand.
"I read this," he said. There was a picture of BJ's mangled bicycle with the Blue Ox lying on it's side in the street. "The article named the injured."
"But I just told you I was CW. There could be lots of CW's in Jefferson Parish."
"You gave me your Popz name, remember? Braisford is not that common of a name."
"Why'd you come?" I asked. "You don't even know me."
"No, I don't, but I wanted to help the son of a brother."
"How're you going to help?"
He shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe you need someone to talk to who's not family."
"Maybe," I admitted. "You gonna rat me out to Popz?"
"I ain't gonna tell nobody unless you ask me to."
"Was the bike your Popz?" He picked up the paper. "It looks like a classic."
"Yeah, it belonged to Popz. He said I could have it when I was 18."
"But you weren't willing to wait?"
"Momz won't let me go see Popz. He's been in prison for six years." The dam inside broke. All of the injustices came pouring out. "Momz sent all his letters back and didn't tell me. She let me think he didn't love me. She didn't get the mail quick enough one day, and I got a birthday card from Popz. She and I have been on the outs ever since, at least most of the time. We've sort of had a love/hate thing going. She refused to let me go to the Angel Tree party and hauled my ass to Mexico for Christmas. She dissed my homies, too. She hid a camera in my crib after telling me it was clean. I caught her looking at a video of my crib. My Uncle, Popz brother, was stealing a hidden stash of whiskey and stuff Popz had left behind. I thought Unk was in my corner, but he knew Momz had been sending Popz letters back. He explained that away, but then I found out he had the key to the Blue Ox, that's Popz bike. He pretended he didn't know where it was. Now the cops are threatening to throw the book at me if I don't roll on my homies."
Troy took a deep breath. "Okay, let's sift through all that. You're mad at your Mom for betraying you, I take it?"
"Yeah. I flashed out when I first found out and got drunk and decorated the walls and stuff. I ended up grounded for two months. When she wouldn't let me go to Angel Tree, I quit talking to her. I thought she turned Popz in to the police. When I found out it wasn't her, I gave her a break and started talking to her. That was before the camera thing, though."
"Does she leave you alone here all the time?"
"No," I admitted. "She was here the whole time I was in a coma, like for three days. She's a nurse and a single Mom so she had to go back to work some. But she works here so she checks in on me and has her nurse friends keep an eye out. When she's not working, she's here." I bit my fingernail. "She said there's nothing I can do to make her stop loving me," I admitted. "She made some bad decisions, but she does love me. I know that now."
"And your Uncle? You don't think he's got your back?"
"Well, maybe. I mean, he kept Popz secrets and Momz, but he said he had to do it so that he could still see me and give Popz updates and stuff. Momz wasn't doing it." I picked up the bag of candy. "He came by today and brought a peace offering. Want some sours?" I asked.
"Sure," He took a few Sour Patch Kids. "I have a weakness for these things."
We chewed in silence for a minute.
"Well, it sounds to me like your Uncle and your Mom love you and want to be here for you." He looked at the paper lying on the bed. "That leaves the police and your homies. So what makes you think the police are trying to get you to roll on your homies?"
"My Momz and my lawyer both say they're going to try to get me to roll, and if I don't, they'll try to get my homies to roll on me."
"I saw the cop outside, but she didn't try to stop me from coming in, so I figured you're not under arrest."
"Is that why you looked nervous?" I grinned. "They tell me she's there for my protection, in case my homies send someone to take out a potential witness. I told them they wouldn't do that. I think she's just supposed to try to loosen me up, though. She keeps trying to do things for me like bring me water and stuff. She's playing good cop to their bad."
"So, why do you have a lawyer?"
"Momz thought I needed one, just in case. She's sure I'm going to be charged after Jake and Marlow finger me. She said they're adults in the eyes of the law and I'm not, so they have a reason to turn on me."
"She could be right, you know."
"Nah, you don't know them. They're my brothers. They'll do anything for me, just like you'll do things for your brothers still behind bars."
"Maybe they had your back when you were hanging out together, but their lives are at stake now. I've met a few bothers who got a bad shake when their homies turned on them. Think this thing through before you cut off the limb you're balanced on."
"So, you're telling me to rat them out?"
"Would you be making something up to duck the rap, or would you be telling it like it is?"
"I wouldn't make anything up."
"The you're not ratting them out. You're just telling it like it is and protecting yourself."
I tore the page out of the back of the notebook and handed it to him. "I've been thinking about things and making this list. Most of it's circumstantial, though."
He read it through. "One through five don't have anything to do with the accident. You don't need to share that with the police. It's all speculation. You might want to tell your lawyer, though, just in case it comes into play."
He pointed to number six, seven and eight.. "Sounds like Marlow had a reason to want to take the Oxy. The fact that they actually went into your house uninvited sounds bad, but again, it's not relevant to the accident."
He looked down one more time. "The last three do have something to do with the accident. You need to share those your lawyer. He'll probably tell you to inform the cops as well. That info could get you a deal." He looked at me. "Do you have a juvie record already?"
"No."
"Then a judge will probably go easy on you if you tell what you know."
"That's what my lawyer thinks."
"Then listen to him," he said. "Don't go being all noble. They could still decide to charge you and try you as an adult, you know."
I sighed. "That's what everyone keeps telling me."
"Why do you care, anyway? Your brotherhood thing doesn't seem like reason enough to show up here, especially with a cop in the hall."
He looked down at his hands. "I have a son," he said. "He joined a gang while I was in prison. He's doing life for a murder committed during a gang shakedown. Maybe if someone had talked straight to him, he wouldn't be where he is."
He sort of cleared his throat. I recognized the frog he was trying to get rid of. I looked over at the recliner, to give him some space.
"What's in the box?"
He got up and picked up the box. He brought it to the bed. "I made you something, but I wasn't sure if you'd want it. That's why I wanted to talk first."
He set the box on the bed. I took the lid off and stared. I slowly lifted a model out of the box. It was Popz bike. All the colors and things were perfect. The details were all there, down to a tiny key hanging from the ignition. The key I never had. It even had the name Blue Ox stenciled in the right place.
"How did you do this?" I asked. "That picture in the paper doesn't show all the detail."
"I have a friend who works at the station as an artist. He draws sketches of people from descriptions witnesses give. Stuff like that. I got him to take a look at the bike and draw it for me."
"But people pay you thousands of dollars to make models," I said.
"I know, but there wasn't much I could do to help."
"It's wonderful." I gulped and wiped my eyes on my sleeve. I didn't even try to hide the emotion. "I'll be your apprentice for free when I get out of here."
"You don't have to do that, but you're welcome to come hang out and learn. I already told you that." He stood up. "I better get going."
"See ya," I said. "And thanks."
"Any time."