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Ryan shifted in his chair.
“I was bored.”
I wasn’t buying that, but it was close to a confession, so I persisted.
“You do it on your own? Or did you have some friends in on this?”
He crossed his arms over his chest, stubbornly refusing to answer.
“It does you no good to protect your friends when you’re sitting in a police station.”
The kid leaned closer to me. “I got no friends here.” He glared at his father, then shifted back in his seat. “I’m here because of him.”
The picture just became clear. “You thought if you caused trouble, he’d send you home.”
Ryan opened his mouth to speak, but Avery rested a hand on his forearm, shaking her head no.
“I don’t want to be here. My friends are in Texas. My life is in Texas. I hate it here.”
“You haven’t given it a chance,” Ryan said.
I stood. “I’ll give you a minute.”
Following Dexter outside into the hallway, I asked, “What do you think?”
“He’s skirting the issue, giving excuses, but we don’t have a clear I did it.”
I shook my head. “I’m used to being more direct.”
Dexter smirked. “This is good practice for you.”
“So you keep saying.”
Avery closed the door to the conference room. “I thought I’d let those two talk for a minute. Can we have a word?”
“Sure.” I took her into a nearby office. “What’s up?”
“Listen, this kid’s crying out for help. He’s not your usual suspect. I promise you.”
“What do you want us to do about it?” I asked, easily falling into my bad cop role.
“It’s clear that he needs help. He can work at the garage to pay restitution.”
“You know we don’t make these decisions. We give what we have to the state’s attorney’s office; they decide on what charges will stick.”
“Will you recommend going light? He didn’t hurt anyone.”
“He could have. He literally ran into Hailey Stockton.” He could have hurt Remi.
“You can only go on the facts you have. You can place him at the Spice & Tea Shoppe, but unless he admits it, not anywhere else.”
It would be hard to wrestle a confession out of him as a minor. Bluster and manipulation would only void anything we got.
“We have video on the juice shop.”
Avery crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve seen the video. You can’t identify who it is.”
“You might be right, but we’re not done here.”
