the lawyer, anne greenleaf, and her client, rutherford b hayes, returned to the interrogation room much sooner than taft had anticipated.
“so soon?” he asked pleasantly.
“yes,” greenleaf said. “i think we might be able to clear this up pretty quickly.”
“how so?” taft asked.
“just how sure is this - officer -“ she nodded towards grundy - “that mr hayes here is the man he encountered previously and acted in what the officer regarded as a suspicious manner?”
“i am not at all sure,” grundy answered, before taft could get a word in. “in fact, the more i think about it, the more i think he wasn’t the guy i saw at all.”
“well, then, i guess there s nothing more to say, is there? i think we can all go home now, or go about our business, can’t we?”
taft knew when he was beaten. he managed not to look at grundy, whom he felt like beating with a stick.
“well then,” greenleaf said, “imy client and i bid you a good evening.”
“there is just one thing,” taft said.
“and what is that?”
taft addressed rutherford b hayes. “don’t you want your phone back?”
“um - oh yeah, sure.”
greenleaf stared at taft. “well - why don’t you just give it back to him?”
“i was not sure how cooperative mr hayes was going to be, or ” - taft glanced at grundy - “how easily the situation would be resolved. so i sent his phone to be copied. which i have the authority to do, under regulation -“
“whatever,” greenleaf interrupted him. “do you want to wait around for it?” she asked rutherford b hayes.
“um - i am not sure;”
“we can have it sent to you ,” taft said. “if you don’t want to wait.”
“uh - that might be best, ” rutherford b hayes said.
“what is your address?”
“send it to me,” greenleaf said. “to the legal assistance office, to my attention - anne greenleaf.”
taft was astonished, and showed it. “are you sure?”
“positive.”
*
when greenleaf and rutherford b hayes were gone and the door closed behind them, taft turned to grundy.
“grundy, what have you done?”
“i don’t know - you tell me.”
“how weird was that - having the phone sent to her?”
“who knows?” grundy seemed amused by the whole thing. “maybe they are old pals. maybe they fell in love in room 24 and can’t wait to find a motel and get serious. i don’t care. do you?”
“but - the whole thing is crazy. crazy from start to finish. and we let him slip through our fingers. the captain isn’t going to like it when i make my report. he will want answers from both of us.”
grundy stood up. “we can sort it out with the captain tomorrow. right now, my mom is probably worrying about me. good night, lieutenant.”
*
a few minutes after grundy left, a tech returned with rutherford b hayes’s phone.
“that was easy,” she told taft.
“what was easy about it?”
“there was nothing on it. no stored data, not a single phone number stored, no texts or e-mails.”
“like it was brand new? was it registered?”
“it was registered to mr kenneth kangaroo, of carlsbad new mexico. but no mr kangaroo is listed as living in carlsbad new mexico at this point in time.” the tech laughed. “we could try to trace him. do you want us to?”
“let me think about it,” taft said. “leave the phone with me.”
23. the slip
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