First Girl Gone(13)

He hooked a thumb at the wall. “Most of those are fake, by the way. The books. If you try to pick one up, the whole row comes with it. It’s just an empty shell with book spines stuck on.”

“I don’t know if anyone’s told you,” Charlie said, “but you’re not supposed to brag about being illiterate.”

Will flashed a good-natured grin.

“What I’m trying to get at is that so much of litigation is about the theatrics, especially in the courtroom. But it applies even in the privacy of your office. It was an incredibly valuable lesson to learn. About life and about people. All the world’s a stage, right?”

“Are you quoting Shakespeare now just to prove to me that you can read?”

“Shakes-who-now?” Will asked, feigning seriousness.

It was his favorite kind of joke, pretending to be stupid.

“Anyway,” he said, “what brings you to my humble establishment?”

“I’m here about Kara Dawkins.”

The smile on his face turned to a frown.

“What about her?”

“She’s missing. Her mother hired me to find her.”

“Missing?” he repeated. “For how long?”

“Since Wednesday afternoon.”

“Shit. Hold on one second.”

He lifted his phone from the desk, swiping and tapping at the screen. Charlie heard a number being dialed as Will pressed the phone to his ear.

“Amanda? Hi, it’s Will Crawford.” He paused. “I’m calling in regard to Kara Dawkins. Yeah. Well, apparently she’s missing.”

Will nodded as the other person spoke.

“Wednesday… I know that.” He sighed. “I know that, too. No, that’s why I called. Can you try? OK, thanks.”

He hung up then looked apologetically at Charlie.

“Sorry about that. That was Kara’s probation officer. I wanted to be sure she knows what’s going on. Otherwise this could really screw up her deal.”

“A girl is missing, and that’s what you’re worried about?”

“Hey, if you knew what it took to keep her out of juvenile detention… Did her parents tell you she resisted arrest?”

“No.”

“They wanted to charge her with assaulting an officer, which was bullshit. She’s five foot two. Probably 100 pounds soaking wet. She was just a scared kid who panicked. Struggled when they tried to put the cuffs on. No punches or anything. Anyway, my point is, wherever Kara is, I consider it part of my job to make sure things don’t go to shit in the meantime. The last thing I want is her getting back here and ending up in juvie because she screwed up her probation.”

“Would that happen? If she ran off and came back, would they really lock her up?”

“They could lock her up even if she didn’t run off.”

“OK, wait. You’re saying that—worst-case scenario—if someone kidnapped her or something, the court would still penalize her for violating her probation?”

“They could, if they wanted,” Will said, nodding. “Especially if a judge was feeling particularly salty that day.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“That’s justice. Or so the courts would have you believe.” He leaned back in his chair. “The whole thing is a racket. Do you know what Kara’s blood-alcohol was at the time of her arrest?”

“No.”

“Point-zero-three.”

Charlie frowned.

“But the legal limit is point-zero-eight.”

Will held up a finger.

“Not if you’re underage. Then the limit is point-zero-two in Michigan. It’s essentially zero tolerance for minors.”

“But she had been drinking,” Charlie pointed out.

“Look, I’m not saying what Kara did was right,” Will said. “She’s underage and had alcohol in her system. She should have been charged with minor in possession, sure. But a BAC of point-zero-three for a girl Kara’s size means she likely had a single drink—maybe less—over the course of an hour. If you had a glass of wine right now, would you be OK to drive in half an hour?”

“Yes.”

“See? We’re not talking about someone chugging a fifth of Popov and hopping behind the wheel. Kara had been drinking, but she was not drunk. There’s a difference, and it should matter.”

“OK, so why doesn’t it? To the legal system, I mean.”

“Because the whole DUI system is essentially a business. When they first started doing widespread breath tests, the American Medical Association was asked to come up with a blood-alcohol level that would signify impairment. Their number was point-one-five. And now we’re at point-zero-eight. Why? Because now they don’t even have to make a case of whether you’re actually impaired. It’s all down to the number. Pass/fail. And the lower they make it, the more people they catch in the net, and the more money they make from fines. It’s all about generating cash for the city.”

Will leaned back in his chair, swiveling slightly from side to side. “There have actually been articles about how Uber and Lyft are hurting local government coffers because DUI arrests are down. I’m not making this up. I mean, that should be a good thing, right? It just shows that this isn’t a system that’s primarily concerned with keeping people safe. If it were, they’d figure out comprehensive ways to actually prevent people from driving drunk. They’d be glad that rideshares are lowering DUI rates. But I’d put money on us seeing a push to lower the legal limit again very soon to compensate for the fact that the money isn’t flowing like it used to. They tried back in 2013 to get it lowered to point-zero-five. It’s a joke. The whole system is punitive and corrupt.”