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The text message I’d received from Shannon had confirmed it.
“Oh shit, what did he do this time?” Casey spluttered in surprise, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me inside. “Wait—we are talking about Joey here, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, Case,” I choked out, chest heaving. “Obviously.”
“Obviously,” she agreed, walking us over to the couch. “Okay, you sit and start explaining, and I’ll boil the kettle.”
“I don’t want you to make tea,” I cried, dropping my head in my hands. “I want you to help me get him out.”
“Of jail?” Her brows shot up. “How?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t just leave him there.”
“How about you explain why he’s there in the first place and then we can make a plan?”
Sucking in a shuddering breath, I delved right into the day’s events at Tommen, leaving no stone unturned.
“Come on, Aoife , this is Joey we’re talking about,” Casey tried to coax once I was finished regaling her with my tale of woe. “He’s like a cat with nine lives. He’ll get a slap on the wrist and be out in no time.”
“No.” Sniffling, I shook my head. “You don’t get it. He’s over eighteen now.”
“Shit, you’re right,” my best friend agreed, flopping down on the couch beside me. “The Gards in this town have been dreaming about this day. They’re going to throw the book at him.”
“Not helping.”
“Yeah, sorry, I just heard myself.” Slapping her forehead, she twisted sideways on the couch and offered me a supportive hug. “Listen, I know it’s really fucking scary, but you need to listen to what Joe said.” She squeezed me tighter. “You need to look after that baby.”
“And who’s going to look after Joey?”
100
Unanswered Calls and Unexpected Lifelines
JOEY
Clad in my BCS school uniform and rocking handcuffs, I was escorted by the Gards into a private waiting room at the back of the courthouse to meet my legal aid and await my turn before the judge. The most shocking part of the whole ordeal was the well-dressed man waiting for me in said waiting room.
“Joey Lynch.” John Kavanagh looked up from the table he was sitting at and smiled. “We meet again.”
The fuck?
“What are you doing here?” I asked, sinking down on the chair opposite him. “You’re not my solicitor.”
“I am today,” he mused, combing through a stack of paperwork that I assumed contained my file. Shit, knowing my luck, the whole damn stack was dedicated to me. “If you’ll have me.”
“I’m broke,” I decided to throw out there. “And no offense, but it’s pretty clear from the mansion you live in and the designer suit you’re wearing that you don’t work for free.”
“And I’m actually a barrister.”
“Even more expensive.” I shrugged, feeling at a loss. “Listen, John, I appreciate this, but I could work for a year and never be able to afford your services, so I’ll just take my chances with the free legal aid rep.”
“I’ll be requiring an urgent meeting with your superintendent to explain to me in great detail why my client is displaying very clear physical evidence of excessive force at the hands of your colleagues,” he surprised me by saying, turning his steel-blue eyes on the Garda lingering near the door. “Which, before you try to excuse away, I am more than willing to have a medical professional attest to.”
“Your client was arrested for fighting. He got those bruises from—”
“My client is an eighteen-year-old boy with a horrendous, detailed history of domestic violence. There are reams of reports of him being the victim of atrocious child abuse at the hands of his caregivers. That’s not to mention his even more troubling history of being let down by both the state and the Garda Siochana in this town,” John interjected coolly. “Quite frankly, I’m astounded your superiors had the nerve to take this boy before the judge. Once I’m finished making a spectacle of them, I’ll be turning my attention to the long list of Gards, social workers, and authority figures that failed my client and his family.” Leaning back in his chair, John rolled a pen between his fingers absent-mindedly, while giving the officer a cool appraisal. “Now, when you’re ready, my client and I will have the room.”
Red-faced and fuming, the Gard turned on his heel and stalked out, leaving us alone in the room.
