“Good morning, Konrad.” She opened the folder on the table and said, “I’d hoped there were two people with the same name. I never expected to see you here.” She waved him over to the seat on the opposite side.
Konrad gulped. He slowly made his way to the other side of the table and sat down gingerly.
“Would you prefer another attorney? Not that there are a lot of us, but if you’re uncomfortable…”
“No, I want you…um, to represent me, I mean.”Oh, God. Of all the public defenders! But maybe…“I really need your help, Roz. And I trust you to do your best, since I’m that rare innocent victim of the system you spoke of.”
Roz nodded to the guard, and he left them alone.
***
It figures I’d be attracted to another loser. Damn. Just my freakin’ luck. Why can’t I find a great guy like Merry did?Roz cursed her terrible taste in men. Just one more thing to blame on her stepfather.
“You’re being charged with breaking and entering and attempted grand theft. Are you aware of the process?”
“Process?”
“The legal proceedings?”
“No. This is the first time I’ve been arrested.” He hung his head.
She saw tears welling up in his eyes, and her heart automatically constricted. What should she do? Show sympathy? Try to face it like an impartial attorney? She sighed. Until she knew the whole story, she’d have to put on her best poker face.
“Well, that should help. Give me a minute to look over the police report.” She tried to maintain a professional distance and demeanor, but the details of what she was reading sounded so ridiculous, she wanted to laugh. Either that or reach out and squeeze his hand, telling him everything would be all right. The charge was preposterous. He couldn’t have done what the witness said he did. And what a witness! A street person? He was probably drunk or hallucinating or both. She doubted the police would even be able to find him if the case went to trial, which it wouldn’t. She’d get it dismissed if it was the last thing she did.
“What were you doing in that alley late at night?”
Konrad’s expression didn’t waver. “Just taking a walk. Some people like long walks on the beach, I like long walks around the city.”
“I like long walks too, but not at three in the morning, and certainly not in back alleys.”
“There’s less traffic. I can think better when it’s quiet. And who would mug me?”
Did she imagine it, or did he just flex his pecs? Either way, she had to look down and not at the hot guy in front of her.Christ, I’d better take some deep breaths and clear my head.“Okay, so let’s say you were just out for a walk, and then what happened?”
He shrugged.
“Come on. Are you telling me a five-hundred pound freezer fell out of the sky and hit you? Because the police report said there was no heavy equipment nearby. No way to lift it, yet the witness said he saw you carrying it out of a restaurant on your back.”
Konrad laughed. “I was passing by and wondered what it was doing there. Itriedto lift it, to at least get it out of the street, but it toppled over. Fortunately it was only my pants leg that got pinned.”
Roz took a deep breath. “Well, first is the arraignment. That will happen today. If the judge feels there’s a case, he’ll set bail.”
“Bail? How much do think that’ll be?”
“Well, nothing, if I can get the charges dropped, and that’s what I intend to do.”
“Really? Do you think you can?”
Roz leaned back in her chair. “You never know what will happen, but the witness claims he saw you carrying the freezer, fully loaded with frozen meats, on your back. Hang on a minute.”
Roz opened her laptop and typed incommercial freezers. She found one about the same size as the one Konrad had allegedly picked up and carried. “Okay, this size and type of restaurant freezer weighs about five hundred pounds empty and holds fifty-seven cubic feet of frozen food. And the police report states it was filled with frozen beef, fish, and chicken.”
“How much weight do you think that would add?”
“I can guess, since I do my own shopping and cooking. Let’s see, by my estimate, a cubic foot of equal amounts of those items weighs about twenty-five pounds. That’s fourteen hundred twenty-five pounds. Combined with the weight of the freezer itself, you would have had to pick up and carry about one ton. Is that even humanly possible?”
Konrad laughed. “It sure isn’t. Nohumancould possibly accomplish that. I think the world record for weightlifting is about half that.”
