Williams nodded as she collected her files and then strolled out of the room.
“Sorry for my dramatic entrance and the lack of an introduction. My name is Vivian Law, attorney at Bridgers and Milton. It’s really nice to meet you, Violet. I’ve heard so much about you.”
She held her hand out for me to shake, which I did.
“Nice to meet you, too. Can I ask who hired you on my behalf? Was it the hospital?”
She pulled the chair from the other side of the table to mine. Only one chair, a telltale sign they never intended for me to have a lawyer.
“A Jonathan Philips footed the bill.” The Weaver. Interesting. “An unnamed contributor asked for me directly. All I have is the initial A.” Avalanche and Weave. More interesting.
“Well, I’m gladAasked for you. Watching you put Chambers in his place was life changing.”
“I’m honoured. So, shall we sit and talk business?”
We spent ten minutes talking about my…extracurricular activities. She assured me I had nothing to worry about. The police couldn’t actually arrest me for having a list of phone numbers and aliases. Standing at the front of the hospital while keeping the police and the ERT from breaching was a little bit different. She’d have to coordinate with the hospital’s lawyers before she could advise on that.
When the detectives came back in, they only brought one chair with them. Chambers went back to the corner and leered some more. Williams laid out the files again and began asking her questions.
“How did you track down Avalanche?”
“I didn’t.”
“How did you find The Weaver?”
“I didn’t.”
She asked me about the other two. I gave her the same answer. Technically it wasn’t a lie—even with Avalanche, he was ultimately the one that cornered me.
“What can you tell us about these men and their routines?”
“Nothing.”
“How do you get in touch with them?”
“They get in touch with me.”
“How?”
“I was given a burner phone.”
“We’ll need to confiscate that.”
“It will be provided to you tomorrow,” Vivian jumped in.
“Today—”
“Tomorrow. It’s past 11 p.m. My client has been kept here against her will for three hours—without legal representation for two and a half. You will get the phone tomorrow. At a reasonable hour. When she feels like providing it.”
“So she can scrub all the numbers? I don’t think so.” Detective Grumpy spoke for the first time since returning. “She’ll provide the phone to the officer escorting her home.”
“She absolutely will not. It’s bad enough she was paraded through the hospital with handcuffs. You won’t do the same in her neighbourhood with a police car. I’ve arranged transportation for her when we’re done here. You will have the phonetomorrow.”
“Listen here?—”
“Oh my god.” Everyone in the room turned to look at me. “Do you just talk to hear yourself speak? It’s a burner phone, dumbass. There are no phone numbers to delete. It clears on its own.”
Maybe that wasn’t a feature of all burner phones, I’d never had occasion to use one before, but it was on mine and I was so tired that I was close to punching this guy in the face if I didn’t get out soon. He needed to shut the hell up.
