“You could ask the judge to give them twenty-five years of community service.”
Wolfgang sat up in his bed. “I want to talk to them.” He looked at me but then settled on Sam. “Can you make that happen, Officer Samson? I need to talk to them. All of them.”
16.
Sam and I stood in the parking lot before we went our separate ways. “Weird guy, your friend Wolfgang,” she said.
“He’s not my friend.”
“Why does he want to talk to Harvey and the other idiots?”
“I think he believes he can spread peace on earth, one peace at a time.”
“Is he a megalomaniac?”
“He’s got this piece of limestone that he thinks has his extraterrestrial father’s handprint on it. Wolfgang believes that people who touch the stone feel better. Maybe even become better people.”
“If they do let him talk to Harvey,” Sam said, “they won’t let him take a lump of stone into the interview room. They’d be afraid your Wolfgang would just whack him on the head with it.”
“That’d make us feel better, in his place,” I said. “But then again you and I are not extraterrestrials.”
“I suppose I should be thankful that you’re human, no matter what Mom says.”
“She was never that beautiful,” I said. “It was her brains I went for. But then they ran out.”
“Why didn’t you tell Wolfgang that he can’t run his house as a refuge anymore?”
“Maybe he’ll pass his handprint around Children’s Services and they’ll sign him up and everyone will live happily ever after.”
“You think?”
“With him, I don’t know what to think,” I said. “Will Elaine face charges?”
“She and Laurie didn’t tell Harvey ‘Go stab,’ but they provided information knowing it was likely to result in a felony crime. Most judges won’t like that much, especially in an election year.”
“Maybe Wolfgang will want to fund a high-priced lawyer for her.”
“Has he got a lot of money?”
“I have no idea.”
“Will you go back in there now and tell him that Elaine might be in trouble?”
“Do you think I should?” I said.
“Maybe for Nicole,” Sam said.
“Yeah, all right. Good kid, isn’t she?”
“Yeah.”
“Like you,” I said. And she didn’t even smack me for calling her a kid.
Copyright © 2012 by Michael Z. Lewin