CHAPTER 13
They took Jimmy up to the second floor of the police station and had him sit at a small metal table in a side room. They gave him a soda.
Finally a man came in who was wearing regular clothes, but with a police badge on the outside of his jacket. Jimmy guessed he was a boss of the policeman who had brought him in from Fancy Freeze.
"Lieutenant Mitchell Stonewaller," the man said, smiling. He extended his hand for Jimmy to shake.
"James, I'm going to cut right to the chase here," he said. "You are suspected of being in violation of Criminal Code 42-f, which is 'willful and malicious destruction of private property'."
"Sorry," Jimmy said.
"Son, what you did may not seem like a serious crime to you," Lieutenant Stonewaller said, "but it's something we take very seriously,"
"I understand that," Jimmy said.
"Oh really?" said the Lieutenant, in a rougher tone of voice now. "You want to tell me what else you were thinking about destroying with that power drill before the officer came and apprehended you?"
"Nothing else," said Jimmy.
"You break things at home?"
"What?"
"Do you go around breaking things in your own house, kid," said the Lieutenant, "or do you just save your criminal behavior for other people's property that you couldn't care less about?!"
"All right, that's enough."
It was a woman's voice. Jimmy looked over and saw Mrs. McCoy entering the room. She had a dead serious look on her face, a look he'd never seen from her before.
"Ma'am?" said the Lieutenant.
"I'm Mr. Martin's lawyer," she said. "Please don't ask him any further questions at this time."
She's a lawyer?, thought Jimmy.
"Fine," said the Lieutenant, and he left the room
Mrs. McCoy closed the door. "You okay Jimmy?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, but not meaning it.
"Okay, look," she said. "I'm going to go talk to the officers. Make a few phone calls. I'm pretty sure I can work this thing out."
"Thank you," he said, not knowing what else to say.
"And Jimmy, what you did," she said, "it was very brave."
"I shouldn't have drilled the door...I should have waited," Jimmy said.
Mrs. McCoy smiled as she left the room.
Twenty minutes later, Lieutenant Stonewaller came back, this time with the officer who had picked up Jimmy. Mrs. McCoy followed them.
"James," the Lieutenant began, "after careful review and discussion, we have decided to drop this matter,"
Jimmy let out a big exhale.
"Provided," continued the Lieutenant, "that you perform the work which your attorney, Mrs. McCoy, has arranged."
"We spoke to the restaurant manger, Mr. Jensen," Jenny's mom said. "He agreed to forget about the whole thing if you can go in there every Monday for the next five weeks and wash dishes for two hours. Is that acceptable?"
"Heck yes!" said Jimmy.
"It's kind of the way things worked in the old days," she said. "If someone got in a little trouble with a restaurant--if they finished their meal and realized they didn't have enough money to pay for it, for instance--they could often resolve it by washing dishes."
"Happened to me once," said the Lieutenant.
"It did?" said the officer.
"Really?" said Mrs. McCoy.
"Long time ago, back in high school," he said. "Took a girl on a first date to a sort of fancy restaurant. She ordered all the most expensive things on the menu, and when the bill was totaled up, I was short. Explained it privately to the owner, and the guy was nice enough. Let me come back and wash dishes."
"Wow," said the officer.
"Course a few years later, after I became a policeman," said the Lieutenant, "guy gave me free meals. I kept an eye on his restaurant for him."
"He did?" said the officer. "What restaurant was it?"
"We really should be going now," said Mrs. McCoy. "Thank you."
"Our pleasure," said Lieutenant Stonewaller, shaking her hand. "And James, have you learned a lesson today?"
"I've learned a bunch of them," Jimmy said.
The officer and lieutenant laughed, and it was over.
"Are you hungry?" asked Mrs. McCoy, when they were in her car. "We've got meatloaf and potatoes staying warm in the oven at home."
Are you kidding?, Jimmy said to himself. I'm so hungry I could eat Cameron's drum set!
"Nah, thank you anyway," he said. "I better get home and tell my mom what happened. I didn't call her because she would have worried, and she wouldn't have known what to do."
"That's being a good son," said Mrs. McCoy, and she gave him a little wink as she dropped him off in front of his apartment.
