“I’m sure you know of Judge Roger Mills. Lucky for me, he used to be a criminal defense attorney before he got elected to the bench. He didn’t like being jacked around by the police back then and doesn’t like it much when he hears about it now. He’ll drag both you and Kurlen into court and make you explain why you were playing this same old game of stopping a citizen from exercising her constitutional rights to consult an attorney. Last time it went down like that Judge Mills didn’t like the answers he got and fined the guy who was sitting where you are five hundred bucks.”

Crimmins looked like he’d had a hard time following my words. He was a short-sentence man, I guessed. He blinked twice and reached for the phone. I heard him confer directly with Kurlen. He then hung up.

“You know the way, smart guy?”

“I know the way. Thank you for your help, Officer Crimmins.”

“Catch you later.”

He pointed his finger at me like it was a gun, getting the last shot in so he could tell himself that he had handled that son-of-a-bitch lawyer. I left the desk and headed into the nearby alcove where I knew the elevator was located.

On the third floor Detective Howard Kurlen was waiting for me with a smile on his face. It wasn’t a friendly smile. He looked like the cat who just ate the canary.

“Have fun down there, Counselor?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Well, you’re too late up here.”

“How’s that? You booked her?”

He spread his hands in a phony Sorry about that gesture.

“It’s funny. My partner took her out of here just before I got the call from downstairs.”

“Wow, what a coincidence. I still want to talk to her.”

“You’ll have to go through the jail.”

This would probably take me an extra hour of waiting. And this was why Kurlen was smiling.

“You sure you can’t have your partner turn around and bring her down? I won’t be long with her.”