Chapter 20

“Have you heard from your lawyer yet?” Kat asked when I met her and Hanna by the stands after baseball practice.

She’d already asked me the same question when we went to school that morning and I didn’t know why she thought I’d somehow received a call from him since then, but Kat had started to grow anxious, asking if I’d heard anything for the last four days in a row.

“No,” I said.

Pointing out how unlikely it would have been would have only made Kat feel bad about herself, and in her case that could have serious repercussions, so I kept my thoughts to myself.

“It’s been a week. What’s taking so long?”

“Chef said he was a highly rated criminal lawyer, so he probably has a lot of clients and he’s doing my case for free, so I don’t exactly end up at the top of his to-do list. I’m sure he’s working on it; I mean I thought he was doing nothing for those first couple of weeks and then randomly I got called to the office and told he got the restraining order changed so I could at least go to lunch and stuff. Just because we can’t see what he’s doing doesn’t mean he isn’t working on stuff. You just have to be patient.”

“Ha, look whose telling people to be patient,” Hanna said.

“See, I’m capable of growth.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, clearly not believing me.

“Anyway, I’ll call him and see, okay? I just didn’t want to call him too much, since he’s doing this for free and the last thing I want to do is to annoy him.”

“Okay,” Kat said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to push. I was just all excited when I found the video, since I knew it could get you out of trouble. I’ll try to do better.”

“You’re doing great,” I said, putting my arm over her shoulders. “Without you, there wouldn’t be something for us to be impatient about, right?”

“Ha, yeah,” she said, finally smiling.

She did have a point though. I know he was doing this for free and everything, but he’d had the video for a while and this was the thing that could crack the whole case open. I would have thought he’d want to get this cleared up so he didn’t have a pro-bono client taking up his time.

I didn’t stick around Hanna’s after I finished at the Blue Ridge and headed right home so I could call him. It was getting late, but he’d called a few times after five, so I thought he might be available. If he wasn’t, I’d have to try again the next day at the Blue Ridge, since I’d have to use Chef’s phone. Once again I thought how much easier life would be with a cell phone, but even though Mom made sure I kept a little of my money every month, I couldn’t rationalize the expense when we had a home phone.

I realized I’d made a mistake when the number went to an answering service instead of to his secretary or whatever. They had a whole spiel that they’d only contact Mr. Eaves if it was an emergency, but otherwise would pass the message along when he called for his messages, which might not be until the next day.

Part of me wanted to say never mind and that I’d call back the next day, but I decided to leave a message, just in case. I made sure to say I wouldn’t be around during the day and my mother didn’t know why I was calling, so if he couldn’t call back before the next day that I’d just call in the afternoon.

I hadn’t actually mentioned the video to Mom yet. Even though we didn’t have the cost of the lawsuit weighing over our heads anymore, it still made Mom anxious to talk about it, so I decided to just not bring it up until I knew if it could help us or not.

Since I was home early I decided to sit down and try and write more, since my band’s first practice was four days away, and right now we had just five songs. Marco had made a comment I was missing a song that really showed off how my skills and I needed something heavier than what I currently had with a spot where the guitar could really shine, like a slightly longer lead-in.

I’d thrown out the idea of a guitar solo right off, because that just wasn’t a thing with most popular music these days. I didn’t actually get much writing done, instead just sitting and thinking. I was just starting to hit on an idea of writing about my dad, although focusing more on his life as a failing musician rather than his lack of ability as a father, when the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Charlie, it’s Arthur Eaves. I’m doing the polite thing by calling you back, but I thought I made it clear that, because of your age, most of my communication needed to be through your mother. Your message mentioned that your mother didn’t know why you were calling me, which I will say I have a problem with.”

“You’re right and I have been trying to let everything go through Mom, but I wanted to find out about the video I emailed you. I haven’t actually talked to Mom about it, because I honestly didn’t know if it would help the case at all.”

That last part was a blatant lie, but he’d struck me as the type of guy who didn’t want to hear about keeping information from someone to spare their feelings.

“I can understand that, but if we discuss this your mother’s going to have to know about it, or we start getting into problematic territory.”

“I understand. I’ll talk to her about it. Has there been any kind of update on it?”

Another lie, which was unusual for me. I tried to keep from outright lying to people if I could help it because I’d seen that kind of thing tie my dad into knots, but in this case, I still had no intention of talking to Mom about the video until I knew more.

“Not yet.”

“Ohh,” I said, crestfallen.

“While we’re on the subject, I have some issues about the provenance of this video.”

“Huh?”

“The provenance. Where it came from. You mentioned in your email the name of the student who’d taken it, so I contacted his parents, and this student was very confused that I had a copy of this video. As soon as I realized this wasn’t something he’d given to you, I ended the conversation, but I am concerned about how this ended up in your hands. If he wasn’t the one who sent it to you, how did you get it?”

“Ohh, uhh ... a friend heard he had it and managed to get a copy off of it.”

“Charlie, I’m going to tell you right now that trying to hide things from your lawyer is monumentally stupid. If I make decisions on partial information I could get blindsided in court by the actual truth and ultimately lose us the case, and I am not interested in that. You need to tell me what’s happening or you’re going to need to find another lawyer.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to lie to you. Let me ask you a question. What if I had to tell you something that wasn’t strictly legal? Would you have to report that to the police or something?”

“If it’s for something that has already happened, then no, as long as what you tell me involves you. You’re protected by attorney-client privilege. Things get a little muddy if this information involves someone else doing something not ‘strictly legal.’ I’m guessing from the way you said that, it involves someone else and not you?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. As an officer of the court, I cannot tell you how to give me information in a way to skirt the law. All I can say is that, as long as the information only implicates you, you’re protected by privilege.”

“I see,” I said, reading between the lines and trying to think through how to tell him what was happening without getting Kat in trouble. “So, I found out that the student had a video and was able to get a copy of it without him knowing about it.”

“I see. So someone, I’m assuming an anonymous source that you don’t know, hacked into this kid’s phone and saved a copy of it that they then passed on to you. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” I said, nervous.

Mr. Eaves had struck me as a ‘by the book’ kind of guy, and I was a little worried that this might be enough to cause him to walk away. I know he was a criminal defense attorney, so he worked with people who broke the law, but representing someone for a crime they’d already broken was different than being involved with a new crime. I mentally kicked myself for not thinking this through ahead of time. I’d been so excited when I learned about the existence of the video that I hadn’t actually worked through all the implications of sending it to him.

“This is a problem for us. I’m sure you didn’t know when you ... acquired this video, but there are rules that tell us what kinds of evidence we’re allowed to submit and restrictions on how that evidence can be obtained. One of those big, glaring restrictions is using evidence that was obtained by illegal means or by breaking someone else’s rights.”

“So you’re saying we can’t use it?” I said, disappointed.

“That’s what I have been looking into. It is exculpatory, which means it proves your innocence and there are different rules associated with that, which is why this is taking time. For us to use this, we have to find an exception in the law that allows us to use evidence without having to prove where we got it, since I’m assuming you’d prefer to not talk about who you received it from.”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then you’re going to have to be patient. Civil trials like this are scheduled pretty far out, so we have time to do this right. Since this isn’t my area of expertise, I have to talk to some colleagues of mine to make sure we don’t run afoul of any rules, because I can guarantee you Doug Campbell will jump all over any hint of criminal activity, which would open up a whole new series of problems for you and any anonymous friends you might have.”

“I understand and I’m sorry for bothering you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’d be just as anxious to clear things up if I was in your position. And please, next time let your mother be the one to call me, okay?”

“I understand and thanks for everything you’re doing.”

“Don’t mention it. Have a good day.”

He hung up and I let out the breath I’d unconsciously been holding onto. While I didn’t get the answer I was looking for, that could have gone a whole lot worse for me.