The Empty Chair

imagining how she’d feel if she had a son who was accused of murderand kidnapping. Who was looking at the prospect of spending the night in jail. Maybe a hundred nights, maybe thousands.
    Lucy paused. “You headed back?”
    “In a minute or two.”
    “Hope to see you ’fore you leave.” The deputy disappeared up the street.
    A few minutes later the door to the lockup opened and Mason Germain walked out. She’d never once seen him smile and he wasn’t smiling now. He looked around the street but didn’t notice her. He strode over the broken sidewalk and disappeared into one of the buildings—a store or bar—on the way to the County Building.
    Then a car pulled up across the street and two men got out. Garrett’s lawyer, Cal Fredericks, was one and the other was a heavyset man in his forties. He was in a shirt and tie—the top button undone and the sloppy knot of his striped tie pulled down a few inches from his throat. His sleeves were rolled up and his navy sports jacket was draped over his arm. His tan slacks were savagely wrinkled. His face had the kindness of a grade-school teacher. They walked inside.
    Sachs tossed the cup in an oil drum outside the deli. She crossed the empty street and followed them into the lockup.

. . . chapter twenty
    Cal Fredericks introduced Sachs to Doctor Elliott Penny.
    “Oh, you’re working with Lincoln Rhyme?” the doctor asked, surprising Sachs.
    “That’s right.”
    “Cal told me it was mostly because of you two they caught Garrett. Is he here? Lincoln?”
    “He’s at the County Building right now. Probably won’t be there long.”
    “We have a friend in common. I’d like to say hi. I’ll stop by if I get a chance.”
    Sachs said, “He should be there for another hour or so.” She turned to Cal Fredericks. “Can I ask you something?”
    “Yes’m,” the defense lawyer said cautiously; Sachs was, in theory, working for the enemy.
    “Mason Germain was talking to Garrett in the lockup earlier. He mentioned Lancaster. What’s that?”
    “The Violent Felony Detention Center. He’ll be transferred there after the arraignment. Held there until the trial.”
    “It’s juvenile?”
    “No, no. Adult.”
    “But he’s sixteen,” Sachs said.
    “Oh, McGuire’ll try him as an adult—if we can’t work out a plea.”
    “How bad is it?”
    “What, Lancaster?” The lawyer shrugged his narrow shoulders. “He’ll get hurt. No getting around that. I don’t know how bad. But he will get hurt. A boy like him’s gonna be at the bottom of the food chain at VFDC.”
    “Can he be segregated?”
    “Not there. It’s all general population. Just a big holding pen, basically. The best we can do is hope the guards look out for him.”
    “How ’bout bail?”
    Fredericks laughed. “There’s no judge in the world’d set bail in a case like this. He’s a bond-jumper waiting to happen.”
    “Is there anything we can do to get him into a different facility? Lincoln’s got friends in New York.”
    “New York?” Fredericks gave her a genteel but wry Southern smile. “I don’t think that carries much weight south of the Mason-Dixon line. Probably not even west of the Hudson.” He nodded toward Dr. Penny. “No, our best bet is to get Garrett to cooperate then work out a plea.”
    “Shouldn’t his foster parents be here?”
    “Should be, yep. I called them but Hal said the boy’s on his own. He wouldn’t even let me talk to Maggie—his mother.”
    “But Garrett can’t be making decisions on his own,” Sachs said. “He’s just a boy.”
    “Oh,” Fredericks explained, “before the arraignment or plea deal’s agreed to the court’ll appoint a guardian ad litem. Don’t worry, he’ll be looked out for.”
    Sachs turned to the doctor. “What’re you going to do? This empty chair test?”
    Dr. Penny glanced at the lawyer, who nodded his okay to explain. “It’s not a test. It’s a type of Gestalt therapy—a behavioral technique that’s known for getting very fast results in understanding certain types of behavior. I’m going to have Garrett imagine that Mary Beth is sitting in a chair in front of him and have him talk to her. Explain to her why he kidnapped her. I hope to get him to understand that she’s upset and frightened and that what he did was wrong. That she’ll be better off if he tells us where she is.”
    “And this’ll work?”
    “It’s not really intended for this type of situation but I think it could get