The Empty Chair

results.”
    The lawyer glanced at his watch. “You ready, Doctor?”
    He nodded.
    “Let’s go.” The doctor and Fredericks disappeared into the interrogation room.
    Sachs hung back, got a cup of water from the cooler. Sipped it slowly. When the deputy at the front desk turned his attention back to his newspaper Sachs quickly stepped through the door of the observation room, where the video camera sat for taping suspects. The room was empty. She pulled the door shut and sat down, peered into the interrogation room. She could see Garrett in one chair in the middle of the room. The doctor sat at the table. Cal Fredericks was in the corner, his arms folded, ankle resting on a knee, revealing the height of his shoes’ stubby heels.
    A third chair, unoccupied, sat facing Garrett.
    Cokes were on the table. The cans sweated with condensation.
    Through the cheap, clattering speaker above the mirror Sachs heard their voices.
    “Garrett, I’m Doctor Penny. How’re you?”
    No answer.
    “It’s a little warm in here, isn’t it?”
    Still Garrett said nothing. He looked down. Clickedthe nails on his finger and thumb. Sachs couldn’t hear the sound. She found her own thumbnail digging into the flesh of her index finger. Felt moisture, saw the blood. Stop it stop it stop it, she thought and forced herself to lower her hands to her sides.
    “Garrett, I’m here to help you. I’m working with your lawyer, Mr. Fredericks here, and we’re trying to get you a reduced sentence for what’s happened. We can help you but we need your cooperation.”
    Fredericks said, “The doctor’s going to talk to you, Garrett. We’re going to try to find out a few things. But everything you say is going to be just between us. We won’t tell anybody else without your permission. You understand that?”
    He nodded.
    “Remember, Garrett,” the doctor said, “we’re the good guys. We’re on your side. . . . Now, I want to try something.”
    Her eyes were on the boy’s face. He scratched at a welt. He said, “I guess.”
    “See that chair there?”
    Dr. Penny nodded toward the chair and the boy glanced at it. “I see it.”
    “We’re going to play sort of a game. You’re going to pretend there’s somebody real important in that chair.”
    “Like the President?”
    “No, I mean, somebody important to you. Somebody you know in real life. You’re going to pretend they’re sitting there in front of you. I want you to talk to them. And I want you to be real honest with them. You tell them whatever you want to say. Share your secrets with them. If you’re mad at them you tell them that. If you love them tell them so. If you want them—like you’d want a girl—tell them. Remember it’s okay to say anything at all. Nobody’s going to be upset with you.”
    “Just talk to the chair?” Garrett asked the doctor. “Why?”
    “For one thing, it’ll help you feel better about the bad things that happened today.”
    “You mean, like, getting caught?”
    Sachs smiled.
    Dr. Penny seemed to repress his own smile and moved the empty chair a little closer to Garrett. “Now, imagine that somebody important is sitting right there. Let’s say Mary Beth McConnell. And that you’ve got something you want to say to her and now’s your chance. Something you’ve never said before because it was too hard. Something really important. Not just some bullshit.”
    Garrett looked nervously around the room, glanced at his lawyer, who nodded encouragingly. The boy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. I guess I’m ready.”
    “Good. Now, picture Mary Beth in the—”
    “But I don’t want to say anything to her, ” Garrett interrupted.
    “You don’t?”
    He shook his head. “I already told her everything I wanted to say.”
    “There isn’t anything else?”
    He hesitated. “I don’t know. . . . Maybe. Only . . . the thing is I’d rather imagine somebody else in the chair. Could we, like, do that?”
    “Well, for now, let’s stick with Mary Beth. You said maybe there’s something you want to say to her. What is it? Do you want to tell her how she let you down or hurt you? Or made you angry? About how you want to get even with her? Anything at all, Garrett. You can say anything. It’s all right.”
    Garrett shrugged. “Uhm, why can’t it be someone else?”
    “For now, let’s say it has to be Mary Beth.”
    The boy turned suddenly to the one-way mirror and he looked right at where Sachs was sitting.