Junior's Luck

Junior's Luck-Chapter 31

Agent Sarver swung into an underground parking lot. From there, he and Kelsey rode an elevator to the second floor of the police station. After checking in with a sergeant, Sarver hustled Kelsey down an empty corridor to a room with "Interrogation" printed on the door.

"You wait here." Sarver pointed to a straight-backed, gray metal chair, one of several scattered about a metal table. "Someone will come to take your statement."

"Where are my friends? When can I see them?"

"After we obtain statements from all of those involved."

On the way to the station, Kelsey had asked Sarver how the FBI found out about Hartley and the Frenchman. Sarver said they received tips from two separate sources, one military, the other civilian, and put the mansion under surveillance earlier that week. But Hartley wasn't their primary target. They had been trying to nail the terrorist Jean LeMarque for years, but never acquired enough evidence to build a case that would stand up in court. If they caught LaMarque receiving stolen property, they'd have what they needed to get a conviction. Unfortunately, because of Kelsey and his friends, the operation failed.

"You should have stopped us when we drove into the bank parking lot," Kelsey said.

Sarver explained ‌they didn't connect the activity at the drive-in bank to the Hartley investigation. In fact, they suspected it was an amateur attempt at bank robbery. They didn't intervene for fear of alarming LaMarque and his gang. But when the bomb went off, they had to move in and take what they could.

A half hour passed before a pair of men, whom Kelsey assumed were FBI agents, entered.

Kelsey had spent the time trying to figure out how to explain the situation to his parents in a way that would put his actions in a favorable light. But no explanation changed the fact that he lied to them, deceived them, and violated their trust in him. Now that he had been exposed, his deeds took on a heartless, sinister quality of which he had not been conscious before. Could he persuade his parents to sympathize with his motive: loyalty to a friend? On the surface, it sounded noble, but in his heart, Kelsey doubted if that had been the real motivation for his actions and wondered how he could have been so thoughtless. He'd just have to endure his punishment and hope his mother and father would forgive him.

One agent set a tape recorder on the table. The other offered Kelsey a paper cup full of watery vending machine hot chocolate, then settled into a chair next to him.

"Are my mother and father here yet?" Kelsey sipped the chocolate.

"They're outside."

The agent at the recording machine clicked it on. "Now, tell us what happened. Start from the beginning."

Kelsey told them everything and took so long the agent next to him twice fetched refills of hot chocolate. Kelsey was in no hurry to deal with his parents.

When he finished with his statement, the agents left. Kelsey fished in his pocket for the bologna he swiped from Hartley's refrigerator and munched on it while he drained his third cup of hot chocolate, a convict's last meal.

An officer came to escort him to a large, first-floor conference hall furnished with folding chairs that were divided into two sections. She seated him beside Carrot Walker in the section on the left side of the room. Stephenson sat on the other side of Carrot with Arlene, who held one of Stephenson's enormous hands in both of hers. Laura, who had somehow exchanged the bath robe for slacks and a sweater, occupied the chair next to Arlene.

"This is all your fault, stupid nerd," Carrot Walker growled after Kelsey parked himself.

Stephenson glanced at Carrot and told him to shut up. Carrot grunted. Arlene stroked the back of Stephenson's head.