She made her way outside to the law quad. New England fall was winding down. There were still patches of vivid color in the trees, but you could smell winter in the sharp, cold wind. The forecast was for heavy rain later, which would suit her mood. She found a sheltered spot in the lee of the building and placed the call with shaking fingers. Her mother picked up on the first ring.
“Maddy, thank God. Where were you?”
“In class. What’s wrong?”
“Danny pled guilty.”
“How can that be? He swore to you he was innocent.”
“He still says that, and I believe him. I know it in my heart.”
“Why plead guilty if you’re not?”
“They made him.”
“Who made him?”
“I don’t know. He won’t say. It was, like, a thirty-second phone call from the jail, then he said he had to go and hung up. Maddy, he sounded scared.”
“Honestly, that doesn’t make sense. I studied criminal law, Mom. There are supposed to be negotiations for a plea. He was just arrested, what, a week ago? It’s too fast.”
“I thought so too.”
“What does his lawyer say?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. I don’t trust that guy. He’s the one who forced Danny to take the plea.”
“Forced him how?”
“What do you think? He threatened him.”
“That sounds like an excuse. Did Danny say that or is he—”
“Is he what? Making it up? You don’t believe your brother?”
“Don’t make this about me and him, okay? I’m just trying to understand the facts.”
“The facts are, this lawyer shows up in court. We didn’t hire him. And then he starts telling Danny what to do.”
“You not hiring him is not unusual. The court appoints lawyers for defendants who can’t afford them.”
“That’s not what happened. Something’s off, I’m telling you. He’s this old guy with dandruff who looks like he hits the bottle.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s not qualified.”
“Why are you taking the lawyer’s side? If you’d been in court, you’d understand what I’m talking about.”
“I already apologized for not being there. I told you, by the time I got your call that Danny had been arrested—”
“Right. I know how busy you are.”
The edge in her tone got Madison’s back up.
“I wasn’t too busy to come to my brother’s arraignment. My phone was off. If I knew, I would have dropped everything and—”
“Maddy, I don’t want to fight.”
“Then say you understand that I had my phone off. I can’t keep it on all the time on the off chance Danny gets arrested for drugs.”
Most people get to assume that won’t happen to their brother, she thought, but held her tongue. Danny had a long and checkered history for someone who was only twenty-one years old. Her mother didn’t understand how detrimental this was to Madison’s own plans, her future. How draining it was worrying about him all the time. But you couldn’t choose your family, and she loved him no matter what. He was her brother, after all.
“I don’t blame you, Maddy. Really.”
“I hope not. But thank you for saying that.”
“It’s a question of what we do now. We’re a family. Families stick together in tough times.”
Too bad that had not always been the case in her family. Their past was fraught, and never far enough from their present. Madison sighed, wishing things could be different. But they weren’t. She needed to suck it up and deal with reality.
“Tell me how I can help, Mom. You want me to call the lawyer and find out what happened?”
“No, I told you. That lawyer’s trouble. We need to go see your brother.”
“You mean visit him in prison?”
“Yes. Something’s wrong. I need to look him in the eye and get the truth.”
Would visiting get her name on a list? Her relationship to an indicted drug dealer could come out just as she applied for an internship with a federal judge. But what choice did she have? Danny was her brother, and he needed her right now, inconvenient as that was.
“Fine, I’ll go with you. I can do it Saturday.”
“No. Tomorrow morning, first thing.”
The prison was far away. It would be a long drive there, a long wait to get in, a long drive back. She’d miss her morning class, with finals coming up. Argh, what else was new? Danny’s problems had been screwing up her life since she was a kid.