“How’d he manage to escape from Connaught?”
Ryckman stirred restlessly, breaking off eye contact. “We’re not going to talk about that,” he said. “Next thing you know the information ends up in the paper and then everybody gets it down. Let’s just say the inmates discovered a little quirk in the system and took advantage of it. It won’t happen again, I can tell you that.”
“Will he be tried as an adult?”
Tommy Ryckman did a stretch, extending his arms above his head with a series of popping sounds. “You’d have to ask the DA, though personally, I’d sure like to see it. This kid is devious. We think he was the one who cooked up the escape plan to begin with, but who’s going to contradict him at this point? Two guys are dead and the third’s in critical condition. He’ll claim he’s the innocent victim. You know how it goes. These kids never take responsibility. His mother’s already hired him a high-priced attorney, bringing some guy up from Los Angeles.”
“Probably utilizing some of the benefits from his father’s life insurance policy,” I said. “I’d love to see Wendell Jaffe make a discreet appearance. I can’t believe he’d risk it, but it would sure verify my intuitions.”
“Well now, I’ll tell you the problem you’re going to have with that. Case like this, a lot of notoriety, courtroom’s probably going to be closed and under tight security. You know how it goes. Kid’s attorney’s going to offer up spirited arguments, asserting his client’s fitness for treatment under juvenile court law. He’ll want a probation officer to investigate. He’ll want reports submitted with other relevant evidence. He’ll raise six kinds of hell, and until the matter’s decided, he’ll maintain his client is entitled to protection under juvenile statutes.”
“I don’t suppose there’s any way I’d be given access to his juvenile criminal history,” I said. I was stating the obvious, but sometimes a cop will surprise you.
Sergeant Ryckman laced his hands across his head, smiling at me with a sort of brotherly indulgence. “We wouldn’t do that regardless,” he said mildly. “You can always try the paper. Reporters over there can probably get you anything you want. Not sure how they do it, but they have their little ways.” He sat forward on his chair. “I was just on my way to lunch. You want to join me in the cafeteria?”
“Sure, I’d like that,” I said.
On his feet again, I realized how much he’d grown since I’d seen him last and he was over six feet tall then. Now he was stoop-shouldered and seemed to carry his head tilted to one side, perhaps hoping to avoid being knocked silly by the door frame when he entered or left a room. I would have bet money his wife was only five feet tall and spent her life with his belt buckle staring her in the face. On a dance floor, the two probably looked as though they were engaged in an obscene act. “If you don’t mind, I got a few things to take care of on the way.”
“Fine with me,” I said.
We began to traverse the maze of corridors linking the various offices and departments, moving through a series of security checkpoints, like the airlocks on a spaceship. There were video cameras sweeping every corridor, and I knew we were being observed by the deputy manning level-one control. The smells changed subtly from one area to the next. Food, bleach, burning chemicals, as if someone had set fire to the plastic ring on a six-pack of canned sodas, musty blankets, floor wax, rubber tires. Sergeant Ryckman conducted a couple of administrative transactions, apparently minor matters fraught with clerical jargon. There were a surprising number of women working in the processing unit—all ages, all sizes, usually in jeans or polyester pants. There was a nice air of camaraderie among the people I observed. Lots of telephones ringing, lots of movement from department to department, as we cruised through.
Finally, he steered us toward the small employee cafeteria. The menu for the deputies that day was lasagna, grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches, french fries, and corn. Not quite enough fat and carbs for my taste, but it was coming close. There was also a salad bar, featuring stainless-steel bins of chopped iceberg lettuce, sliced carrots, green pepper rings, and onions. For drinks, one had a choice of orange juice, lemonade, or cartons of milk. The prisoners’ menu was listed on the board above the hot table: bean soup, grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches, beef Stroganoff or lasagna, white bread, french fries, and the ubiquitous corn. Unlike the meals at the jail in Santa Teresa, which were served cafeteria style, the food here was prepared and dished out by inmates onto trays that were loaded, in turn, into big stainless-steel hot carts. I’d seen several being rolled into the industrial-size elevators en route to jail levels three and four.