11 Sweet Speculation

The door slammed shut behind Andrea. With the whirlwind of a day she'd had so far, she had actually succeeded in banishing Kyle from her mind. Now here he was, unexpected and most unwelcome.

'So much for today being a better day,' she thought.

Andrea folded her arms. "Did you get lost Kyle or did my escort bring me to the wrong interview room? Or have the cops somehow double booked us?" she asked sardonically.

Kyle shook his head. "As it happens, Ms Mason, you are exactly where you are supposed to be."

"In that case, I suggest you buzz the officer on duty to come let YOU out so I can get ready for MY meeting with Adams. I very much doubt that he's going to want to see you anymore than I do."

Kyle sighed heavily, leaning forward over the table a little, his hands on his knees. "Yeah, there's a slight problem with that…"

"I don't much care, Kyle. Whatever the problem is, it's your problem, not mine. I have a very busy day ahead of me so I would ask you again to stop stalling and get out."

Andrea didn't need to worry about making a scene. If it came to it, she would buzz the officer herself to have Kyle escorted out, but there was satisfaction in the opportunity to order him around. She didn't know what kind of nonsense Kyle was up to, but there was no reason she had to be party to it.

Kyle shook his head. "You know, Blondie, you're not being quite as compassionate as I'd hoped you'd be. In case you didn't notice, I've not exactly been having the best of days myself."

Andrea stopped to really look at Kyle for the first time. She had noticed when she first came in that he was looking less put together than he usually did. His hair was a genuine mess rather than its usual carefully styled faux-mess. His shirt was wrinkled and covered in sweat. She even spotted his expensive suit jacket just laying in a crumpled heap on the floor behind him.

'Oh my gosh,' thought Andrea, 'Kyle looks like a hot mess!' And then after a moment, 'Not hot like that, just… he's… Kyle looks a mess…' She mentally cursed Madison for getting that word stuck in her head earlier.

Andrea checked her watch. "Alright, I'll bite. What's going on that's put you in such a sorry state?"

Kyle lifted his head to look straight at Andrea, and for the first time the light lit the right side of his face clearly enough for her to see that he had a bloody cut over his right eye.

"It's kind of a long story," he grimaced.

"Oh my gosh!" Andrea exclaimed. "What happened?!" She gestured at his wound which looked bruised, too. The whole thing looked pretty painful.

Kyle winced. Andrea wondered if it was from the pain of his injury or her shocked reaction at how bad it looked.

"It's kind of a long story," he repeated.

Andrea was torn. On the one hand, she found herself suddenly more sympathetic to Kyle. He looked so haggard compared to his usual appearance. Which was a strange thing for her to feel towards Kyle. On the other, she also took quiet delight in seeing him brought low like this. And then felt slightly guilty for taking pleasure in his suffering.

She felt unusually conflicted about Kyle's plight.

Part of her was dying to know, and she still didn't understand exactly what he was doing in her interview room, but she was reminded that somewhere Adams was waiting for her, or about to arrive.

"If it's a long story, then I'm afraid storytime will have to wait until later," she said, deciding to take matters into her own hands and moving towards the call button. "Whatever has gone on, as fascinating as I'm sure it will be, you can regale me with your exploits somewhere else, because for the final time, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Like I said," Kyle replied, pulling his hands out from beneath the table and dropping them to the tabletop with a metallic clank. "There's a slight problem with that…"

Kyle was wearing manacles that were attached by a chain to the restraining bar of the table.

Andrea gaped.

"You've been ARRESTED?! What happened???"

"....It's kind of a long story."

Andrea burst out laughing.

It was an explosion of that wild uncontrollable laughter that only happened when she knew it would be inappropriate to laugh, like at a funeral. Or in court. And the fact that it was so inappropriate made her laugh even more. And the more she tried to compose herself, the more the pressure built up.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Andrea almost managed to regain her control, but then catching sight of Kyle's shocked, confused face set her off again. She ended up bent double with laughter and finally had to collapse into the chair opposite Kyle and bury her face into her arms on the desk until her giggles subsided.

"...Are you done?" Kyle asked at last.

With her face still buried in her elbow, Andrea held up a finger with her other hand. "Hang on," she said, slightly muffled. She took a couple of deep breaths, her shoulders shaking with suppressed chuckles. Then she sat up, her best serious professional lawyer face on.

It crumbled the moment she looked at Kyle again. She tried putting her hands on her lap, then folded them in front of her, then propped her elbows on the desk with her hands clasped, leaning forward to rest her chin on her hands in an effort to hide the huge evil grin that was spreading relentlessly across her face.

Kyle raised his injured eyebrow, winced and raised the other eyebrow instead, which did rather ruin the effect.

"Alright, Chuckles, I guess compassion was too much to hope for, but can you at least pretend not to be enjoying this quite so much?"

"I could, but that wouldn't be very honest of me, now would it? A good lawyer should be truthful."

"You can be truthful without having the truth spread all over your face."

Andrea gave up trying to hide her grin. "I guess I'm just a very good lawyer."

"And what does that make me?"

"The other kind of lawyer."

"And what kind is that?"

"Right now, I would say the kind of lawyer wearing cuffs," Andrea said with satisfaction.

"Better to be wearing cuffs than that evil grin!"

"At least I can take mine off when I want to."

"Why don't you then?"

"Because my grin is pretty comfortable where it is, how about those cuffs?"

Kyle held them up as though inspecting them. "I gotta say, Chuckles, they're not nearly as uncomfortable as I'd have thought." He looked around the rest of the interview room, which was all harsh lighting, metal surfaces and bare concrete walls. "I can't say I think much of their choice of decor either."

Looking back to Andrea, the corner of his mouth tweaked just a little as he said, "At least I have one nice thing to look at in here."

Andrea rolled her eyes. "That's right, me and my 'evil' grin, as I recall."

"Maybe I was too hasty calling it 'evil', it's kind of growing on me. I've never seen you smile this much before."

"I'm sure it's a rare pleasure for you, you should enjoy it while it lasts."

Kyle cocked his head. "Because you're so eager to get back to wearing the scowl you usually have on your face around me?"

"Not in the least, I could do this all day."

"I bet you say that to all the guys, Freckles."

Ordinarily a remark like that would have made Andrea blush, or at least have wiped the smile off her face. Maybe it was all the lingering endorphins from laughing so hard, but right now she felt like she was the one on top of the conversation, and nothing Kyle said could take her down. She was honestly having fun.

"Wouldn't you like to know, Mr Wynn…" she replied, leaning in and using her best sultry tone.

That seemed to put Kyle on the back foot. He blinked twice slowly, and in the pause, Andrea had time to realize just how close they were leaning towards each other across the table.

"Speaking of knowing things…" Kyle said slowly, without leaning back, "You still haven't given me a chance to tell you my story."

"I know," said Andrea. "I was having too much fun speculating. Finding you like this is a gift, and I don't want to tear the wrapping off all at once. 'Building up the anticipation makes it better.'"

Kyle blinked again, then gave a quiet snort of recognition of his own words being thrown back at him. He looked like he had probably been up all night, so Andrea was sure that lunch must have felt like a very long time ago.

"So what is your speculation?" Kyle asked.

"Oh I don't know, probably something utterly disappointing. Did they pick you up for speeding on the way to the farmers market? I guess that wouldn't explain the uh…" she gestured at his injury again. "It wouldn't explain that now, would it. Oh, I know! You got into a fight over the last piece of bluefin!"

Kyle just shook his head slightly.

"No? I guess it's too much to hope you did something really exciting like rob a bank—You're not secretly a cat burglar are you, Kyle? Lose your balance breaking into an art gallery? No…?"

Kyle looked unamused. "Very funny, Chuckles, would you mind taking this a little more seriously?"

"Of course," said Andrea. "Very serious for a lawyer to have been arrested. You could be disciplined. Disbarred! Why, we might not see each other in court anymore. Wouldn't that be a shame."

"Wouldn't it though," replied Kyle. "So that's the kind of guy you think I am? Stealing fine art and fighting in fish markets?"

Andrea pondered some more.

"I know!" she exclaimed. "Did you get into a fight with someone's boyfriend? Did it turn out that you were your young lady's bit on the side, and you ended up having a domestic dispute?"

Kyle winced.

"Is that it?!" Andrea had been teasing, but it seems like she had touched a nerve. To whatever degree Kyle had seemed like he'd been playing along, even as worn down as he was, that last remark had left him deflated. "Was she cheating on him with you or cheating on you with him? I'm surprised you got strung along by a girl, aren't guys like you supposed to be players?"

Kyle hung his head. "It wasn't like that…"

"Oh sure, like you haven't been collecting notches on your bedposts."

"I'M not like that."

"You're not? That's not what your reputation says, out there collecting numbers and breaking hearts. I heard that you were a real ladykil–"

"Andrea! I'm not–" Kyle shouted, grabbing her hands.

His hands were strong, and his grip was so tight it almost hurt. His expression was so intense, frustrated and hurt and… scared?

Andrea knew she had been twisting the knife a little into something that bothered him, but what had caused this reaction?

His hands were hot. Their faces were so close together she could only see his eyes, wide and pleading. She could almost feel his breath on her lips.

It was only for a moment, then Kyle seemed to catch himself and let go. He slumped back in his chair and slid his hands back below the table, as if ashamed of them.

Andrea leaned back as well, adding to the distance, and folded her arms, no longer smiling. She glanced at the duress button out of the corner of her eye. If Kyle had kept holding her as tightly as he had been, she wouldn't have even been able to reach it.

It occured to Andrea that she really didn't know Kyle all that well. And she still didn't actually know what he was in jail for.

"I think we're ready for storytime now," she said seriously.

Kyle nodded, looking shrunken, like the air had been let out of him.

"And since you've said repeatedly that it's a long story, I think you had better start at the punchline. What have you been charged with, Mr Wynn?"

Kyle took a deep breath before he raised his head once more.

"Murder, Ms Mason. I've been charged with first-degree murder."