Quid Pro Quo by Vicki Grant Read Free Book Online Page B

find Andy, and I was really afraid of what they’d find her doing. The best possibility, believe it or not, was that Byron was forcing her to do something she shouldn’t. I remembered from law school that if you commit a crime “under duress,” you can use that as a defense.
    You know, an excuse.
    In other words, you can say to the judge, “It’s not my fault! He made me do it!” and if you’re lucky, the judge will believe you and let you off.
    Like I said, if you’re lucky.
    But there’s no counting on the judge believing you. Especially if you’re Andy. With our luck, she’d get the judge she rolled her eyes at.
    What I was really worried about was that Andy would get a taste of her old wild ways again and start liking them. I mean, she’d given up smoking before. She made a big deal about how much better she felt and how much more money we had and how she’d never smoke another butt ever again, so help me God. And, well, you know what happened with that. Why wouldn’t she take up getting in trouble again? She obviously used to like it. She did it for years.
    I didn’t know much about her life on the street, and I knew why I didn’t: Andy didn’t want it getting out. Why would she? It was hard enough for her to pull off the “responsible citizen” act without everybody knowing about her juvie record.
    God. I hated to think what kind of stuff she must have gotten into back then.
    If I sicced the cops on Andy and they found her doing something illegal, our life would be ruined. If she got convicted of a crime, she could get kicked out of the legal profession. On top of everything, she could even be charged with abandoning me. “Failing to provide the necessaries of life for a minor child,” they call it. She used to joke about that when I was little. I’d have a fit because she wouldn’t buy me some action figure or some remote- control car we couldn’t afford, and she’d go, “What are you going to do, Cyril? Charge me? I hate to break it to you, kid, but under the law, Super Thunderwheel Mini SUVs aren’t considered a ‘necessary of life.’”
    It wasn’t a joke this time. Unless Andy had a really good excuse for taking off, she could lose custody of me. For good.
    Andy could lose me. She could lose her job. She could go to jail.
    I had no other choice. I had to find her myself.
    I got to school, and Mrs. Payzant asked where I’d been. I said I had the flu. She said I still looked pale (No kidding). Was I feeling all right?
    I said, no, and I meant it. She said I should go home then. There was a terrible bug going around. Her son had been in bed for ten days. Why didn’t she call my mother at the office to come and get me?
    I said that my mother didn’t go in to the office today. She said that was good. She’d be able to look after me. I picked up my knapsack and left.
    I couldn’t believe how easy it was.

chapter
eighteen

Client-solicitor privilege
    The responsibility of a lawyer to keep
confidential anything a client says to him or her
    I went home. I checked the mailbox and picked up the news-paper at the front door. I reminded myself that I had to do that every day. I didn’t want people thinking that anything had changed around here.
    I scrunched up the note I left for Andy.
    I checked the messages. Nothing.
    I checked the kitchen cupboards. Nothing there either. I was going to get pretty hungry if Andy didn’t show up soon. I had about four dollars left from my allowance and could probably scrounge up another two or three dollars in change if I checked all Andy’s pockets, but that was it.
    I’d worry about how I was going to survive later. What I needed to do right then was figure out where Andy and Byron were. I needed clues.
    I ransacked the apartment, the bathroom, the living room, the bedrooms. There was lots there, but nothing that hadn’t