He's busy. Georgia Code section 15-11-42 requires that I be transferred to juvenile court or released within 2 hours of detention onset. I arrived at 8:47. The clock runs out at 10:47. That is 26 minutes from now.
I would like Sergeant Duval to be aware of that. Teague's face in the slot does not move for a moment. Then he closes the slot. She hears footsteps, more than one set. Duval comes back in at 10:29.
He is not alone. Behind him is Detective Marcus Alende, plain clothes, ID clipped to his belt. The kind of easy friendliness that serves as camouflage for calculation. Alende is early 40s, lean with a broad smile that he deploys the way some people deploy a firm handshake as an instrument of control. Demi, it is a Lende who speaks first.
He pulls a chair, spins it, sits on it backward with his arms folded over the back, trying to look like a man who is on her side. I heard you've been giving my colleagues a workout. Demi looks at him. I'm Marcus Alende, internal affairs. I came in to talk to you informally because I want to make sure everything is being handled the right way.
Are you here to facilitate my release? She asks. I'm here to talk through what happened tonight. Help everyone understand. Are you here to facilitate my release?
The smile stays, but something behind it adjusts. That's ultimately Sergeant Duval's call. The 2-hour limit expires at 10:47. That's 18 minutes. She looks at Duval.
I'd like to be released or I'd like to be told the specific legal basis for extending my detention past that limit. Duval sets his folder on the table. He opens it. He takes out a single sheet of paper. There's one outstanding matter, he says.
The learner's permit violation. That's a citable offense. We can issue a citation and release you into the custody of a parent or guardian, which requires a parent or guardian to physically collect you. We have not yet reached your father. Until we do, or until another authorized adult presents themselves, we are technically authorized to maintain your detention under the citation, which resets the clock under a separate provision.
Demi is quiet for a moment. Show me that provision. He slides the paper across. It is a print out from the Havford County Juvenile Detention Procedures Manual, section 7, paragraph 5. She reads it.
She reads it again. This provision applies when the citation is for a serious traffic offense listed in appendix C of this handbook. She says a learner's permit supervision violation is listed in appendix D. Different category. This provision does not apply.
The room is very quiet. Alende is no longer smiling. He is looking at Demi the way someone looks at a lock they expected to open easily and did not. Duval takes the paper back. He reads the section she cited.
He looks at appendix C. He looks at appendix D. His face does not change, but his shoulders do something small and involuntary. Give us a moment, he says to Alende. Alende gets up.
He passes close to Demi's shoulder on his way to the door. He does not touch her. He does not need to. The proximity itself is the statement, the deliberate, learned proximity of someone who has practiced making other people feel small in enclosed spaces. In the doorway, he turns back.
His voice has shed the friendly layer entirely now. "You're a smart kid," he says genuinely. "But smart and right aren't the same thing. And in this building, at this hour, the difference matters more than you think." She looks at him without expression.
"Thank you for that." He holds the door for exactly one second longer than necessary, then he lets it fall.
Duval looks at her across the table. For a long moment, he says nothing. "Where did you learn all this?" he asks. "The notice on the wall and the handbook is on the table in the processing area. I read it while I was being processed."
"You read the whole handbook, the relevant sections." He is quiet.
Whatever he was expecting from this evening, it was not this. He picks up the folder, puts it under his arm, stands. We're going to reach your father, he says. My phone is in an evidence bag that officer Seldon took without logging it. My father's number is in that phone.
Duval looks at her. She holds his gaze. I'll address that, he says. I'd like it returned. I'll address it.
He moves toward the door, his hand on the frame. He pauses in a way that is almost identical to when he paused before, but the weight of it is different now. Demi, I want you to understand something. She waits. Whatever happens tonight, however this resolves, there are people in this building who are trying to manage this situation the right way.
"The right way," she says, "was not bringing me in." He leaves. The lock does not click this time. He has forgotten or he has decided something. She files that too. At 10:43, 4 minutes before the clock would have run out, the door opens again.