Tawny was seated in the police commissioner's office. The commissioner paced back and forth behind his desk, reading intently from a file, as if to keep up the suspense as much as possible. Tawny sat calm and motionless, trying to relax the tension in her body as much as possible. She tried not to think about where Louis could have been led away to after they had been separated. She tried instead to think about the Louis that gave her the strength and inspiration for moments like these, the Louis she knew and loved so much.
The officer closed the file shut and took his seat across from her. "So, professor," he began. "It looks like you excelled yourself in your last article, in terms of the inflammatory nature of the content." He raised an eyebrow and lowered his voice, adding to the severe look of officialdom on his face. "Don't you ever…fear what could happen to you?"
Tawny gave her opposite a defiant look. "Insofar as there is functional rule of law in this country, there is nothing I have to fear," she responded calmly.
The commissioner let out a chuckle. "Well, judging by the kind of things you write… It seems rather like you have your doubts about the rule of law in this country," he said, questioningly.
"What I have no doubt about is that it is the task of your institution to uphold that rule of law," Tawny went on in her firm, steady tone.
The commissioner shifted impatiently in his seat. "Enough of this, Ms. Dean," he said. "Let's get straight to the point here. There's a limit to how inflammatory articles can be without impinging on the national interest, and your articles have crossed that limit. This isn't the first time, in fact." He crossed his arms and gave her what seemed to be a curiously disarming look. "And you want to know why nothing has happened to you? It's simple, really. To begin with, there's no dirt that can be dug up from your record, no nothing. We could come up with something to put you on trial for, but that would just be giving you a platform for all your pontificating. Worst of all, it would just make us look bad, going after a charming woman of high intellectual standing whose only fault is her politics."
Tawny kept her eyes fixed intently on his, braced for the catch that was now surely to come.
"You're a tough nut, Ms. Dean. But you do have one weak spot. Everyone does." The look of grudging admiration in his face turned into a condescending smile. "It's your husband, a certain Louis Stevens."
Tawny could feel something turn inside her stomach, but tried to conceal it as best as she could.
"It seems like he's quite the sweetheart of yours," the officer continued, intently studying her facial expression. "You've been together since junior high. A long time indeed. Now, just imagine being separated from someone like that…"
Tawny let herself blink more heavily than usual, her eyes remaining shut a split second longer. It was enough for the policeman to sense what was going on inside her mind. The condescending smile returned to his face.
"And, conveniently enough, we found a packet of crystal meth on him when we searched him downstairs. This must have been the 'information valuable to the police' that he said he had with him. It's a criminal offense punishable by up to ten years in prison."
"You set us up for this, didn't you," Tawny finally spoke up, her firm, steady tone unchanged.
"Why, now that's quite an assertion," the commissioner said with feigned surprise. "Quite an assertion for you to be making at the institution you hold responsible for upholding the rule of law, eh, Ms. Dean?" His lips formed into a cynical smirk.
Tawny didn't bother trying to respond. Instead, she made an effort to maintain her composure as a dizzying array of thoughts bombarded her mind. Ten years in prison. It couldn't be…
"But it doesn't have to be this way, Ms. Dean," the officer now went on, cutting into the middle of her thoughts. "Your husband won't go to jail if you agree to resign from the editorial collective of The New Partisan and start toning down the content of your articles. That way, you'll learn self-discipline, now that you know that we can put your husband in jail anytime we choose to, anytime you cross your limit again. The other option is, we put him in jail now and you can carry on with what you're doing."
The commissioner was looking intently into her eyes. "The choice is yours, Ms. Dean."