I punch the off button on the television remote. I wonder who the man is that they’ve interviewed. Maybe Violet will be able to come home sooner than later. I still have to find Violet a lawyer and find her one now. Just in case. I step out into the hallway for privacy and look up and down the corridor for any sign of Max. He’s nowhere to be seen.

I pull out my phone and do another search of lawyers who serve Pitch and the surrounding area. Dozens of names come up so I narrow my search to juvenile law and the list is cut down to just a handful. I start at the top with Anderson and Boothe Law Offices located in Carbonville. A chipper receptionist named Genevieve answers the phone on the first ring. She asks how she can be of help and I realize I don’t even know how to begin.

“I need a lawyer for my daughter. She’s twelve,” I say.

“What’s the charge?” the woman asks and I’m taken aback. I didn’t think I would have to go through the entire story with a complete stranger, let alone the office receptionist first.

“I’d rather speak with a lawyer,” I say. “Is someone available?”

“If you can give me some details about your daughter’s case, I can direct it to the attorney best suited for assisting you,” she says smoothly and I can tell it won’t be easy getting through this firewall.

“She hasn’t been charged yet, but they’re talking attempted murder,” I say, cringing with the ugliness of the words.

There is silence on the other end of the phone. I can’t imagine that these are charges that even the most experienced of lawyers see very often. Genevieve clears her throat. “Why don’t I take your number and one of our attorneys will call you back shortly.”

I tell her my number and before she hangs up I ask the question that I really don’t want to know the answer to. “Can you give me a ballpark figure of how much it costs for a situation like this?”

Genevieve is silent and I wonder if this firm has even had an attempted murder case before when she says, “Well, there are many factors to take into consideration, but on average I’d say that services will be about a hundred and fifty dollars an hour.”

She may as well have said a million dollars an hour. I’m not naive enough to think that an attempted murder case will take only a few hours. I make about three hundred and fifty bucks a week and that’s if I work overtime. In less than three hours a lawyer will wipe out a week’s worth of work.