“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” Hal barked at him, after spending an uncomfortably long time looking over Jake’s work. “Felony criminal mischief? Intent to distribute? Didn’t we sit here, in this office, and decide that we were going to keep the charges more manageable?”

“That was before we had over a dozen individuals come forward to give evidence,” Jake said. “We’re in a much better position now than we were then.”

“We’re walking a fine line, Jake. I know you didn’t grow up around here, but try to put yourself in these kids’ shoes. Sure, they’ve made a mistake and they must be held accountable. But I don’t see any reason to totally derail their futures. What’s important here is that we hold the people who planned the party responsible.” He flipped through the charging documents. “The O’Connor brothers. Tell me what we have on them.”

Jake sighed. There was no doubt in his mind that William O’Connor had organized the party, but Jake had been envisioning far more shared responsibility. To Jake’s mind, the story that had emerged about the party was one of a community that had lost its way, a group of kids so out of control and privileged that they thought nothing of destroying a house. What Hal wanted was a convenient scapegoat. If everyone on Jake’s list, from the daughter of a county supervisor to the son a wealthy real estate developer, faced serious charges, the town would have to acknowledge that they had a culture problem. If only the O’Connor brothers took the blame, it was easy enough to point to them and say, hey, every town has a few bad apples.

Still, William O’Connor was their strongest case. Jake opened his file. “We have the underage-drinking ticket that Detective Murray issued on the road, and June Jeffries’s testimony that William was there. We also have the O’Connor name in the deposit book at Mason’s Liquors, and Murray is pretty sure we can get a positive ID from Mr. Mason if we need it. And we have testimony from more than a few kids that it was William O’Connor who broke the first window, starting the destruction of the house. It’s a pretty solid case.”

“Not bad,” Hal said. “Any physical evidence that puts him at the house?”

Jake shook his head.

Hal thought for a moment. “The more severe the charges, the greater the likelihood that he takes his chances at trial. You’ve got a good case, but it’s not a slam dunk. See if Murray can dig up anything else.”