Description: Julie Ann Candoli is a mystery writer from Austin, Texas.
author (9670) mystery novel (34) mystery writer (33) julie ann candoli (1) julie candoli (1)
Layer upon layer of stench: this was my first, and lasting, impression. The building’s foyer smelled like sweat and stale cigarettes. Once I passed through the gauntlet of bulletproof glass and metal detectors into the actual jail, the stink of disinfectant over mold and piss hit me like a two-by-four to the face.
I surrendered my briefcase to a deputy who waved the metal-detector wand a little too near certain parts of my body. When I asked him if they didn’t have a female deputy available because that was darn close to a cavity search, he gave the standard response: “No, ma’am.”
This is about Royal, not about me, I told myself, deciding not to make trouble. For the moment. Left with only my legal pad and ballpoint pen, I waited for yet another deputy to unlock yet another metal door. No bars. Where those only in the movies? My lack of criminal law experience, plus whatever Hollywood decided to feed us, had not prepared me for the jail’s visceral reality. Nor the appearance of my client.