by Tom Barber
Unlike the elderly woman back in Lee County who’d been listening to an audiobook instead of the news, the boyfriend and girlfriend were aware from updates on their phones, as well as the radio, about the attack on the bus back on the Kanawha Bridge and the missing fugitives in the area. The man standing by the broken-down Impala ahead was wearing a trooper’s forest green uniform, but the shirt was open and revealed a stained white t-shirt stretched tight over a large barely-contained belly; he looked a mess, wasn’t wearing a campaign hat and was sporting a large unkempt beard. And when the couple stopped just behind the cruiser, they saw he was wearing white sneakers, not boots.
The driver was no fool. As he went for the glove compartment, which contained a concealed-carry lightweight compact revolver, he was flanked by Billy Loughlin who’d emerged from behind some trees with a rifle, and just as he took out the Ruger .357 the driver was unceremoniously shot in the head. His girlfriend screamed as he rocked from the impact and went limp, high velocity blood spatter and other matter spraying over her as the gun clattered out of her boyfriend’s fingers to the floor. She continued to scream, staring at her dead partner in shock, so didn’t see Brooks arrive outside the car. He ripped open her door, dragged her out and quickly broke her neck, this time making sure he did the job properly unlike with the laundry truck driver whose survival he’d heard about on the radio.
Billy pulled the man’s body out too and the brothers dumped the couple in the bushes out of sight of the road while Lupinetti stood on the side of the road with a handgun, keeping watch. Brooks had squeezed into the trooper’s stolen clothes a couple of minutes ago to make the stop more convincing to an oncoming driver, but he quickly swapped them back for his XXXL BOP jumps again now the job was done. The man they’d just killed had been larger than the skinny fisherman the three Loughlins had taken down at his home in Virginia earlier, but still was nowhere near big enough for his clothes to fit either of the two brothers.
Brooks whistled to Lupinetti and waved him over before throwing him the man’s jacket. The former NYPD lieutenant tried it on then went into the bushes where the guy had been dumped and stripped him, pulling on his shirt and jeans before putting the jacket back on. He was pleased to ditch the prison overalls he’d been wearing despite the fact the shirt was now stained with blood and other gunk. That didn’t overly bother him; he could cover the worst of it with the jacket. He also discovered the man’s boots were only half a size bigger than what he wore too. Things were starting to look up.
In the meantime, Billy had transferred their bags of guns, ammo and food to their new ride, keeping a sharp eye on the road as he did so. Once Brooks pocketed all the cash he could find in the woman’s purse and man’s wallet, totaling a hundred and fifty three bucks, he re-joined Frank by the police vehicle and they rolled it off the road and down a bank, the Impala gathering pace until it hit a tree. They returned to the dead couple’s car and climbed inside, Brooks scooting the driver’s seat back as Billy did the same on the passenger side while Lupinetti took the back. Billy picked up the dropped compact .357 and inspected it before stuffing the small gun into his waistband as his brother found an old roadmap in the glovebox, taking advantage and using it to doublecheck the direction they’d need to take.
‘How far’s the drive?’ Lupinetti asked, still holding onto his pistol and keeping his eyes on the empty road. Neither brother answered as Brooks stared up from the map at the road ahead, the car not moving. Billy glanced at his older sibling, who’d been unusually quiet since they’d escaped from the bridge.
Looking at them both in turn, Lupinetti could guess why.
‘The guy who shot him is a cop,’ he ventured quietly. ‘His name is Sam Archer. I can help you find him.’
Brooks looked at him in the rear-view for a few moments, and Frank felt his stomach tighten. But instead of replying, Brooks passed the map to Billy and they moved off, planning to stick to the backroads while heading north. The upcoming journey would take them a while longer but that didn’t matter; they had all night.
Their destination was around seven hours away and they just needed to be there by 11 o’clock the following morning.
‘What’s the problem?’ the warden asked, striding into C Block to meet the captain who’d called him, saying it was urgent. The captain led him back up to the upper south tier and headed towards two inmates who’d been near the end of the line, all the other prisoners now locked inside their cells again.
‘His name is Freddy Janks, sir,’ the captain said, Williams and Anderson flanking the grinning inmate. ‘He’s one of the guys from-’
‘This is my prison, Captain. I know who he is. So what’s he doing here? Last I heard he was in the SHU from the psych ward for biting lumps out of another inmate.’
‘He was.’
‘What’s your point? Someone must’ve let him out during the riot and he hid under a bunk or-’
Then the warden understood and his expression changed.
‘Where’s the man who was meant to be in this cell?’
‘He isn’t on the list of the dead or inmates taken to hospital or County, sir,’ the captain replied, looking at Prez Rainey standing beside Janks. ‘We’ve got another escapee.’
FOURTEEN
Marquez had stopped by USP Gatlin one last time to get a photocopy of Lupinetti’s paperwork for Shepherd before heading back to the motel when she heard the COs radios lighting up, the captain reporting they had another missing prisoner after a recount of C Block.
‘He’s gone and nobody noticed until now?’ she asked the sergeant who’d helped her and Archer extract Lupinetti earlier in the day, walking with him to their control room. ‘How’d he’d pull that one off?’
‘You tell me. God dammit, we completely missed it. If it hadn’t been for your partner, it would’ve been hours before we noticed.’
‘Archer? How the hell did he know?’
‘Again, you tell me.’
‘Who is this new escapee? Don’t tell me the Loughlins have another brother.’
‘No, his name is Nicky Reyes,’ the sergeant told her as they approached the door to the control room. ‘Thirty year old from Cleveland, in for manslaughter. We’re checking every place we can think of in the block but the guy’s vanished.’
‘Go back and trace Reyes’ movements on the cameras from when the riot started,’ the captain ordered a pair of COs, having returned to the control room just as Marquez and the sergeant arrived. ‘Where’s Janks right now?’
‘On his way back to the SHU, like you ordered,’ a CO told him.
‘Take him to one of the meeting rooms instead. We’re gonna talk.’
‘Guy’s a fruitloop, boss,’ the sergeant beside Marquez said. ‘Questioning him might take weeks, cutting through all his bullshit. Prez could be an easier nut to crack.’
The captain saw his point and nodded. ‘OK, get him over here. I want visitor records checked too. See who Reyes has been speaking to recently, get on the horn to local authorities and tell them the search in Lee County is back on.’
‘Prison’s saying they did a cell count after the riot, and definitely saw an inmate lying in the missing man’s bunk,’ Archer explained to the Charleston PD cop, both of them still in the diner a state west of USP Gatlin. He’d been called back by the federal facility and told his suspicions that another prisoner was missing had been correct. ‘Assumed it was him, didn’t even think to check the SHU too for absent inmates because it wasn’t affected in the riot.’
‘What’s SHU?’ the diner server asked, listening avidly from his side of the counter.
‘Secure Housing Unit,’ the Charleston cop replied automatically before realizing who she was talking to. ‘How’d this guy get out of there and into the missing man’s cell?’ she asked Archer.
‘Yeah, how’d this man escape the SHU, Lis?’ he asked Marquez.
‘A couple of the COs’ keysets were lifted in C Block when things went crazy. Someone must’ve let Janks out bu
t only him. And the staff are saying psych ward inmates here wear green jumps to differentiate them. Janks was a proud owner, but he’d changed into orange by the time count happened.’
‘So he was covering for Reyes in his cell.’
‘Looks that way to me. The CO who checked the cell said he saw the guy asleep lying with his face to the wall. The imposter’s a similar build and is dark-haired like this man Reyes, so the CO didn’t think anything of it. Reyes’ cellmate is being brought out for questioning. Some motorcycle club president. He definitely knows something. Getting him to talk is probably gonna be another matter.’
‘Pretty hard to claim he was oblivious,’ Archer said. ‘There’s been a different guy in his cell for the last twelve hours.’
‘Staff did a prisoner count at breakfast first thing and Reyes was ticked off, so he was definitely still on site then. He must’ve got out during the riot.’
‘What’s the man doing time for?’ Archer asked.
‘Manslaughter. Twelve years. Killed a guy at a party when he was seventeen.’
‘Good going, Prez, you just got a load more time tacked onto your sentence,’ the Gatlin captain told the biker who’d been attacked in the chow hall earlier in the day; the door to the meeting room was shut behind them as the large bearded man was pushed into the seat by Williams. ‘You helped your celly break out.’
‘Can’t see you proving that one, boss.’
‘Think it’s gonna be hard? You’ve had Freddy Janks in there since lockdown started and didn’t happen to notice?’
‘What should I have done, called for room service? Some of the boys have been yelling in there for hours and y’all been ignoring them.’
‘So you knew Janks was in Reyes’ bunk?’
‘No, I didn’t. He was up top and was there with his back turned when we were all shut in the cells again. After the riot was done I laid down, didn’t say shit to the kid and the guy didn’t speak to me either. I didn’t know it was Janks until you opened us up for a recount.’
‘So he somehow teleported from the SHU, ended up in your celly’s empty bed wearing orange jumps and you know nothing about it?’ Prez didn’t answer. ‘The Loughlins have started a killing spree already since they got out. Three of the men they’ve murdered were law-enforcement and two were extradition agents on a bus Brooks and Billy sent sky-high. We prove you helped the brothers as well as Reyes in this, it’ll add a nice heap to your sentence. You’re still ten months from release. I’ll see to it you get another ten years, you don’t start talking.’
‘You think me and those kid-molesting farmboys were suddenly cool with each other and I helped them break out? You know we avoid each other like we’re allergic. They stay outta my way and I return the favor.’
‘I know how you are with Reyes. He’s like your little brother in this place. You and him always stick together. You might not give them a hand, but you’d sure as hell help him.’
‘If he was planning something, he didn’t tell me.’
‘Take him to the SHU,’ the captain told Williams. ‘Hell’s Angel here can take a cell next to his buddy Janks, since you two seem to like being so close.’
Prez’s attitude suddenly changed. ‘You got no reason to send me there.’
‘Some of our boys might be loose on society right now, but you still belong to Gatlin, Rainey. Maybe peace and quiet in there for a few days’ll make you think twice about lying to me.’
Marquez was standing outside with other prison staff when the door opened, and although she’d missed Prez’s arrival, she was there to see him being taken out again. She immediately recognized the man from the chow hall earlier, when she and Archer found him being attacked by some of the other inmates. The same one who’d warned her she was about to be rushed from behind.
The biker glanced her way before he was given a push to get him moving and he shuffled forwards. ‘Anything?’ one of the COs asked the captain quietly, who’d just walked out of the meeting room behind Rainey.
‘No, but time in the SHU will soften him up.’
‘The manhunt for his cellmate’s just starting,’ Marquez replied. ‘You shut him away and wait it out, could take days to get any information, right?’
‘I’m just putting some pressure on. Few hours in there, Prez’ll give us something.’
‘He doesn’t seem like he’d get spooked by some time alone.’
‘Only other stint he’s pulled in solitary before, his daughter died and he didn’t find out for a week,’ the captain said. ‘My predecessor ran the show then, not me,’ he added, seeing the look on her face. ‘But that place holds bad memories for him. He won’t want to be back in there.’
‘What’s he locked up for?’
‘Trafficking guns across State lines,’ the captain replied, before the door ahead reopened and one of the guards who’d been transporting the MC president jogged back.
‘Said he’s ready to talk.’
‘Told you,’ the captain said to Marquez. ‘That was fast. Bring his ass back.’
‘Not to you, boss.’ The CO nodded at the female NYPD detective. ‘He wants to speak to her.’
‘What? Why?’ the captain asked, just as surprised as Marquez by the request.
‘Didn’t say. Do you know him?’ the CO asked Marquez who shook her head.
‘Never seen him before today.’
‘So why’s he asking?’
‘Maybe he’s got a crush. Who cares; we can listen in,’ another CO said. ‘He starts spilling, who gives a crap who he tells it to in the room?’
‘But how would he have a crush on her?’ the other officer said. ‘He doesn’t even know who she is.’
‘We crossed paths in the chow hall during the riot,’ Marquez said. ‘Looked like he was trying to save Andrea from being raped.’
‘Or he was fighting others off to have first shot at her,’ the captain countered.
‘He’s wasting time, Cap,’ Williams said. ‘Just doesn’t want to go into solitary.’
‘Must be worth a try?’ Marquez suggested. ‘I’m gonna leave soon but happy to help while I’m here.’
‘Her colleague’s the one who pushed for another cell count too, Cap,’ the sergeant said, nodding at Marquez. ‘We wouldn’t have checked for two days if he hadn’t prompted it. Reyes could’ve been in Cancun by then.’
‘Archer also took Craig Loughlin out of the equation,’ Marquez added. ‘I’d say he did you another big favor there.’
‘Fine, bring him back,’ the captain said. ‘We’re burning moonlight here. Make it fast.’
A couple of minutes later, Rainey was sitting opposite Marquez in the interview room. ‘Your celly can’t be found on site,’ she said. ‘Looks like he’s been gone for hours.’
‘Seems he has.’ On his way back to the room, she’d been given his full name. Kevin ‘Prez’ Rainey of Macon, Georgia; she guessed he was around forty five years old, an imposing man standing around 6’3 or 6’4 with dark brown hair and brown eyes, a gray-flecked beard and faded tattoos on his arms. She noticed a fresh cut across his right forearm, most likely from the fight with the attempted rapists in the chow hall.
‘You help me out with Reyes, we can get that cleaned and stitched up,’ she told him, looking at the injury.
‘You and your friend could’ve ended up as hamburger meat this morning, coming into the block during the riot.’
‘That why you agreed to talk to me? Because you think I helped out?’ Rainey didn’t answer. ‘If it is, help me get your celly back safe before he gets himself hurt or killed out there.’
‘I told the boss already. I don’t know anything about what the kid had planned.’
‘So if staff check the cameras frame-by-frame, we won’t find you taking keys off one of the guards and getting Janks out of the SHU?’
‘The cameras were broken down there. Smashed, I heard, when all the shit snapped off.’
‘How convenient.’
‘Wasn’t it. I’ve been in
here for fourteen years and I got ten months left. I’m not looking for more time or trouble.’
Marquez paused. ‘Two State Police troopers and a local cop were killed on a bridge in West Virginia an hour ago. A prisoner transport was ambushed.’
‘I heard. Cap mentioned it.’
‘The Loughlins were responsible. If your celly was involved-’
‘He wasn’t.’
‘You’re so confident?’
‘Not something he’d do; but those rednecks would. Billy’s about as smart as this table but he’s a mean SOB and murdering means nothing to him. Brooks is the clever one; he’s the more dangerous of the two.’ Rainey was curious. ‘They hit a prisoner transport, huh?’
‘Yeah, and some of the inmates on board escaped too. The brothers took Frank Lupinetti with them but my colleague shot Craig Loughlin. Killed him.’
‘Your friend the same one from the chow hall?’ Prez asked. Marquez nodded. ‘Brooks and Billy ain’t gonna forget that. He better be ready.’
‘He can handle it. But three cops died out there. If State Police or federal agents corner your celly and he won’t surrender, it doesn’t matter if he wasn’t at the bridge, he still broke out of here. They’ll even the score real quick.’
‘Like your guy, he can handle it. He’s made it through his time in this place. Ain’t an easy thing.’ Before they could continue, the door to the room opened and the captain walked in, carrying a laptop with a memory stick attached, the sergeant and CO called Williams with him.
‘We just looked at the visitor logs, Prez,’ the captain told him. ‘Reyes’ sister came to visit him yesterday. Burned this off from the cameras.’ He turned the laptop, so Rainey could see the video. Marquez watched too, seeing Nicky leaning across a table and talking agitatedly to a young woman with reddish hair who also looked stressed and anxious. ‘What did they discuss?’
‘Look like I was there?’
‘She helping him on the escape?’