by Zoey Parker
“Actually, there's one in particular I'd really like to talk about. The rich artist who killed his wife and her lover—James Beldin.”
Leroy fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair, loosening his tie. “Why, uh...I mean, what do you want to know about him?”
“Oh, it's not so much what I want to know as what I know already. For instance, I happen to know that while Beldin was staying down here before he was transferred to death row, you smuggled in some art supplies for him—”
“Now wait a goddamn minute—”
“—and that you currently own the last thing he ever painted, so you can anonymously sell it for upwards of a million dollars when you retire in a couple years.”
Leroy's face was turning red. “That's a fucking lie.”
Sarah shrugged. “Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But I'm willing to bet that if word got out among the convicts, at least one of them would have friends or family members on the outside who'd be willing to break into your house and grab it while you're here on duty.”
“Oh yeah, you half-bright cunt? What makes you think I haven't got it stashed someplace else?”
“Simple. You have no friends, your family fucking hates you, and the painting's too big for a safe deposit box. Stop screwing around, Leroy.”
Leroy's teeth were clenched so tightly that the muscles in his jaw were twitching. Finally, he said, “Fine. So what do you want from me?”
“Nothing too complicated. Whenever Gable and his goons want to come in here without showing up on the security tapes, you arrange it. I want you to do the same for me.”
“What, now?” he whined plaintively.
“Yes, right now.”
Leroy sighed, then dragged the computer keyboard closer to him and started typing. A few seconds later, the screens blinked, then continued showing the empty hallway.
“Okay, I've tricked the cameras so they'll show a loop of the empty corridor while continuing to stamp it with the current date and time. I'm assuming you want Bellows's cell open?”
Jesus, Sarah thought. It didn't take long for everyone to hear about that. But hopefully, in just a few short days, it won't matter how many people know about it. We'll be long gone.
“That's right,” she replied curtly.
Leroy nodded and hit a button, unlocking Kurt's cell. “Okay. You have five minutes.”
“If you want to hang onto your little retirement plan, then I have all the fucking time I want, fat man.”
And with that, Sarah opened the door to the corridor and walked over to the door of Kurt's cell. Her heart was slamming against her ribcage like a fist, and she could hear her own blood rushing in her ears.
This was it. The moment of truth.
Chapter 32
Kurt
When Kurt heard the lock on the door click open, his entire body tensed automatically, sending fresh waves of pain through his ribs. He fully expected to see a group of guards led by Gable, or maybe Hawkeye and some of the bigger members of the Brothers. Either way, he'd be severely outnumbered, and in his weakened condition, he probably wouldn't last long before they cut his wrists or strung him up so he'd look like just another suicide in the hole.
Well, fine. Let them come. He'd fight them to his last breath, and at least it would all be over soon.
As the door opened, Kurt thought his mind must be playing tricks on him again. Sarah was standing there, framed in the pale light from the corridor like some kind of angel. She was carrying a brown paper bag, and the smells coming from it made his stomach do backflips.
“Is it really you?” he croaked through parched lips.
“It's me,” Sarah answered, crouching down next to him and opening the bag. She withdrew a styrofoam clamshell and opened it, revealing a greasy pile of fried eggs and sausage patties. Then she handed it to him, along with a plastic fork. “Here, eat up. I know how they 'feed' the inmates down here.”
Kurt desperately wanted to hold Sarah and kiss her, but the needs of his body rudely jostled these impulses out of the way. He grabbed the fork and dug into the food, wolfing it down.
“Try to go slow,” she said softly. “You'll make yourself sick.”
“How did you get in here?” Kurt asked between bites. “If Gable finds out—”
“He won't. I took care of it. Besides, I've got something on Gable. Maybe even something big enough to help us get out of here.”
Kurt finished the food, wiping his mouth on his forearm and looking at her. First Sarah shows up with food, then she talks about a plan for both of them to leave River Oak?
He leaned forward, touching her shoulder with his index finger.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Gotta make sure you're really you. Being down here...it does stuff to your thoughts sometimes. You see, hear, even smell things that aren't there.”
Sarah took Kurt's face in her hands gently and kissed him. The taste of her lips was sweeter than the food had been. They were real, but somehow, they also seemed better than real, like a fairy tale spell conjured from pure sunlight. The walls around him seemed to withdraw, letting in fresh air, big skies, freedom...everything from the outside he'd almost stopped believing in.
“I told you, I'm real,” Sarah said. “And yes, I think I've got half a plan to break you out of here so we can be together, far away from this hellhole. But first, there's something I need to tell you.”
Kurt braced himself. He knew this would end up being some cruel trap of the mind, with hope as the bait. As soon as he reached for it, it would spring shut on him, snapping his sanity in half. The lovely mirage of her would fade, replaced by thin air—or worse, Gable.
“I'm pregnant. And it's yours.”
Kurt stared at her with his mouth open, trying to process these words. They were literally the last thing he'd expected to hear, and now they echoed in the space between them.
“Knowing that, do you...think we could still have a future together?” she asked quietly.
Suddenly, a cyclone of images whirled through Kurt's mind, making him dizzy. He thought of waking up next to Sarah every day for the rest of his life, in a real bed, with the rays from the morning sun streaming in through the window. He thought about the joy of holding a baby in his arms again, comforting it when it cried, playing with it as it laughed. He thought about everything he'd wanted for Alexander—the best, safest, happiest life a child could possibly have—and he thought about being able to make those plans again. To see them through this time.
Another chance to love a kid again, completely and unconditionally. Another chance at a wife and a happy family. The future that had been stolen from him, returned to him again.
In that moment, he realized that he'd never wanted anything more in his life.
“Yes,” he said. “Of course we can.”
Sarah smiled gratefully, tears shimmering at the corners of her eyes. She embraced him, showering his face with kisses until he almost couldn't breathe.
“Easy, easy,” he laughed. “I haven't bathed in days. Now, what's this 'half a plan' you've got?”
“It involves something I heard one of the other guards say. There's a theory that the riot that happened here fifteen years ago was organized as a cover for a couple of inmates to escape. After all, if I tried to get you out of here under normal conditions, about a hundred different people would notice. But if everyone were too busy trying to put down a riot...”
“We could slip out in the confusion.” Kurt nodded. “It's a solid plan. But how do we kick off a riot?”
Sarah told him what she'd learned about Gable. “Do you think we could use it somehow?”
Kurt considered it carefully. “Yeah. Maybe. I think I've got an idea. But first, we'll need one more thing to pull it off.”
Chapter 33
Sarah
Before her shift started, Sarah snuck into the men's locker room carefully, making sure no one else was in there. She crept over to Gable's locker and pulled a paper clip from her pocket
, straightening it out and fashioning it into a crude lock-picking device.
Sure, Gable had broken into her locker to plant the drugs. But he hadn't expected anyone to do the same to him, and his own locker was protected by a cheap padlock that was almost pathetically easy to open.
And with her misspent youth as an honorary member of the Black Dogs, Sarah had picked her share of locks.
She opened the door, looking for the spare uniform that every guard kept in their lockers. Prisoners could sometimes throw food—or more objectionable substances—at the corrections officers, and it was important for them to be able to change into fresh uniforms so they could finish their shifts. Gable's uniform was meticulously folded at the bottom of his locker, along with a spare name tag.
Sarah deftly removed the name tag from the uniform, then closed and re-locked the locker. Kurt had been right—if this plan was going to work, securing the name tag was the most important part.
She briefly felt light-headed at the thought of Kurt. He did want to be with her after all, and he wanted to raise their child together. The prospect of their future together made her deliriously happy...
...but no. She had to focus on the task at hand, or else there'd be no future for either of them.
During her lunch break, Sarah slipped down to the contraband locker, where shivs and other confiscated items were kept. No one guarded this area, since prisoners weren't allowed in this part of River Oak and none of the guards cared about a bunch of junk cobbled together by inmates to kill other inmates. She opened the locker and selected an unused Lullaby that had been taken from a Sinner the previous week. She was careful to wear latex gloves when she touched the handle, and tucked it away in the pocket of her uniform. She had to walk a bit stiffly to make sure the sharpened metal didn't dig into her, but she doubted anyone would notice.
When it was time for the inmates to go out to the prison yard for fresh air and exercise, Sarah found Carl Davies and pulled him aside. She tried to make sure no one noticed.
Just looking at Davies made Sarah's stomach turn. The Sinners were still forcing him to wear makeup, and his hair was being held up by colorful plastic flower barrettes, like a little girl's. Worst of all, his eyes were flat and dead, like a crab's eyes.
“I know you've had a rough time since you got here,” Sarah whispered. “I thought you might like a chance to get some revenge on the Sinners. Interested?”
Davies stared at her for a long moment, then nodded slowly.
Sarah handed him the Lullaby. “On Wednesday at three p.m., you'll be assigned to work laundry duty with Roberto Torres, the leader of the Sinners. The guard on duty in the laundry room is Officer Fitch. He's an incredibly lazy asshole who spends half his time dozing and the other half jerking off in the bathroom. When no one's looking, I need you to use this to kill Roberto, then stash his body so no one finds it until he doesn't show up for count, and they have to go looking for him. Remember, go for his throat or his heart. Anything lower than that, he could survive and it's all been a waste of time. Then, when he's dead, you put this in his hand before you hide the body.”
She gave Davies the stolen name tag.
“I don't understand,” he murmured. “What is this? What's your plan?”
“My plan is to give you a chance to put down the animal who's been torturing you, without buying yourself a longer sentence or payback from the Sinners. You want it, or not?”
“Sure,” Davies nodded. “Sure, I can do that.”
“Good. Just remember, it has to be on Wednesday between three and four o'clock. You kill him at any other time, or you use this shiv for any other reason, and I'll make it my personal mission to ensure that you never make parole. Got it?”
“Uh-huh. Thanks.”
Davies hid the shiv and name tag, then waddled off slowly, leaving Sarah to wonder if his broken mind would make him deviate from the plan and ruin the whole thing.
But when Wednesday came and Roberto Torres didn't show up for count before lights-out, Sarah looked over at Davies and saw him give her an almost imperceptible nod.
The alarms blared and River Oak was locked down as Sarah joined the other guards in their search for Roberto. Finally, word came in from the laundry room that he'd been found stuffed into an industrial dryer. There was a washcloth stuffed into his mouth, his throat had been slashed from ear to ear, and his genitals had been severed and placed neatly into his pocket.
And Captain Gable's name tag was in his hand, as though it had been ripped off during a struggle.
Warden Glass was summoned to the scene of the grisly murder, and Gable was called in at once, still wearing his civilian clothes. Sarah stood with the other guards, watching as Glass pointed to the name tag clutched in the dead man's fingers.
“Captain Gable, what is the meaning of this?”
Gable stared at the name tag in disbelief. “I don't know how that got there, sir. Obviously, I had nothing to do with this. I was off-duty today.”
“Really? Then surely, we can clear all of this up as soon as you provide a solid alibi for where you were during the period of three to four o'clock this afternoon.”
Gable's eyes grew wide, and his face grew flushed as he stammered. “I was...I mean, I...I...”
You can't, Sarah thought with a flash of righteous triumph. Your alibi is that you were balls-deep in a schoolgirl, you fucking pig. Just like you are every Wednesday once school lets out.
“I see,” Glass replied tightly. “I'm afraid I'll have to suspend you from duty until all of this has been worked out. We'll take you into custody until the proper authorities arrive. Officer Rodriguez will assume your responsibilities in the interim. But between you and me, Gable, this is one disciplinary hearing I highly doubt you'll emerge from unscathed. A fiasco like this can cost a man his career, and even put him behind bars.”
Gable was dragged away by a few of the other guards, still spluttering and protesting.
Sarah smiled inwardly.
Phase One of their plan was complete.
Chapter 34
Sarah
Over the next few days, Sarah watched patiently as the entire prison descended into a seemingly endless cycle of blood and payback.
The word among the inmates was that Hawkeye had finally crossed the line. It was one thing for the Brothers to carve up a Sinner or two, but executing their top guy was a step too far—especially when all evidence pointed to the fact that the captain of the COs had done it for them.
The air in River Oak seemed to crackle with the constant promise of violence, like electricity.
Rodriguez wasn't a strong enough leader to keep the guards calm and disciplined, and they started lashing out at the Sinners preemptively, trying to show them who was boss before things got out of hand.
The new leader of the Sinners was a hothead who saw these assaults as proof that Gable had whacked Roberto, so he encouraged them to respond in kind, preparing attacks on guards whenever the correct conditions presented themselves.
And Hawkeye kept insisting that he hadn't ordered Gable to kill Roberto, that he wanted to broker some truce—but no one trusted him, and he ordered the White Brothers to start stockpiling weapons in preparation for the worst. He was even too busy to order Sarah around.
Four Sinners were beaten almost to death by COs in separate incidents.
A Knight had his eyes and tongue gouged out, and died from blood loss.
A guard was cornered and stabbed to death by a trio of Sinners.
A Sinner who worked the cafeteria died of third-degree burns when a vat of boiling oil was tossed at him.
And on. And on. And on.
Until one day, a fight broke out in cell block D and spilled over into the neighboring blocks on both sides. By the time the guards mobilized to try to take control of the rapidly-escalating situation, half the prison was locked down, and uncontrolled carnage tore through the other half like a hurricane. Glass was cowering in his office with the governor on the phone, and eve
ry available corrections officer was called to blocks B through G to try to put down the riot.
No one was looking at Ad-Seg, one of the few areas of the prison where the inmates were still locked up tight in their cells.
Perfect.
While all of the guards were distracted, Sarah hurried down to the hole and hit a few buttons on the keyboard, unlocking Kurt's cell. She jogged down the corridor and swung his door open.
“It's happening,” she said. “Let's go.”