Gwen was next. “Gwenith Bjorkman G-W-E-N-I-T-H B-J-O-R-K-M-A-N. I am the psychologist at McNeil Island and I meet with Moreau Zelis twice a month for hour long sessions.
Scott sounded bored as he announced himself “Scott Wickam, S-C-O-T-T W-I-C-K-A-M. I am the warden and I have processed and had a meeting with the prisoner Moreau Zelis.”
The next person was one Gwen rarely interacted with, he was not normally here but he spoke with grace his slightly graying hair made him more distinguished and Gwen lifted her head when he began to speak. “Greyson Cooper G-R-E-Y-S-O-N C-O-O-P-E-R. I work for the Washington Department of Corrections, and I have been doing so for over fifteen years.”
Scott spoke again this time to the defense table “Prisoner Moreau Zelis you will say and spell your name, give the date of your birth, and enter your plea one more time for record of this process, please begin.”
Moreau was cunning and cold, his low sickly sweet voice would make you think he would never harm a human, or nearly kill anyone that worked for him. He began slowly with his deep baritone. “My name is Moreau Zelis, street name of Z. M-O-R-E-A-U Z-E-L-I-S, and I was wrongfully convicted of the crimes stated before which are murder, rape, and assault with a deadly weapon. I was born the twentieth of April nineteen eighty two. And I plead not guilty.”
“In order to qualify for parole you have to show that conviction against you should be overturned by our court or you have to admit to your crimes and show through your psychological evaluations that you have been rehabilitated or if you have new evidence stating your innocence we will hear the case. Mr. Zelis do you meet one of the aforementioned conditions of parole?” Scott sounded bored; he knew the answer to the case, as did everyone else in the room.
“I believe my conviction should be overturned because the jury was wrong I ain’t guilty.” Zelis said sounding passionate about his issue.
“Mr. Zelis, have you had sufficient amount of time to prepare your case to appear before this board?”
“Yes Warden I have.”
“Then you have the floor but mind you this court has the right to rebut and the victim and their families will be allowed to speak as well. Mr. Zelis you may present your case.”
Moreau Zelis went through the case from his point of view; the only other sound beyond his voice was the clacking of the court reporter’s keys. The whole story was embellished and took about an hour and a half; Zelis took multiple water breaks because he was trying to spin the story so he could get parole. When the time came the family to give their opinion on the possibility of Zelis’ parole.
When one of the murder victim’s father spoke up Gwen sat up straighter, the man looked as if he hadn’t slept in ages. He started with a heavy breath. “Moreau Zelis, the bible and our savior Jesus Christ compels me to forgive you because it is not I who will judge you for your sins but God almighty will. I have struggled with this for over a year. I can never forget what you have done, nor can I ignore the pain that you have caused taking my daughter from me, before she met you she was in college to become a nurse, she wanted to save people, but most of all she wanted to save herself from the life that had been dealt to her. I forgive you only so I do not have to carry the burden of hating you with me. The forgiveness I have given is for myself not for you. A person without a soul can sleep easily at night; it is the people that do have a soul that have the problem. I pray that God has mercy on your soul, but I know that the devil will welcome you to the pits of hell when your time comes because someone who has caused as much pain and strife in the world has only one place to go. You will never change, you sit here and blame the families, you blame the police, and you make excuses for your actions. In order to be forgiven by our lord you must repent, since that will not be done you will have a cursed time in hell. I pray that you never are released from jail to cause this pain to another person or family.”
Gwen had to clear her throat. The father’s voice broke multiple times while delivering his speech to the parole board. Even Moreau Zelis had to look down; it looked as if one person had finally gotten through to him. Possibly. Calla was the next person to speak next; her words were much less eloquent.
“Moreau Zelis I was one of the many people who brought you down. I am glad to see you in cuffs and put into a cage. You are an evil person and I hate everything you are.” She had to dab at her mouth, the scar pulled at her mouth and must have caused a leak, “Moreau you deserve to rot in hell and I hope you have to live every day knowing you’re an evil piece of shit.”
With those last few words Calla sat down and dabbed at her eyes. Torrian gave his short and to the point speech about his interactions with Moreau, he was not violent towards the men, women were his problem. Torrian said he did not believe that Moreau should be paroled his attitude was enough evidence; Scott next announced Gwen was to speak. She stood and welcomed the committee and announced her credentials again for the record.
“I have spent two sessions a month with inmate Moreau Zelis and he exhibits a lack of maturity, he denies his responsibility for the crimes that he committed. He almost lives in a world of fantasy where what he does is right and authority is wrong. I do believe he is a very large risk repeat offender. He believes the women he assaulted deserved it. Moreau Zelis has not been rehabilitated enough in my opinion to be a success with parole. Perhaps with more therapy and more responsibility on Moreau Zelis’ part he would qualify at a later date in my opinion.”
Moreau knew his answer before the gavel entered Warden Scott Wickam’s hand to deliver the decision of the committee. He flipped the defense table over in one swift movement, the guards behind him grabbed for him as he lunged at Gwen, the males slammed Moreau onto the ground with a powerful thud, Torrian was in front of Gwen, it was weird how fast he moved she thought, he was sitting at the table beside her then suddenly was in front of her ready to block Moreau’s attempted assault.
“Gwen you ok?” He asked keeping his eye on the struggling inmate.
“Yes I’m fine, wow you guys are fast.” Gwen tried to joke with him.
“Yeah well one thing we don’t put up with here is a BOY putting his hands on a female.” Torrian was even bigger than she could remember, she knew a human couldn’t just grow like that but he looked bigger.
“Still you’re fast.” Gwen stated evenly her stare not faltering from the struggling male.
“You fucking bitch! Wait till I get a hold of you again you’re going to get your fucking jaw broken when I break you in.” Moreau was screaming, his target was Gwen, not the males and immediately she knew why, he felt he could control women easier, they were physiologically weaker than males he could hit a female but wouldn’t go at a man in the same way.
Torrian hated the way the miscreant spoke to Gwen, she was a gentle woman, Torrian was acting before he gave his body conscious command, he hauled off and punched Moreau as hard as he could in the stomach, immediately leaving the inmate gasping for air and retching in the other guard’s arms. He nodded to his coworkers and they started to drag the now docile inmate out of the hearing room back to his cell, knowing they would make the trip an unhappy one for this bastard for attempting to hurt the only female that understood them.
Torrian checked on Gwen once more. “Hey woman, you doing good? Too shaken to continue working?”
“Are you kidding? Takes more than a threat Torrian, you know that stuff doesn’t faze me.”
The way Gwen scoffed at the danger she was just in and the danger she continued to put herself in every day she came to work made him admire her and he liked her. Again he found himself looking at her tight physique then into her deep pooling eyes. “Yeah you’re iron woman I forgot.” He thought to himself, damn you really could fall for a female like that.
CHAPTER FOUR
The bus pulled up to the docks, the prison boat over to McNeil Island was waiting for them, and they had gotten a late start out from the holding tank. Kody looked at the guard and rolled his eyes before speaking, the entire ride
was filled with nothing but insults and empty threats on the guard’s part, but Kody meant his. Officer M. Carrol was in for a very rude awakening. “Are you fucking kidding me? I get sea sick.” Kody announced loud enough to be heard over the bus and boat engine his outburst received laughs from the other inmates.
“Tough shit inmate.” The officer replied sick of Kody’s shit and he was letting it show.
Slowly they were loaded onto the boat, the entire area secured, Kody was wedged between two low-level gang bangers in for manslaughter. They thought Kody should be impressed with them; obviously he wasn’t so they kept talking about their crimes. Kody ignored the boys; he knew the lion with the mightiest roar had the smallest dick, or something like that. The old boat parted the dock and started fighting the waves and heading to his new home. Kody took in all the cars in the parking lot, then the area around the docks, he was smart not that book kind of smart he had given that up years ago but the street smarts was in his veins, he knew what he had to do and when. He was a survivor his life was one long line of cluster fuck and was not about to stop ending up on top just because he caught this little case.
Gwen looked out of her office windows, stretching between duties she watched the boat come in and decided to go greet the new inmates, since she was going to have to meet them all, might as well get the initial comments over with and let them know she was not a woman to play with. She took another sip of her liquid gold the warm Starbucks went down her throat and warmed her to the core. She gave a soft moan from the little pleasure. She set the cup down, went down the hall, she caught the elevator and exited the building and entered the processing area, she could hear the drill sergeant, an older marine that she would be afraid of under normal circumstances but since she knew him and knew his family she found him to be like a bear. He saw her approach and snapped the men on deck to attention.
“You miserable maggots stand up, show this woman respect she is here to address you.” He hollered, Gwen nodded in his direction as she took over reigns of this discussion, the men were hooting at the presence of a woman.
Gwen got on the sternest voice she could and yelled, “HEY now you will stop that, I am your psychologist, I will be the one conducting your processing interviews this week and I am the one controlling your cell block assignment. I will not listen to excuses about crimes; you are all here because of the choices you made to do illegal things. I am here to listen, make it somewhat easier on you to be here, and possibly rehabilitate you and send you back into the world. I will be conducting your therapy, there is not much I don’t already know about you, and I have researched all of your files. I do my job and nothing more, if you come at me with that annoying attempted player talk or oh baby this ooh baby that you will not be walking right for at least a week and be missing part of your anatomy. You are in our world you will respect us and get my help. You disrespect me and your life might get harder. Got it?” Gwen waited for a majority to answer with a grumble.
She honestly hated the aggression she had to display when they first entered but if she didn’t they would try stupid things and end up getting more time, becoming more violent, or have unrealistic expectations. She turned on her heels and started walking away from the group of new inmates and back to her office, she would have one of the men in there in a matter of minutes and she wanted to get her recordings ready as well as go over the files one more time before he arrived.
Kody was in shock; he was the first to notice a woman walking towards them. He thought it was going to be a sausage fest on the island but it seemed there was vag here after all. He started his examination of the new meat from the bottom up, his cock swelled. The woman had small feet, long legs, hourglass frame, D cups, long blonde hair, her blue eyes pierced all the men there, evaluating them in a matter of seconds. Kody lifted his hands to his eyes while she spoke, her voice was soft yet stern he knew it. He looked around and saw the other inmates look like they were in love with her. He was immediately pissed off. He knew exactly who she was and what she did. He was going to be seeing her soon. That was his Gwen, could she recognize him? She must not he thought. That was his Gwen, this was fate, and he knew he was going to have his female again. Kody was smiling, it was out of character for him, but that was his woman and he was going to have her again. All he had to do was make her remember.
Gwen checked her caseload for the day several of the new inmates had appointments within the next few days with all of them to be settled within the next two weeks. Gwen called the first one forward, a petty thief named Russel Theodore Weaver. He was one of the inmates that would usually end up being made a “prison bitch” within a month of his arrival. She knew his transition would be easier than some of the others but still he came across her desk first.
After the prisoners settled into their new homes some for the rest of their lives, others scheduled already given an expiration date Torrian walked down the block not even hearing the calls and curses that were flung his way. It was almost entertaining to him how much he could ignore with this job. God as his witness he had grown since school, if he would have been a few years younger these slurs would have gotten to him in such a bad way he would have attacked back. Torrian came up to a cell containing two new prisoners, one was Weaver, and the other was McQueen.
“Prisoners back.” Torrian announced in his most dominant, official voice. The prisoners stepping back from the gate greeted Torrian; after they were far enough back he barked at them “I need Weaver to come forward, hands behind your back and your back facing me. We get to take you to see the shrink.”
Russel looked at the over buff guard, thinking that he must have masculinity issues if he felt he had to front that hard against an inmate on the first day. This flexing stuff surely must have won him some respect in the past but Russel didn’t think it would work with him. Russel heard his surname. He listened to the directions and followed them. When the correctional officer clapped the silver bracelets on his wrists his body jacked back as and he was almost dragged from the cell. They quickly closed the other inmate in, Russel was thankful he was getting away from the creeper that he was now housed with. Talk was already happening, this guy was bad news and demented as fuck. Russel was dragged to the office area they passed on the way in and soon saw Miss Long Legs after the officer he found to be named Torrian knocked on a door to the psychologist’s office.
Gwen saw her first of the new round at the door when she opened it, Torrian was so efficient at his job it felt like it had only taken a minute, but Gwen was lost in her thoughts, still replaying that dinner with her mother and father, still mortified that Marie asked if she was gay, she could cringe. While Gwen saw nothing wrong with being gay it just wasn’t for her she liked guys women annoyed her at times.
“Please Mr. Weaver come in” Gwen said opening the door for him to enter easier, Torrian looks uneasy as always, but there had yet to be an infraction of the rules in her office and she was going to keep it that way. Her patients came first.
“Nice digs, so you’re no going to blow me are you?” He grabbed himself.
“No, no I am not I am here just to have you talk to me about whatever you want, I take notes and figure out how I can help you best.” Gwen replied trying to keep the disgust out of her voice.
“Well right now I just need a good fucking.” Russel replied.
“I am sorry about that Russel but I do not have any inappropriate contact with my patients, why do you insist upon talking about sex?” Gwen asked cocking her head to the side taking notes about the man in front of her, unimpressed by his lack of creativity, she had heard all of this before.
“I like to get my dick sucked where’s the crime in that? Jesus broad you’re pissing me off already, how much do I have to come here?” He was getting tired of it.
“I did not mean to piss you off, Russel just trying to get you to open up, but we have time.” Gwen looks over the file once more before speaking, “you’re going to be here for a while so we can talk more later
. I really just like to introduce myself to the inmates and try to make sure your arrangements are going to work well for you.”
“They’ll work, now let me go fucking sleep.” Russel cursed at Gwen; she pressed the button under her desk to call for the guard. Torrian entered quickly as if he was listening at the door for signs of trouble and hauled Russel out of the room.
Torrian slapped the cuffs back on Russel quickly and jacked his wrists up, he hated that Gwen insisted on the cuff free environment but it seemed to make the bastards trust her a bit more so he guessed it was okay for them to be in there. “Doc who’s up next? I’ll take this inmate back and grab him for you.”
“Next is Kody Lee McQueen, it says he is housed with our new friend Russel here.”
Russel almost spit at the blonde before him. “That prick is no friend of mine, he’s off.”
Torrian jacked up the cuffs a bit more and took the guy out, calling back and gaining one more look at Gwen. “I’ll bring McQueen to you.”
Gwen sat back down to wait for Torrian. She looked out the window in her office, it was just another average Washington day, Gwen knew she worked all the time, and that was not “how to find a man” as her mother would say. She thought about Torrian and laughed, he was protective, handsome, smart, easy going, fun to talk to, her mind drifted to wonder if he was decent in bed, of course he was she thought to herself. Many of the women she worked with had those thoughts aloud, Gwen didn’t often allow herself such trite thoughts but Torrian could cause lustful thoughts in any female.
“Hey I’m only human” Gwen told herself with a soft laugh before there was a knock at her door.
Torrian tossed Weaver into his cell roughly with one warning. “Never talk to Gwen that way again you little piece of shit, you hurt her you got a prison full of assholes ready to fuck you, got it?”
The Deadliest Secret (The Deadliest Series) Page 3