CHAPTER ONE
A Month Ago
Josh Farewell was bribing a prison guard again. This one was Quentin, who usually guards the door on the east side of the compound, next to the laundry.
“Ten thousand dollars. All you have to do is unlock the door on the far side of the cafeteria tomorrow at lunch.”
“I’m not posted at the cafeteria at lunch.” Quentin was smiling. Like all of them, he thought that this was a joke.
“That’s why you’ll get away with it. Just walk by, flip the lock, keep going. I’ll do the rest.” Josh had been in Santa Maria penitentiary for almost six months, and he was certain that Quentin was the easiest to bribe. But so far, the guard wasn’t cooperating.
“Move it along, Farewell.” Quentin was an older guard, mid-forties, and starting to carry quite the paunch.
“Don’t you want a nest egg? Some retirement money?” Josh lowered his head, purposely looking conspiratorial. It helped set the mood for bribery.
“And just trust you to pay up? Get moving.”
“I paid up in Utah. And New Mexico. You know I make good on my word.”
“And you also got two guards arrested for taking bribes.”
“It’s not my fault they were too dumb to hide it. The point is I paid up. Ten G’s, one second of work. All you have to do is keep the cash hidden away and spend it gradually. Don’t go dumping ten grand into your account the day after a guy escaped from your pod. That’s what the idiot in Utah did, and you sir are no idiot.” Josh could tell that this fish was going to bite.
“And how exactly would you pay?” whether he knew it or not, Quentin had just taken the bait; Josh had only to reel him in.
“Fed-ex.”
Quentin looked around, to see if anyone was watching. He was tense, his shoulders scrunching. Finally, he let out a chuckle. “Are you serious?”
The next morning, Josh woke up an hour early to prepare. He took the books off his shelf, then took the wooden shelf off the wall. He slid the wood veneer off the top of the board, revealing the particle board beneath, and the deep pocket he had carved into it. The shelf was about an inch thick, and Josh had scraped the particle board down to the veneer on the other side, leaving a one inch deep, four by six compartment. It held all the items he would need to escape. He carefully placed the items where they would not be visible. A few went into his pockets, others into his waistband. Josh had spent the last six months with his shirt tucked in, just so he wouldn’t look suspicious today. He tucked the shirt over his valuables, slipped back into bed, and waited for the morning guard to come and wake him for an ID check.
Josh spent his morning as he always did, cleaning sheets in the laundry. He went about his day as he would any other, ignoring Quentin, who was looking at him all the time. He waited until the guards shouted for lunch, and it was only as he was leaving that he looked Quentin in the eye and gave him a little nod. Yes, I’m actually leaving.
As he lined up with his lunch tray, Josh made sure to stand behind Jackie Griffin, a nice guy who would do just about anything for bit of cocaine. Holding his tray in one hand, Josh produced a small packet from his sleeve, and used his lunch tray to cover his hand as he gently tucked the packet into Jackie’s pocket. Jackie made no response. They got their food. Josh sat in his typical seat at the absolutely farthest table from the door that he came in through. It was also the absolutely closest table to the one that Quentin was supposed to open. Jackie sat at the other end of the cafeteria.
While Josh ate his final prison-issued macaroni and cheese, Jackie unwrapped his plastic baggie beneath the table. He quickly raised his hands to his nose and breathed in hard, inhaling most of the drug. He took a second sniff, then a third, before the guards noticed him. Once he saw the guard at the end of the row, he jumped up on his table, still holding the plastic package to his face, hoping to inhale it all before they got him. Three guards swooped in to pull him off the table, and everyone else in the room looked over to see what the commotion was. Even the guards over at the far side of the room looked at Jackie, and none of them noticed Josh Farewell slip off his bench and out the door that was only four feet behind him.
So Quentin had made good. That was the first thing that had to go right. Josh untucked his shirt as he ran down the empty hallway. He slowed to walk past a guard station, where the guard was busy watching the monitors. From his pocket, Josh produced a small strip of his own hair. He peeled the plastic off the back of the strip and stuck the hair beneath his nose, creating a thick moustache. It was lame and looked fake, but it was memorable, and that was what mattered.
He turned into a new hallway, after checking that it was clear, and made his way to the door at the end. Reaching back to his waistband, Josh pulled out a small nail file and a pair of small alligator clips. With the file, he opened the keypad next to the door. He attached the clips on two well-chosen wires and created a new circuit, then dragged the end of the file across a couple other wires. There was a flash of sparks, and the red light at the top of the panel turned off. Josh reached for the doorknob. This was the second thing that had to go right. Not only did he have to open the door, he needed for there to not be a guard on the other side. The knob turned, and the door opened.
Another hallway, without guards. This was a service area, where the prison’s garbage was loaded once a day into a garbage truck. Josh headed down the hallway and followed his nose to the loading lock. Outside, he could see two trucks. One truck was dropping a dumpster, having just lifted it to empty it into the compactor. The other was a recycling truck, into which a pair of garbage men were tossing bags filled with bottles and cans. Josh pulled off his orange pants and turned them inside out, making sure to pull a small plastic badge out from the pocket as he went. Where a usual uniform would just be orange fabric, Josh had sewn blue fabric on the inside of his pant legs.
This had been tricky, because Josh had had to gamble on escaping this week. Uniforms are washed weekly, and prisoners don’t have their own pair of pants- they get whatever’s their size after the laundry’s done. That meant that Josh had to wait until his laundry was delivered on Friday before he could alter the pants, which meant he had to be certain that he could lure in a guard to help him escape this week. Fortunately, it had worked out.
Now wearing blue pants, or at least what would look that way from a distance, Josh didn’t bother to change his orange shirt. The garbage men were all wearing orange. He walked along the back wall of the loading dock, to the hooks where hard hats were hanging. Josh put one on, along with a reflective vest. The two men with the recycling truck finished their work and climbed into their truck. Josh took that as his cue.
The recycling truck drove off first, and the garbage truck shifted into gear behind it. Josh ran up to the garbage truck, grabbed onto the hand bar and swung up into the little cubby-hole at the back where the garbage men would ride on residential routes so they could hop on and off the truck. Of course, this truck really didn’t need anyone in the back, and a good guard would realize this. Josh was counting on not having to deal with a good guard today. He remembered to clip the plastic badge onto his vest. The badge was more than a little suspect. It featured a photo of a man who looked vaguely like Josh with a moustache, the logo of the township, and a fake name. Josh had no idea what the garbage men’s real ID’s looked like, but if anyone was close enough to see it, Josh would be screwed anyway. He enjoyed the fresh air, the rush of busting out of jail. He had been caught in mid-jailbreak before, and knew that he should appreciate this ill-gotten fresh air now, because he might not get off the grounds.
The guard station was to the right of the road before the gate, and Josh was hiding on the right side of the truck. The truck stopped, Josh tucking himself deeper into the hole. If the guard decided to do a visual inspection of the truck, Josh would be caught. But after a few seconds, the truck started moving again. Josh held the hand bar with one hand, and put the other to his ear. He nodded his head like listening to music. As he rode past t
he guard he flared his fingers out in a half-assed wave to the guard.
And the truck drove him through the gate. Just like that.
After ten minutes, Josh jumped off when the truck slowed to turn at the edge of town. Santa Maria is in the country, but there are a few small towns, including this one, nearby. He kept the vest on and tucked the hard hat under his arm. He wanted to look like a construction worker. With his orange shirt, if he didn’t have the hat and vest, the locals would peg him as an escaped convict the moment they saw him. They still might, thought Josh. He peeled off the moustache and tossed it.
He walked down the sidewalk in this costume, until he spotted a restaurant. Going inside, Josh saw that there were only a few people eating. The lunch rush must have just ended. He sat at the counter, putting his hard hat down. The waitress smiled.
“I’ll have a coffee, three creams, and I’ll order food when I get back from the can.” The waitress nodded. Josh left his hardhat behind, and headed to the back of the restaurant. He walked right past the men’s room and into the room marked “Employees Only.” This wasn’t the kitchen, but a small room with coat racks a couple folding chairs. Josh quickly dug through the coat rack, finding a nice hoodie that he slipped over his orange shirt. Digging through the coats, he found one that had heavy pockets. It had a man’s wallet in one pocket, and car keys in the other. He slipped the coat on, left the wallet behind containing nothing but photos, and went out the back door.
The keys featured the logo for Mercury. A quick scan of the back parking lot revealed just a single car of that make, a rusty old Mystique.
That night, a few hundred kilometres away, Josh checked the website of a local news station. They called him Houdini.
He checked out one of his old drops, and found his cash was still hidden. He took out twelve thousand dollars and a few IDs, and left the small amount of remaining money exactly where he’d left it.
Josh checked into a suite at a luxury hotel, and after a room-service dinner and a shave he went down to the lobby bar. He spotted a group of women who looked like they were on a business trip. One of them returned his gaze on her way to the bar, and he was quick to follow her. Her name was Cassandra, and she was drinking Vodka crans.
The next morning, Josh checked out, took a cab to the nearest Fed-Ex store and asked for a small 9x12 box. Business size. He was sending a stack of cash, so he figured it might as well feel like a stack of papers. He went outside to swap the money from his bag into the box. Ten thousand dollars. He was a man of his word. He sealed the box and headed back into the store. He had to wait in line before he could hand over the parcel and have it weighed for shipping. Altogether it took about five minutes. When he was done mailing his bribe, be stepped outside just in time for the police cruisers to pull up.
It seems that old Quentin had a crisis of conscience and confessed that he was the one who helped Farewell escape. He also told the cops that the money was coming through Fed-ex. The cops sent out descriptions of Josh to all the outlets within a day’s drive. The girl behind the counter, Good Samaritan that she was, pressed her panic button as soon as Josh told her Quentin’s address.
So after six months of work, Josh escaped Santa Maria for one night. And this was his third escape. So now, instead of paying for his crime in a nice, easy, medium-security prison, Josh Farewell got shipped to Pittman to serve out his time with the violent offenders in maximum security. Still, Josh was happy for the fresh air and freedom, however brief.
Next time, he’d escape for good.
Stray Woods Page 5