Wrongly Accused

by Erin Wade

  The fast rescue of the baby and capture of Morgan were attributed to the use of computer forensics, which tracked Morgan and Starnes’s online communications. Both bred French bulldogs and had attended the same dog shows.

  Val wondered why women were so quick to give out personal information on Facebook.

  Women like Lisa Morgan belong in my prison, Val thought. The Dawn Fairchilds of the world do not. I can’t destroy my own reputation, but I must restore Dawn’s. No wonder she hates me.

  As Val dressed to face the day, she vowed to find a way to get Dawn out of her prison.

  ##

  Visiting day was always abuzz with excited inmates waiting for their call to visit with family and friends. “Did you hear back from your mother?” Dawn asked Niki.

  “No, but I didn’t expect to.” Niki gave her a faint smile. “You’re lucky. Your folks come every week.”

  The drone of the prison intercom continued as the announcer rattled off the names of those who had visitors.

  “Dawn Fairchild, Louise Palmer, and Niki Sears,” the intercom squawked.

  “Did you hear my name?” Niki jumped up and down. “Did they call my name?”

  “I’m sure they did.” Dawn laughed at her friend’s excitement. “Come on. Our time starts when they call our names.”

  Niki followed Dawn to a large room furnished with metal tables, each surrounded by four chairs—all bolted to the floor. The guard looked at the sign-in sheet. “You two are at table twelve,” she barked.

  “We’re both at the same table?” Niki asked the guard.

  “Yeah, now move it. I got a line behind you.”

  Dawn grabbed Niki’s hand and led her to the table where her mother and brother were waiting. “Mom, Flint, this is Niki Sears. Niki, this is my mother and brother.”

  Ruth Fairchild stood and hugged her daughter. Then she embraced Niki. “Dawn said you were beautiful.”

  Ruth’s warm welcome relaxed Niki. Dawn thinks I’m beautiful, she thought.

  “And she’s right.” Flint held out his hand to shake Niki’s. Then he hugged his sister.

  They spent the next hour discussing what was happening outside the prison. Ruth told Niki about her visit with Sylvia Sears Niki’s mother. Dawn and Niki told them about the new equipment the hospital had received. “Dawn can do open-heart surgery now,” Niki said, beaming.

  “Do you work in the hospital too?” Flint asked.

  “Yes. Dawn has taught me so much. She is a joy to work with. I have a degree in biology, and I’m delighted to put it to practical use.”

  Flint’s eyes gleamed as he listened to the auburn-haired beauty sitting across from him.

  Dawn was surprised when the intercom announced their time was up. Time had passed faster with Niki in the group. They said their goodbyes and hugged Ruth and Flint.

  “I’ll see you next week,” Flint promised as he hugged Niki.

  “I don’t know if your mother will visit you or not,” Ruth said. “She’s a cold person.”

  Niki scrunched her nose. “I know.”

  “I’m sorry,” Ruth mumbled to Niki as the guard waved her toward the exit. She hugged both women one last time and hurried for the door.

  ##

  The hospital public address system crackled, and Dawn heard her name as she returned to the hospital. “Doctor Fairchild, report to the emergency room STAT.”

  Dawn sprinted to the ER with Niki close behind. “What’s wrong?” she asked the head nurse.

  “Thirty-four-year-old white female,” the nurse rattled off. “Hung herself. Possible suicide. She turned blue.”

  The nurse had already put the woman on oxygen. Dawn checked the marks on her neck. “This looks more like someone choked her than a suicide. Unless, of course, she choked herself, which has been known to happen in prisons.” Her sarcasm wasn’t wasted on the guard.

  Dawn picked up the dead woman’s hand and examined her blue fingertips. “Cyanosis is obvious. She was without oxygen for more than ten minutes. She has bruising on her chest and torso.”

  Dawn proclaimed asphyxiation as the cause of death. “The body shows all the signs of burking.”

  Two male guards started to remove the inmate’s body. “Leave it,” Dawn commanded.

  “Yeah, right,” one of the men snorted as they continued to push the gurney from the room.

  “Where are you taking the body?” Dawn demanded.

  “Coroner,” the guard grunted.

  “I need to see the warden,” Dawn told the female guard as the men left the room with the body. “Now!”

  The guard glanced around and then spoke into the mic attached to her shirt. “Dr. Fairchild has requested to see the warden.”

  “The warden isn’t on the premises,” a voice answered back.

  “When will she be back?” Dawn said.

  The guard relayed her question.

  “I have no idea,” the voice replied.

  “Ask her to call for me when she returns, no matter what time it is.” Dawn was determined to give Val her views on the death of the prisoner.

  “What were the names of the two guards who whisked away that woman’s body?” Dawn asked the remaining guard. “What was the dead woman’s name?”

  “I don’t know,” the woman said, scowling as she edged toward the door.

  Dawn took a step toward the guard, and Niki caught her arm, pulling the doctor back into the room as the guard fled.

  “We need to go to our room,” Niki muttered so no one could hear.

  Dawn’s jaw dropped as she whirled around to face her friend.

  “We need to leave now!” Niki rasped.

  The hard glint in Niki’s eye startled Dawn, and she followed her friend from the room without further questions.

  ##

  “What’s going on?” Dawn closed the door to their room and locked it. Niki wedged a straight-backed chair under the doorknob.

  “You called the cause of death perfectly,” Niki whispered. “They’ll come after us. Especially since you called for the warden.”

  “What do you mean?” Dawn glared. “She was murdered, and you know it.”

  “Of course I know it,” Niki hissed. “But I didn’t want them to know you spotted it so easily. Her body will probably disappear.”

  “Do you know who she was?”

  “Yes, her name was Terry Shipman. She has all kinds of mental problems. The psych doc diagnosed her as bipolar. She had all the severe symptoms that accompany the disease: hallucinations, psychosis, grandiose delusions, paranoid rage, and days without sleeping.” Niki paced the floor, listening for noises outside their door. “She was due to be released in a couple of days. She bragged that she was going to expose this place for the hellhole it is. Her family had already retained an attorney to sue Dr. Merrick for malpractice. That is probably what got her killed. I’m sure your warden is involved.”

  “She’s not my warden.” Dawn gritted her teeth.

  A loud knock on their door sent Niki scurrying into Dawn’s arms. “They’ve come for you. You hide. I’ll tell them you’re headed for the warden’s office.”

  “No. I won’t leave you alone,” Dawn whispered.

  “Who is it?” Dawn called out.

  “Dr. Fairchild, it’s me. Warden Davis,” Val replied, her voice strong and confident.

  “Don’t open the door,” Niki whispered. “She isn’t what she seems.”

  “Lock yourself in the bathroom,” Dawn said, pushing the petite woman toward the door. “I’ll talk to her.”

  “Okay, but I’m shooting out of there if they try anything with you.”

  Dawn waited until Niki was in the bathroom before unlocking the door to their room.

  “May I come in?” Val asked.

  Dawn looked around her and down the hallway. “Are you alone?”

  “Of course. I doubt I need a guard to visit you.”

  Dawn stepped back and motioned for Val to enter. Then she locked the door behind them.r />
  “I’m sorry to come unannounced,” Val said, “but I wanted to talk to you.”

  Dawn frowned. “You aren’t here because of my request?”

  “What request?”

  “I just had the guard contact someone to ask if I could see you,” Dawn explained. “I was told you were off the premises.”

  Anger flashed in Val’s eyes. “I’ve been here all day.”

  “Are you aware that an inmate has been murdered?” Dawn asked.

  “Murdered? A prisoner has been murdered on my watch?” Val said, all color draining from her face. “I’ve heard nothing about any murder.”

  “Have you been informed of a death?”

  “No.” Val’s body was limp as she sat down in the chair that had been used to reinforce the door.

  “About forty-five minutes ago, a woman was brought to the hospital. She had already turned blue from asphyxiation. Her body showed all the signs of burking.”

  “Burking?” Val said, nearly choking on the word. “Are you certain?”

  “I know the symptoms when I see them.” Dawn furrowed her brow. “I’m positive, and I have every reason to believe the culprits will seek me out tonight because of my call on the cause of death. I’m concerned for Niki’s safety too.

  “I also believe the body will disappear. The guards hustled it out of the hospital. They said they were taking the body to the coroner.”

  Val stared at Dawn as if she would disappear too. “We need to get you out of here.”

  “Do you have a safe room in the prison?” Dawn asked. “Someplace only you can get into?”

  “Yes, but I’ve never felt threatened. I’ve never used it.”

  “Do you always walk around the prison without bodyguards?” Dawn asked in disbelief.

  “I’m not walking around the prison,” Val said in self-defense. “I’m in the hospital. I came to discuss something with you.”

  “It’s still a prison hospital filled with corrupt guards and violent patients,” Dawn said. “You’re not that careless.” She began to back away from the warden.

  “You’re actually afraid of me.” Val gasped. “You don’t trust me!”

  “Why should I? Your lie is the reason I’m in this cesspool.”

  Val pulled her cell phone from her pocket and tapped the screen. She turned on the speakerphone. “Warden’s office,” squawked the person answering the phone.

  “Penny, this is Warden Davis. Do I have any messages?”

  “No, ma’am,” Penny replied. “Everything’s quiet on the home front, boss.”

  Dawn raised her brows and nodded at Val as if to say, “Told you so.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Penny. I’m heading home. See you tomorrow.”

  “Who do you trust in this place?” Dawn demanded after Val ended the call.

  “I trusted Penny. She’s the chief operator who mans the prison switchboard,” Val fumed. “But I’m beginning to feel like I’m in an asylum where the patients are in charge. I don’t know who I can trust.”

  “Do you have guards who are your personal bodyguards?” Dawn asked.

  “Yes, but they go off duty when I leave the prison. I sent them on their way and then dropped by here to talk with you before I left for the day.”

  “Do you have some protocol in place if there’s a riot or something you can’t contain?”

  “Yes, but I can’t activate it from your room.”

  “Your cell phone . . . can’t you call the police or sheriff’s department?” Dawn reasoned.

  “I . . . that would make me look foolish,” Val argued. “Like I can’t control my own prison.”

  “Warden, you don’t have control of your prison,” Dawn pointed out. “You have no officers under your control that you can trust. You don’t know the good ones from the bad ones.

  “You need some other law enforcement agency to help you sort out the ones who need to be fired or prosecuted and the ones you can trust.”

  “You’re right.” Val clenched her fist in anger. “But first we’ve got to get you out of here. If there has been a murder and they think you’ll testify against them, your life isn’t worth a plugged nickel.”

  “Niki was there when they brought in the woman’s body,” Dawn said. “We’ve got to get her out too.”

  “Where is she?”

  Dawn walked to the bathroom door and knocked on it. “Niki, it’s safe to come out.”

  Niki opened the door and joined them. “I was eavesdropping,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “How do you plan to get us out of here?”

  “My car is parked in the garage by my office,” Val said. “If we can get to it, I’ll go directly to the sheriff’s department and come back with enough firepower to make certain I have control here. Then I’ll conduct a thorough investigation into the woman’s death.

  “I encountered no one coming in the back way. The inmates are in their cells, so maybe we’ll be lucky enough to get out unseen.”

  Chapter 11

  Ducking into corridors and hiding at the sound of voices, the three women made it back to Val’s office.

  “The door to the safe room is inside my office.” Val hesitated and then unlocked her door. “Come in here.”

  Dawn and Niki followed her as she scurried to the safe room and keyed in the access code. She opened the steel door, flipped on the lights, and motioned for them to enter the room.

  Dawn looked around the safe room. It contained rations and water to sustain four people for a month. Sleeping bags were rolled up and stacked in the corner. A wall thermostat indicated a dedicated central air system, and a commode sat beside a sink in the far corner.

  “I don’t think—” Her sentence was interrupted as Val shoved Niki into her back. The safe room door slammed shut.

  “What the hell?” Niki howled. “That bitch has locked us in here.”

  Dawn fought the rising panic. If anything happens to Val, we’re stuck in here. No one knows we’re here.

  “I told you not to trust her,” Niki huffed. “She’s evil.”

  ##

  Val wasted no time activating the button that put her prison in lockdown. No one could open the doors but her. The guards were locked in the prison units they patrolled, and all prisoners were locked in their cells. Val was the only one who could move freely about the prison. She called Jerry Ridder, the leader of the police riot control team assigned to the prison, and explained her problem to him.

  “I’m sure I can handle this situation,” Val said, doing her best to sound confident. “But I’d like your team on standby just in case things get out of hand.”

  Jerry assured her he could have his men in the prison in under thirty minutes if necessary. “I’ll call if I need you,” she added.

  Val unlocked her gun case and took out her Glock, shoved a clip into it, and racked it. As much as she hated wearing it, she slipped into a Kevlar vest and secured it. She put a full clip in each vest pocket.

  She placed her gun on her desk and walked to the window of her office that overlooked the exercise area. No one was in sight.

  Seconds later, her office door swung open and slammed against the wall as Flo Menton filled the doorway. The six-foot black woman looked menacing on her best day. Today she was terrifying. Val knew that Lucky didn’t like Flo and had warned her about the woman on several occasions.

  Without a word, Flo strode to Val’s desk and picked up the warden’s Glock.

  “Flo, what are you doing here?” Val mustered as much bravado as possible as she walked to her desk.

  Flo inspected the Glock as if she’d never seen a handgun. “As your trustee, I was in the kitchen making my nightly inspection when everything locked down. I thought I’d better come see what’s going on. Make sure you’re all right.” She aimed the gun at a vase across the room and looked down its sights to the end of the barrel.

  She held out the Glock to Val. “You should keep this in your hands at all times, Warden.”

  It took all the strengt
h Val had to keep her hand from shaking as she reached for the Glock. “You came to help me?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Flo muttered. “What’s going on?”

  Val told Flo about the murder in the prison and her fear that inmates and guards were after Dr. Fairchild and Niki. She watched Flo’s face as she related the story. The trustee seemed genuinely concerned.

  “You might want to send this to your cell phone.” Flo held out a cell phone showing a picture of Terry Shipman crumpled in the corner of her cell. The words “The Rapist” were scrawled across the cell wall.

  “How’d you get this?” Val demanded.

  “I was the one who found her,” Flo said, glaring at her. “She chewed on her arm until it bled. Then she wrote those two words in blood.”

  “How’d you get this cell phone?”

  “Really, Warden?” Flo snorted. “I’m here to help, and you want to know how I got a damn cell phone?”

  “I don’t know who to trust,” Val confessed.

  “For starters, you can trust me.” Flo grinned. “Don’t trust Lucky. She’s ninety percent of your problem. I know she bad-mouths me.”

  Val nodded.

  “Most of the women on my cellblock are just trying to keep their heads down, do their time and get out of this place.” Flo walked to the door and looked down the hallway. “Your problems are with the lifers. They’ve got nothing to lose. Why don’t you call in the riot squad?”

  “Flo, I’ve been here two years,” Val said. “Have things improved over the past two years?”

  “Yes, ma’am. The food just got better, and we always have the things we need, like toothpaste and soap. We still have guards that are meaner than hell, and some of your trustees abuse their power, but you are making a difference, Warden.”

  Val grimaced. “If I call in the riot squad, there will be a long-drawn-out investigation, and I’ll be removed from this prison because I’m not capable of running the place. I want to make a difference, Flo. I really do.”

  “What can I do to help?” Flo asked.

  “Help me identify the troublemakers,” Val said. “I need to know who I can trust. Then I need them to help me. I need to put the dangerous ones in solitary confinement and return the prison operations to normal as quickly as possible.”