In the meantime, most of the residents who lived on the second tier would use the far staircase instead of the one which opened up right at Room 236.
Marty went up the near staircase.
To use the far staircase would be to go closer to Sennett and his men.
And while he wasn’t intimidated at all by them, now was a better time to stay as far away from them as possible.
Marty had always considered himself an unlucky man.
He believed that everything in life, whether one loved or lost; whether one lived or died, relied on the timing of particular circumstances.
He also believed he had the worst timing in the world.
In Marty’s mind, he’d be walking close by Sennett when the brutal captor would decide to perform random searches on his hostages.
In Marty’s mind he’d direct his henchmen to make Marty the first one they searched.
And in Marty’s mind they’d surely find the two Bowie knives he had tucked into his belt beneath the bulky shirt he wore.
When he got to Brady’s cell he noticed it looked exactly the same as it did the last time he was here.
Maybe a bit dustier.
He’d helped cut Brady down and remove the body.
They were unable to bury him. The ground was already frozen solid.
Instead they’d wrapped his body in a tarp, held in place at head and foot with duct tape.
Marty had taken a sharpie and written Brady’s name and the date of his death before they placed his body in the back of an empty trailer in the yard.
A smart aleck in the crowd scoffed at the action, asking Marty whether he thought anyone would forget who the body belonged to.
“We’re going to be here for at least a couple of years. Maybe much longer. We’ve got old people here. People who aren’t so old but who are in bad health. And we could come under attack at any time.
“My sense is that Bill Brady won’t be the last one to go in that trailer.
“And when it comes time to bury these good people they deserve the dignity of not being buried in somebody else’s grave because we can’t remember which body is which.”
It was a valid statement which shut up the naysayer and forced him to apologize for his short-sightedness.
And it was, perhaps, a fitting memory to flash through Marty’s mind in light of the present circumstances.
When this thing was over they’d have two more bodies to add to the trailer they’d designated as a morgue: those of Lenny and Junior.
Marty couldn’t help but wonder whether there’d be any more.
“What’s up, Buddy? What’s your plan?”
Ashton walked into the cell, anxious to hear Marty’s idea.
“First of all I need a couple of good men. Men I can count on.”
“I’m in.”
“Man, you haven’t even heard the plan yet.”
“I don’t care. We need to get rid of these guys before they start getting comfortable. I’m in, whatever you got.”
Marty stood in the doorway and looked around the day room below. Not because he particularly cared about what his friends were doing, but to see where his captors were.
It struck him that countless inmates used to stand in that same doorway watching the prison guards over the years.
Confident none of Sennett’s men were paying his cell any particular attention, he turned back to Ashton and pulled a knife from under his shirt.
“Can you hide this in your boot in case you need it?”
“Sure.”
“I’m going to coordinate with the guys on the outside.
“If I can help get them in here with weapons they can take out some or most of them.
“My concern is that things will move so fast they might not be able to take them all out before they can return fire.
“That’s what the knives are for. I’ll have one, you’ll have one and Gary Cupp will have one.
“Have you ever stabbed someone before?”
Ashton was a Christian man.
It was a silly question to ask, but he answered it anyway.
“No. But I would to save my family from these guys.”
Then something Marty had said sunk in.
“Wait a minute. How are you going to coordinate with our men on the outside?
“And how are you going to get them weapons? The keys to the armory were on the platform. The bad guys have them now.”
“Stand in the doorway and keep an eye on Sennett’s men. If they start to head this way tell me so I can put everything back in place.”
Ashton moved to the doorway and peered out.
“Okay. We’re clear.”
-34-
Marty moved to the back wall of the cell and peeled down a piece of duct tape covering the half-inch gap.
“Wow,” Ashton said.
“Yeah, wow. Apparently it had a rubber expansion joint in it once upon a time, but they ripped it out to burn it when they were desperate for burnables and running low on wood.”
“So how does that help us? I mean, we’ve all lost weight lately but I can’t squeeze through there and neither can you.”
“No. But I can push a note on a string and it’ll drop into the yard below.
“If Richard can get access to the yard he’ll find it and answer it. We can coordinate our efforts that way.
“As far as the weapons, they’re all armed. They armed up when they went out to look for Lenny.”
“How are they going to get in? The bad guys control the doors. And I don’t think knocking and asking to come in will impress these guys.”
“I don’t know. The bad guys somehow gained access to the storage room. That’s where they came out of. They’ve since moved a heavy cabinet in front of the back wall in there. I suppose to cover the vent or panel or wherever they came in.
“I would imagine Richard and his men can come in the same way, if we can coordinate it so we know when to move the cabinet out of the way.”
“So, you’ll let me know when and where I need to be and what I’ll need to do?”
“Yes. As soon as I get everything planned out.”
“How much of this can I share with my wife? She’s pretty worried. Not for her own sake, but for the sake of the kids.
“Knowing you’ve got a plan would ease her mind just a bit.”
“You won’t like this, then. One of the things I learned from Frank Woodard is that the more people know about a contingency plan the more likely it is to fail.
“For that reason I’m hoping you’ll keep it to yourself. If you can’t do that, then tell only Kathy and swear her to secrecy. If the bad guys get wind of this they may put us all on lockdown and we won’t be able to help Richard at all.”
“Understood. No problem.”
“Thanks, partner. Would you do me two more favors?”
“Name them.”
“Would you find Gary Cupp? Tell him where I am and that I need to see him.
“And tell him not to make it too obvious he’s coming up here.
“I don’t want him to bolt and run right up and attract attention.”
“No problem. What else?”
“I want these guys to think I’m not related to Glenna and the chitlins in any way. If this thing falls through and I don’t make it I don’t want them to retaliate against my family.
“I’m going to move in here until the whole thing is over. It’ll be easier to coordinate with Richard this way, and as far as Sennett and his thugs are concerned I’m just a bachelor living by myself.”
“Got it. I’ll tell Kathy and between us we’ll spread the word to everybody.”
“Thanks Ace.”
“Hey… you called me Ace.”
“I finally figured out what it means. It means you’re an ace of a guy. A real ‘number one.’”
Ashton laughed.
“Not even close to what it means.”
“I know. But you’ll tell me eventually.”
&nbs
p; “Probably. If we both live long enough.”
While he waited for Gary Cupp to make his way to room 236 Marty took a pencil and a notepad and wrote out a cryptic note:
Five men, heavily armed.
Be careful, whatever you do.
Ready to assist however we can.
-Marty-
He took three heavy steel washers from the top drawer of a tiny desk, as well as a spool of ten pound test fishing line.
He remembered the day he brought both items to Bill Brady and asked him to keep them in his desk for emergencies.
Bill was a good man. He could be a bit moody and a bit hard to deal with at times. But he was reliable and a good friend.
Marty could have used him for this operation.
He wrapped the note around the fishing line and held it into place with clear tape.
“Knock knock…”
Gary Cupp appeared in the doorway.
“Hey Marty. Ace said you wanted to see me. How come you’re up here now?”
“Just trying to separate myself from Glenna in case these freaks get mad at me.”
“Oh. Good idea. Ace says you need my help.”
“Ever stabbed anyone, Gary?”
“No. I’ve wanted to a few times but never had to. Why?”
“Well, let me phrase it another way. Could you stab one of Sennett’s men if you had to to take our home back?”
“After they shot Junior? No problem. I’d strangle them all with my bare hands if I had the chance.
“But I don’t have a knife.”
“I’ve got one. Are any of the bad guys nearby?”
“No. They’re all on the platform, laughing and carrying on like they don’t have a care in the world.”
“Keep an eye on them for me, will you? Let me know if they head this way.”
“Sure.”
-35-
Marty reached behind the tiny desk and pulled out a long piece of wire.
He knew it would still be there because he asked Bill not to dispose of it.
It was nothing more than a wire clothes hanger straightened out, with the end bent slightly to form a hook.
It looked strange, but worked perfectly when Marty and Richard tested it.
He picked up the three washers tied to the end of the fishing line and looped them over the wire’s hook.
Then he pushed it through the crack. The wall was about eighteen inches thick, so he pushed it as far as he could before turning the wire upside down to dump the washers on the outside of the building.
The slack immediately went out of the fishing line as the washers dropped into the snow outside, taking Marty’s note with it.
He tied the end of the line to the back leg of the desk so it didn’t get pulled outside when Richard picked up his note to read it.
Then he replaced the duct tape back over the crack.
“Pretty slick,” Gary said. “When did you figure out how to do that?”
“While we were renovating the building. We almost replaced the missing seal, but figured we’d leave it this way. We figured it might come in handy some day.”
“Well, it looks like your instinct was right.”
“Any sign of movement from the bad guys?”
“Nope. Still all on the platform. So what happens next?”
Marty pulled out his second Bowie knife.
“Take this and hide it. Now that we can communicate with Richard, we’ll let him come up with a plan and follow his lead.
“I’m going to tell him there are three of us armed with knives who can help however he sees fit.”
“Anything else you want me to do in the meantime?”
“Nope. We’ll just lay low until we hear back from Richard.”
“Does Richard know Junior’s been killed?”
“I don’t know. I doubt it.”
“He may freak out when he finds out. He may come storming in here all by himself.”
“That’s why I’m not gonna tell him. Not just yet.”
Outside, at that very moment, Paul was on the catwalk which connected the guard towers.
The snow was still blowing at a blinding rate.
As painful and cold as it was to Paul, he knew it was ten times worse for anyone on the ground looking up into the wind.
He was using that to his advantage, hoping against hope any bad guys in the yard would let him pass over their heads without being seen.
Gary left Marty behind and returned to the common area, where he stuck close to his wife and daughter and tried to keep them calm.
Marty stretched out across Bill’s bunk, determined to take a short nap.
He was smart enough to realize that any hand-to-hand battle with the bad guys would be tilted toward the side which was stronger and more rested.
And possibly who was angrier.
But anger wasn’t a problem.
There was plenty of that.
His plan was to call someone up to visit with him every couple of hours.
He’d have them stand in the doorway and keep watch while he removed the duct tape and reeled in the fishing line, hoping there was a return note from Richard.
In the meantime, he’d try to get a little rest.
Of course, the thing about plans is they sometimes go awry.
And sometimes they don’t fit in well with the plans of an adversary.
John Sennett, it turned out, had plans of his own.
-36-
While Gary Cupp was standing in the doorway of Bill Brady’s old cell watching Sennett’s men on the platform, those men were carrying on a lively conversation Gary couldn’t hear.
Romo happened to mention to Sennett he’d seen a couple of nice Bowie knives beneath the mattress in one of the cells.
Sennett demanded, “Well, where is it?”
“Um… I left it behind.”
“You left it behind? What in hell is wrong with you, you moron? Why in hell did you leave it behind?”
Romo knew whatever he said would be wrong.
He sheepishly replied, “Well, you said to gather up the guns. I figured that was the only thing you wanted.”
“Romo, you’re an idiot.
“Which cell did you see the knives in?”
Romo scratched his head, then replied, “Gee, I don’t know. They all kinda look alike.”
Sennett turned to the others and said, “I want you two to go cell by cell and toss everything in them. Find those knives and anything else they can use against us and bring it all to me.”
He got on the intercom just as Marty was getting comfortable on the mattress and drifting off to sleep.
“Everybody get out of your cells and in the common area. Now!”
Marty stood up and mumbled, “Terrific.”
Romo asked his leader, “Want me to go help them?”
“No, stupid. You’d probably come across a bazooka or a crossbow and pass them right on by.
He sensed that Romo’s feelings were starting to hurt from the look in the big man’s eyes.
He backed off a bit, which was totally uncharacteristic of him.
“You can help me guard the hostages. Go to the other side of the room and hold your gun on them.
“Shoot anybody who gives you any grief. Can you handle that?”
“Yes sir.”
In a loud voice, Sennett addressed the growing crowd.
“I just found out we missed some stuff when we searched your cells. We’re gonna search them again.
“I don’t want to hear any whining or complaining. All I want from you is your compliance. If any of you try to return to your cells before we’re finished you will be shot. That includes your stupid kids, so I suggest you hold onto them.”
There was some murmuring and grumbling within the group, but no one was stupid enough to openly defy Sennett.
Instead they milled about and talked in hushed tones, played dominoes or cards at one of the recreation tables, or watched television.
Two la
rge televisions stood on opposite ends of the common area.
One typically showed a kids’ movie. The other typically showed something more suitable for adults.
But at the same time, mindful that children on the other side of the room could peek.
Identical bookcases behind each television held a rather impressive selection of DVD videos for each group.
The cell search took almost two hours and turned up seven knives.
None of them were the knives Marty had distributed. Those were carried on the persons of Marty, Ace and Gary.
Rather, these were steak knives or fillet knives that some of the residents kept in their cells for cutting their food.
When they were finished they took their find to the Control Center and dumped it unceremoniously on the desk.
Sennett noticed there were no Bowies among the haul. Now it could be that Romo couldn’t tell the difference between a Bowie knife and a toothpick.
But Sennett couldn’t count on that.
He announced they were finished with their search and Marty thought they were home free.
He was wrong.
Sennett had other plans.
“Everyone line up.
“Men, women and children. Line up single file.”
Once everyone was lined up he made another announcement.
“Another thing we forgot to do was to frisk everyone for weapons.
“My men will frisk you one at a time, starting with the first person in line.
“Once you pass, you will once again be free to go about your business.
“There will be no complaining, no sassing my men. If any of you women complain about where my men put their hands I will give them permission to beat the hell out of you.”
Ace was near the front of the line.
They easily found his Bowie knife when they lifted up his oversized flannel shirt. It was in a sheathe on his belt.
Kelly confiscated it and handed it to Sennett.
Kelly also took a pocket knife from Mayor Al’s front pocket and a tactical knife from his boot.
Gary Cupp was right behind Mayor Al.
They got his Bowie as well, tucked into a wrap-around boot sheathe.
Marty was near the back of the line.
Rest in Peace Page 11