Grizz
1988, Prison, North Florida
Grizz grabbed William “Pretty” Petty roughly by his arm and yanked him out of the small library office. He half dragged, half pushed the reluctant inmate around a large bookshelf and into a small alcove.
“Are we away from the camera?” Grizz asked quietly as he shoved Petty away from him.
“Yeah, we can’t be seen,” the young man mumbled. He looked at the ground and said in an even voice laced with resignation, “What are you going to do to me?”
The sound of Grizz’s zipper caused him to look up.
“I’m not going to fuck you if that’s what you’re worried about,” Grizz whispered.
“You—you’re not?” Petty cocked his head. “So what is it that you want? Something else?”
“Yeah, I want something else.” Grizz let the pause hang. “I want to talk.”
Petty ran a hand through his hair. “I—I thought you were going to rape me. You looked um ... ready.” His voice was shaky, the doubt still obvious.
Grizz rolled his eyes. “That boner wasn’t for you. I never had to make myself think about my woman before while yanking on my dick in front of a guy. I did it to make it look a certain way in front of that camera in the office. After announcing to the entire prison in the chow hall that you were mine, I couldn’t not do something about it in case they’re watching us on the security camera, which I’m sure they are. They’ll think I’m back here porking your brains out. I had to make it look real.”
“Actually, no they won’t.” William rushed on. “They won’t be watching. I’ve had that camera rigged on a timed loop for whenever I’m in here. I’m given special privileges by Officer Headly to have some time in here every week, but he thinks it’s to read. He doesn’t know I get on the computer, and I don’t want anybody knowing it, so I hacked the camera and used a prerecorded feed from when I was in the library reading in that chair.”
He pointed to a table with chairs visible through the big window in the small office, and just in line with the camera.
“If anybody thinks to look at the camera feed, they won’t see me sitting at the computer, they’ll see me reading over there at the table. It’s not perfect, but they haven’t noticed yet.”
Grizz nodded. He’d stayed away from anything involving technology. Maybe he shouldn’t have. After learning about them so many years ago, he knew technology would play an important role in how they accomplished a lot of what was in the foreseeable future. He preferred to stay away from it personally, but just because he didn’t use it didn’t mean he shouldn’t have let himself be more aware.
“How did you pull up my mug shot? Is it on the library computer?” Grizz asked.
“No, not the library hard drive. I had to hack the prison’s mainframe. Which I did easily.” William looked at him. “You know, your mug shot, from when you were first arrested, doesn’t look anything like what you look like now. You had long hair and no beard. Now you have no hair and a long beard. I almost didn’t recognize you.”
“Yeah, I did it on purpose. I want to look different. So let me ask you something.”
“What?”
“Can you go into other agencies’ computer systems and swap out my mug shot? Can you hack into the police department where I was arrested?”
“What do you mean? Do you have another mug shot?”
“No, but I can get one. I want my mug shot to resemble what I look like now. I want the longhaired, clean-shaven mug shot gone. For now. But one day, I’m going to want all of it to disappear. Can you do that?”
William nodded. “Yeah, if you can tell me the names of the agencies you think have them, I can access them individually. There isn’t a way to do a general search—you know, with a search engine—but that’s coming in the future. For now, I have to go to each one independently.”
“So if somebody, maybe even the newspaper, has articles about me or pictures of me in their computer files, you can delete them or replace them?”
“Like I said, tell me the names of the places you think have you in their systems, and if they have a modem, a way to dial to the outside, then I can dial in. What I can’t do is erase any evidence that might be on a microfiche machine or in hard files. You know—how libraries will take actual pictures of newspaper articles and store them on microfiche? One day physical copies of everything will be sent to the shredder, though we’re not there yet,” he shrugged. “But, yeah, if it has to do with computers, I can help you.”
A slow smile spread on Grizz’s face. This was good. This was very good. He wanted to start erasing any information that might be available about him and his past. He couldn’t erase all of it, but he could certainly make a dent in it. When Grizz got out in a couple of years, he didn’t want any chance, even remotely, that he might be recognized by someone. Besides, he never wanted his daughter, Mimi, to be able to run across anything from his past.
“You help me out, and I’ll make sure nobody bothers you in here again,” Grizz said. “We got a deal?”
William smiled broadly. “Oh, yeah. We got a deal.”
Grizz turned very serious then. “You even think about betraying me, you will suffer and die. You understand that? I don’t fuck around. With anybody.”
“You keep Psycho and his crazy friend away from me and my rat, Buddy, and you’ll have my loyalty and all the help you need.”
Grizz nodded and motioned toward the small table and chairs.
“Now sit down and tell me about yourself.”
William told him everything—how his parents had died when he was young, and he’d gone to live with his elderly grandfather. He had no siblings or aunts and uncles. It was just him and his grandpa. He was raised in Miami, and they lived in a small apartment over his grandfather’s appliance repair shop. William could fix anything by the time he was ten. He didn’t have many friends, but he didn’t mind. His grandfather was his best friend. He told Grizz how his grandfather’s favorite television show in the sixties had been Star Trek and how that show had influenced his interest in technology.
“My grandpa used to tell me that anything we see on TV, anything we think is pretend, will actually be a real thing in the future. If a man can dream it up, he’ll eventually be able to do it. Anyway, even before computers started becoming popular, I was already learning about them.”
“And that’s what you do for a living? Did for a living, before you ended up here? Computer repair?”
“No. Computers are my hobby, not my job. And nobody knows about my hobby. I think it’s in my best interest to keep what I do with computers to myself. Nobody needs to know what I can do. What they can do.”
His last comment caught Grizz’s attention. “They?”
“I didn’t mean anything by it.” William sighed. “You wouldn’t believe me anyway.” He looked at Grizz sideways, shook his head. “My grandpa was big into conspiracy theories and shit. Studied JFK’s assassination and other crap like that. Forget I mentioned it. He was a crazy old man. He died believing that our first walk on the moon was shot in a movie studio. Lovable and kind, but a little nutty.”
Grizz nodded in understanding. He would save the rest of this conversation for another time.
“You asked me what I did. I took over my grandpa’s appliance repair business. If it was broken, I could fix it.”
“So you were an appliance repairman who dabbled secretly with computers. How the hell did you end up in here? Hack a bank or something?”
“No, nothing like that. I was framed.”
Grizz laughed. “Yeah, everybody in here was framed, myself included.”
“No, I really was framed. And it had nothing to do with computers. I was in the back of a bar fixing the dishwasher when the place was robbed. They caught the guy, and I identified him.” William’s jaw tightened. “I later found out the robbery was a gang initiation, and I was warned not to get involved. Even the bartender said he couldn’t remember what the guy looked like, but I was stupid. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing by helping to get the bad guys off the street. I was their sole witness, and the guy was convicted. Less than a month later, I got pulled over for a routine traffic stop. Cop said my taillight was out. Found drugs in my car. A lot of drugs. They weren’t mine. Florida is tough on drug offenders, even non-violent ones. I have no prior arrests or convictions, not even a parking ticket, but I have to do ten years.”
“Ten years.” Grizz shook his head. “And you’ve only been in a short time, so you have a long way to go.”
William looked away.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Grizz cocked his head. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”
“Well, yeah. I have to do some time to not make it so obvious, but I won’t be doing the full ten.” He looked sheepishly at Grizz. “I fixed the records so I get out in a couple years. I can only hope nobody actually remembers what I’m in for and how much time I have left. If somebody digs into it, they could figure it out, but I’m counting on a nobody like me just slipping through the cracks.”
Grizz broke into a grin. Fuck. He wished he could get away with something like that, but it would never work for him. He was too well-known. Jason “Grizz” Talbot getting released from prison wouldn’t go unnoticed, especially with a death sentence hanging over his head. No, he’d have to play this out for the next couple of years. At least.
“Can you look something up for me?”
“Yeah, what do you need?” William’s eyes brightened at the prospect of a new project.
“Can you hack into government agencies? See what’s going on with the Florida Death Conviction Laws? I’m trying to find out where they are with passing the law on death by lethal injection instead of the electric chair.”
“Yeah, sure, man. I can see what I can find. I’ll work on that, and you let me know where you want me to search for data on you—you know, erasing or swapping out what you mentioned earlier.”
Silence fell between them, and Grizz could hear the wall clock ticking. “So, the inmates refer to you as Pretty?”
William turned red, looked away. “Can’t help how I look.”
“I don’t like it. What’s your real name? Your whole name?”
“William Franklin Petty,” the young man answered, looking Grizz in the eyes. “But I’ve always gone by Willie.”
Grizz thought carefully for a minute. He didn’t want Petty going by Willie. That name might be turned into something almost as degrading as Pretty.
“From now on, you’re Bill. Anyone who calls you otherwise will answer to me.”
Grizz rose from his chair then, retrieved his T-shirt from the office, and headed for the door.
“Same time next week, Bill,” he called over his shoulder. And he was gone.