***
“What are we doing here?” Torren asked as he took in the prison.
I got off my bike.
“I’ve been seeing someone,” I said, hoping they wouldn’t get into who just yet.
But, of course, it was Torren who was the ever so curious one.
“Who?” He asked quickly, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Rolling my eyes, I didn’t answer.
It wouldn’t be long before they figured it out anyway, I just didn’t want to be available for questioning when they did.
Because I knew they would offer their opinions, whether good or bad.
And right now I was already pissed, I didn’t want to have to defend my choices to them, getting more upset in the process.
When I didn’t answer, they went on to the next question.
“If you won’t answer that, then how about you tell us what we’re doing here,” Torren asked.
Sadly, I couldn’t answer that, either, without telling them.
So I just sucked it up and said, “Sawyer Berry was sexually assaulted for eight years while she was here. I want to speak to a few of the guards.”
They both blinked.
“So she wasn’t just a passing fuck for you?” Torren asked carefully.
I nodded. “No, she most certainly is not.”
“She’s the one?” Torren asked.
I shrugged, this time not answering with a yes or a no.
They must’ve realized that it was a sensitive subject right then, and they let it go.
“Well then, by all means, let’s go talk to the fuckers,” Torren said.
I smiled.
That was the good thing about having a club at your back.
They were a band of my brothers, and no age gap between us would change that.
They knew me just like I knew them.
And they realized that if I was protecting Sawyer, treating her like my own, then they’d treat her like family as well.
They’d protect her just as I would.
“Right on, brother,” Kettle agreed, propping his helmet on his handlebars.
I followed suit and made my way to the front doors, where Walker was waiting for us with the door open.
“You made good time,” Walker observed.
I nodded. “Roads were clear.”
He raised his chin at Kettle and Torren, waving us in to follow behind him.
“Warden?” A male guard raised his brow, gesturing to us.
Walker shook him off. “No, they’re feds.”
Well…not technically.
The guard nodded and went back to his post at the front door, eyes scanning the wall of computers in front of him.
“I’ve got to say,” Walker said as we walked down a narrow hallway. “When you called I was surprised to hear from you. Haven’t seen, nor heard, from you in over five years.”
No, he hadn’t.
I tried not to wear out my welcome lest he think I’m only there because I want or need something.
Which I guess was technically true, I just didn’t want to burn a bridge that I might need in the future.
“My girl, she just got out of the Women’s side, and I’ve heard some disturbing things about what’s happening over there. Not from her directly, but from outside sources,” I explained. “I just wanted to look through your surveillance tapes, confirm my suspicions before I go about explaining any further.”
Walker nodded. “Well, I looked at the dates you requested myself during the four hours you took to get here, and let’s just say that I’m not at all happy with what I saw.”
My brows lowered as he came to a stop at a security panel.
I watched as he punched in number after number before opening the door.
I, of course, memorized the number instantly.
I had a photographic memory, and it came in very handy at times like this.
“It’s not what I saw, per se, but what I didn’t see,” he muttered, making sure the door was closed behind the four of us.
My brows furrowed. “And what didn’t you see?” I asked impatiently, tired of hearing him hedge and haw over what he needed to say.
“Nothing. The camera feeds had something over them from the time of seven in the evening until eight in the evening. And you can’t see who did it either, because of the angles,” he answered, looking up at me now just as we made it to another door.
This one was made up of only steel bars and required an actual key from Walker’s pocket to open it.
I couldn’t help but see how easy it’d be to overpower the warden.
Although I counted him as a friend, I felt a little more than annoyed that he wasn’t taking more care to protect himself.
Me or my boys could’ve gotten the key off of him in thirty seconds flat with no one being the wiser.
“So you’re saying that you didn’t notice that the cameras went off at nearly the same time every night?” I confirmed.
He shook his head. “No. Not every night. More like every three days,” he corrected.
“So…like one specific guard’s shift, correct?” I asked.
His eyes widened slightly, but he nodded instead of lying.
Police officers had a code.
Protect your own.
And it looked like the warden and his guards had a similar saying they did their job by.
Needless to say, he answered me, even though I could tell it was bothering him to do so.
“I have four guards on that cell block that work that shift. One of them is in charge of the cameras, and the other three rotate positions on the same cell block,” he answered. “I’ve already called Jody Daniels, the guard in charge on the women’s side, to bring them in. They should be arriving within the hour.”
I was glad that the men’s side was the one that handled all the legal stuff.
The courtroom was on the male side, while they shared an infirmary between the two.
A fifteen-foot-high brick fence spanned the separation between the two sides, with security guards on both sides being able to monitor the walk between them.
Neither one of them had access to the other prison’s tapes, though.
Warden Walker was bigger than just a ‘warden.’
He was also a retired special forces officer that was in charge of both units. He kept such a strong leash on both units that I was truly surprised that this entire thing went by unnoticed to him.
“Speak of the devil,” Walker muttered, going to his door and opening it.
I didn’t look up at the door, instead keeping my eyes on the video monitors on Walker’s wall.
There was a woman there. Possibly around thirty-five or forty.
She had blonde hair tucked up into a tight bun on the back of her head. Her eyes were hard, shoulders stiff.
She looked pissed off, and she hadn’t even heard what we had to say yet, because then she’d really be pissed.
“Thanks for coming, Jody,” Walker said, holding out his hand.
She took it, but her eyes went to the three of us standing behind Walker.
“What can I do for you? You know today’s a busy day for us. We have an inmate that wasn’t scheduled for release for another two months being released, and I wanted to look into why,” Jody said, crossing her arms in a defensive move.
I smiled inwardly.
Good luck with that. I covered my tracks well.
Ruthann was getting out whether Miss Jody liked it or not.
She was nervous.
“It’s been reported by a prisoner that she’s been sexually assaulted. On the days she claimed it happened, I’ve looked back over the security feeds during those times, and they’re nonexistent. Something was placed in front of the camera, and the video is a blank piece of paper for exactly an hour,” Walker said.
I watched Jody’s face during Walker’s explanation, and I knew immediately she had no part in the assaults.
She was horrified.
“That’s why you had me call the four guards in on B shift?” She asked, horror evident in her voice.
Walker nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly why.”
“Motherfucker,” she breathed. “Goddamn motherfucker.”
Walker’s office phone chimed, and I watched him as he picked it up, frowned, then said, “Show the first one to the conference room. One at a time, please. Wait till the other leaves before you let the next one in,” Walker instructed before hanging up and crossing his arms.
“If you all will follow me, I’ll take you to the conference room and then we can get started with the questioning.”
Four hours later, I watched as the four guards on the shift responsible for making Sawyer’s life hell, were loaded into the back of separate police cruisers.
They were being taken to the police station where they would then be questioned further.
I’d planned on a different course of action when I’d arrived, but with so many witnesses, I realized that I’d never be able to get away with what I really wanted to do.
“Take it easy, Silas. I hope next time we speak it’s under better circumstances,” Walker said as he shook my hand one final time.
After he disappeared back inside, it left just the three of us standing there, waiting.
Kettle, Torren, and I were waiting outside the huge brick wall for Ruthie to be released.
“So what’d this girl do to get in there?” Kettle asked to pass the time.
“She killed her husband,” I answered.
There were a few moments of stunned silence while they digested that.
“And why are you trying to get her out early? Just because she’s your girl’s friend?” Torren asked.
There was no accusation in his tone, only curiosity.
They knew there was more to it than that, so they patiently waited for me to explain.
I took a bite of the sandwich I’d had Torren run up to the corner deli to get, chewed, and then explained.
“According to one of the conversations I had with Sawyer, Ruthann was beaten, nearly to death, by her husband when the cops finally showed to intervene. He was arrested, but arraigned less than two hours later, only to come back for her. She was able to get away once again, but the cops weren’t able to do anything from there until his trial. Trial date comes and the husband is let off with an ankle monitor and a slap on the wrist telling him to stay away from his wife. Ruthie was in jail because her husband tried to beat her to death, and instead of taking it lying down, she shot him while he was taking a piss.”
“Well fuck,” Torren said.
I nodded. “Fuck indeed.”