"You could have called him in."
"Hey, Knight didn'teven want to go to the infirmary. So I didn't push it. I figured he'd be fine till morning." He looked at the warden. "Look, I went off duty an hour ago. Is this going to take all night?"
"No," said the warden. "Go home."
"I'm not finished," said Jack.
"Yeah, you are," said the warden. "Go home, Jefferson."
Jefferson rose and left the room. As the door closed, Jack and the warden locked eyes in a tense stare.
"Don't forget our understanding," said the warden. "No press."
"No problem," said Andie.
"No cover-ups," said Jack, his gaze still firmly on the warden. "I'll see to that."
Chapter 34
Theo received a thorough checkup from the on-call physician. The doctor didn't detect any broken bones, but Theo would have to visit an outside medical facility for X-rays and a follow-up examination. He taped Theo's ribs, gave him an antibacterial ointment for the rope burn around his neck, and wrote a prescription for a painkiller.
"Vicodin?" Theo said hopefully.
"I'm giving you Demerol," the doctor said.
"Good enough," said Theo. "Can't wait to wash it down with a couple shots of Herradura Afiejo."
The doctor peered over the top of his black-rimmed reading glasses, giving Theo a reproving look.
Theo was about to ask where he thought an inmate would get tequila, much less good tequila. But lately, just about anything seemed possible in this place.
"Thanks for your help, Doc," said Cy.
The doctor packed his bag, and the guard escorted him to the locked exit door. Theo and his uncle remained behind in the examination room. Theo was seated on the table, transferring an ice pack back and forth from his swollen knee to the fingers Mac-Donald had stepped on. Cy leaned against a poster on the wall that, appropriately enough, warned of the dangers of hypertension.
"Is all this worth it?" said Cy.
Theo was breathing in and out, trying to get comfortable with tape around his ribs. "All what?"
"Guard beats the crap out of you. Some inmate you don't even know tries chokin' you to death. What're you trying to prove?"
"Ain't tryin' to prove nothin'. Just want to find out who took a drive-by shot at me in Overtown."
"And you think you gotta be in prison to do that?"
Theo inhaled deeply and grimaced with pain. Big lungs were no friend to bruised ribs. "Jack and I agreed that finding the guy who helped Isaac on the inside was the best way to find out who tried to shoot me on the outside."
The guard returned to the examination room. Cy looked at him crossly. "Can I have a minute with my nephew? We're talking family here."
The guard said, "I'm here to keep an eye on him."
"Two minutes," said Theo. "Cuff me if you want."
The guard glanced at Cy, and he backed down out respect for the old man, not any concern for Theo. He cuffed Theo to the rail on the examination table, stepped outside the room, and waited nearby at the reception desk.
Cy had that "Uncle Cyrus" look on his face again – the one that made it impossible for Theo to blow smoke.
"What're you doin' here, Theo? Really. What's this all about?"
"Getting answers."
"You done your part now. Why don't you come home and let the FBI or the warden work over the guy who tried to choke you to death? I'll bet he's got some answers."
"He's a punk who doesn't know shit," said Theo.
"What makes you so smart?"
"Because things don't work that way. Don't you get it? Jefferson bought him off – dope or something – to act like he was asleep and then jump me after we was alone in the infirmary. Dude doesn't even know why he was trying to kill me. He's just a pawn who's got no idea who the real players are."
"And you think you can find these real players?"
"With time, yeah. All I gotta do is work my way up the chain. The guy who tried to kill me killed Isaac. And whoever killed Isaac doesn't want anybody to know who killed my momma."
Cy brought his hands to his head, groaning. "After all these years, it finally has to come down to that, does it?"
"Not my choice. That was Isaac's doing."
"And what if Isaac just lied through his teeth when he told you he knows who killed your momma, hoping he could talk you into helping him that way?"
"It's possible," said Theo. "But I don't think a bluff would have gotten him the kind of help he needed to bust out of jail. He must have had something on the killer – enough for the dude to whack Isaac after he got out and offered to let me in on the secret. Jack and me are on the same page with this."
"Jack," he said, exasperated. "You know I like Jack, but he ain't the one who's sitting in jail with a big bull's-eye pasted onto his back."
"Careful, old man. If I asked him, Jack Swyteck would change places with me in a minute. And not just to get into Trina's pants."
They shared a little smile, and then Cy turned serious.
"I want you out of jail," he said.
Theo didn't answer right away.
"You hear me?" the old man said. "I want you out of this place."
Theo averted his eyes and shook his head slowly. "I can't just-"
"Theo," he said, his voice firm but not harsh. He stepped closer. "I ain't asking you."
"What, you're telling me?" he said, scoffing.
Uncle Cy came right beside him and laid his hand on Theo's shoulder. "I'm begging yon, boy."
Theo could feel the sincerity in his touch, hear the slight crack in his voice, see the moisture building in his eyes.
"Guard!" he called, still looking at Theo.
The CO entered the room. Finally Cy lowered his gaze. "It's time for me to go."
Theo said, "Hey it's gonna be totally-"
Cy raised a hand stopping him, as if to say "You're all I've got, you're all I've ever had." The words didn't come, but they weren't necessary.
"It's your decision," he said, now looking straight at Theo. "Make it a good one."
The old man started toward the door, and the guard followed.
Theo watched as they left the room, the pain in his ribs worse than ever.
ANDIE SQUEEZED ONE FINAL concession out of the warden before leaving her office. She wanted to see Theo Knight's attacker.
She knew she couldn't question a prisoner who'd demanded an attorney. But both her psychology background and her FBI training in criminal profiling had taught her that some things could never be gleaned from mug shots and criminal records. Sometimes, just laying eyes on the suspect could trigger a thought that filled in another piece of the puzzle.
Duane Holloway was in the hole, one of several small cells in a separate wing of TGK where inmates were kept in solitary confinement. Eager to go home, the warden had no interest in visiting Holloway at 3:00 a.m., and she even allowed Jack to go with Andie, since all they could do was look at the prisoner from outside the cell anyway A correctional officer escorted Andie and Jack through the maze of corridors and past the security checkpoint that led to the solitary wing. It wasn't underground (basements were rare in south Florida) but it felt like it. The lighting was dim, the concrete walls sweated with moisture, and the air smelled of mildew. Holloway was in cell number three.
The guard stopped at the solid metal door, slid the slot open like the bouncer at a speakeasy, and flipped the light switch outside the cell.
"What the hell?" the man inside said, groaning.
The guard smiled at Andie. "Feast your eyes."
Andie went to the slot and peered inside.
Holloway was sitting on the floor, stark naked. He had an annoyed expression on his face, and Andie couldn't tell if he'd been sleeping or if his eyes simply weren't accustomed to the lights.