I stepped past him, walked into his living room, and sat down on a stuffed tan chair, keeping my eyes on the window. I didn’t intend to appear distraught, I just wasn’t interested in his dismissal.
He hesitated, then followed me and eased into the couch opposite me without a word. We sat like that for a few moments, silent, an odd stalemate of sorts. And he didn’t seem inclined to break it.
So I did.
“I received a call on Monday from a stranger who told me he was going to kill Danny. He was just transferred to Basal and there’s no way for me to make contact. That same afternoon a woman named Constance came to my apartment and told me that an inmate named Bruce Randell was a threat to Danny.”
“None of this really matters to me—”
“I got a finger in a shoe box,” I said.
“A finger?”
“Or something that looked like a finger. It was a warning.”
“From who?”
“Who do you think? Randell.”
He eyed me. I’d finally gotten his attention.
“Either way, none of this is really my concern,” he said.
“How can you say that?” I snapped. “You haven’t even heard what I have to say. You may be all cozy, sitting here trading stocks and drinking beer with your poker pals, but there’re people out there in the system who’ll die if you don’t help them. Me included.”
“You’re assuming I can help. And for the record, there’s no way to fix the system. It’s broken. Trying to fix it will only break you.”
“I’m already broken!”
He peered at me, unmoved, either a broken man himself or someone who didn’t care about anyone but himself. I had to hope it was the first.
“Do you still have your law license?” I asked.
“I haven’t practiced in over a year.”
“But you have it, right?”
“Yes.”
“Will you at least hear me out? It’s not every day a helpless woman comes knocking on your door asking you for help. Don’t be so cold.”
Keith leaned back and looked out the window. “That’s fair.” Eyes back on me. “So tell me.”
His insincere attitude toward my distress was infuriating. I almost stood up right then and left. But I didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone else to turn to. So I told him what I thought he needed to know. Nothing Danny would have disapproved of, mind you. Nothing about my past, only about Danny’s conviction and the events that had led up to my receiving the shoe box.
He listened to all of it, asking only a few questions, like an attorney making inquiries of a client he was considering taking on.
“And so you came here and waited for me,” he said after I’d finished.
“Yes.”
Keith nodded thoughtfully. “And that’s all?”
“Pretty much. Yes.”
“I’m really not coldhearted, you know.”
“I didn’t say you were. I only asked you not to be.”
“Any other time in my life and I might be all over this. But for reasons I’m not at liberty to share right now, none of which have anything to do with your predicament, I just can’t represent or assist you. Still, maybe I can give you some advice.”
It was a letdown, but not enough to dash my hopes. For the first time he was showing real interest in my predicament, as he called it.
“What kind of advice?” I asked.
“Your coming here, for starters. I don’t mean to alarm you, but the woman was right. People like Bruce routinely reach beyond the walls of their cells and destroy people on the outside. I’d advise against walking up to complete strangers and telling them the kind of things you’ve told me.”
“You’re underestimating me,” I said. “The only reason I came to you was because I had nowhere else to turn.”
“Just because someone’s a warden or a cop doesn’t mean they’re not working with people like Randell. Trust me, I’ve seen it from the inside.”
“Which is precisely why I’m here. You’re not on the inside anymore.”
“Just be careful. Also, I wouldn’t assume that Randell was the person who called you.”
“The timing doesn’t line up, right?” I said. “I know, but it’s still technically possible. Who else would call me?”
“Someone on the outside. It could even be unrelated to Randell’s beef with Danny. You said Danny confessed to killing two people. For all you know there were more. And he probably had run-ins with others he didn’t kill. Could be one of them. Was there any press on his arrest?”
“No.” His reference to Danny’s past sent a chill through my arms. Not only because he’d guessed the truth so quickly, but because his conclusion was one that had haunted me for the past two days. A ghost from our past had found us and wanted us dead.
“You can’t assume there were others,” I said.
“No, but it’s a possibility, and it makes more sense than Randell calling you. Actually, I think you could be as much the target as Danny.”
None of this was news to me, but again, hearing Keith say it made the threat sound more real. Why else would the caller have contacted me?
Keith’s reading of the situation didn’t fill me with fear as much as it focused my anger. I had been backed into a corner before, and Danny taught me to come out swinging. Or maybe I’d taught that to myself. Either way, whoever was coming after us wasn’t just going to pick us off like little varmints. They were playing the same kind of game Danny himself might have played before he’d taken the high road.
“And your point is?” I asked.
“Be careful.”
“I’m the most careful person in the world.”
“Good. You said Danny could take care of himself. So let him. Nothing from the outside’s going to help him. You could try an attorney, but even if one can get a message inside, warning Danny won’t help him as much as you might think. Prisons are a world unto themselves, understood only by those who live in them. Warning someone to watch his back in a prison is like telling a driver out here to watch out for other cars on the road. Unless he’s an idiot, Danny knows of the threat already.”
“You sure?”
He leaned back and shrugged. “Either way, there’s nothing you can do about it. If Randell really wants him dead, one of them will end up dead. That’s the kind of man he is.”
My gut felt like a sauna for bed bugs. Billions of them.
“So what do you suggest I do? Lock my doors and bar my windows and hope for the best?”
“No. I suggest you start trying to figure out who in either your past or Danny’s past might have a reason to come after you. You can’t stop Randell. He’s in a closed system. Forget him. Find out if someone else made that phone call. Find out who sent that shoe box.”
“Then help me do that,” I said, knowing that there was far more to the past than I could ever tell Keith.
It didn’t matter. He shook his head. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I wish I could but I just can’t.”
“You still have connections in the legal system, right? You know cops. You know the criminal world…”
“I also have a history that takes me out. I wish I could be more help.”
He was looking at me kindly enough, and if I wasn’t mistaken, his eyes betrayed interest in me as a woman, but he wasn’t going to bend. He’d made his point as plainly as he could. I’d probably said way too much.
“You can, you just don’t want to,” I said, standing up. “Where’s your cell phone?”
“My phone?”
“I’m going to give you my number. If you decide to help me out you’ll know where to find me. Or you could just call and breathe heavy.”
He studied me for a moment and smiled, then dug his phone out of his back pocket. “Give me your phone number.”
I did and he keyed it in. But I knew it was wasted time.