AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The isolation unit was much smaller, and instead of dorms, Shaw found the cells he had expected to see earlier. They were all empty. Two doors stood open, and a deputy stood watch—clearly responsible for making sure nobody tampered with the scene before the Highway Patrol forensic unit was able to process it. He looked like a farm boy about to pop out of his uniform—in a good way. His nametag said Andersen.
“Why don’t you ask him to take his shirt off?” North said. “It’ll make it easier to climb up on his tits.”
“I didn’t—”
“And try not to swallow your tongue if it’s not too much trouble.”
“I wasn’t—North, I would never—I mean, yes, I looked—” Shaw managed to stop himself. “Don’t say tits!”
“I’m sorry—” Andersen began automatically, holding up a hand.
“They’re not going in there,” Weiss said. “They’re with Wahredua PD, and Chief Somerset sent them over to take a look.”
Andersen seemed ok with that; he settled back into position. The uniform was exceptionally close fitting, and Shaw wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light or if—
“That’s his dong,” North whispered furiously.
“I know that! I mean, I thought I knew that. I mean, sometimes the way the fabric lies, the optics of the bulge, you know—”
“You know what? I changed my mind. I don’t want to marry you.”
“North!”
“I’m good with this weird thing we have. I’m a faithful and loyal partner, and you’re this pervy little skeeve I drag around so you can stare at farm boys’ dingalings.”
“Oh my God, he does look like a farm boy, doesn’t he?”
For whatever reason, that made North’s face flash red, and he stomped a few paces closer to the cell, ignoring Andersen’s warning look.
Shaw caught Deputy Weiss’s side-eye and was suddenly aware of how he and North must seem—the poor taste of it all, the crassness, what must have looked like levity instead of what it really was: fear. The humor was a cheap veneer neither he nor North could risk letting fall. But Shaw didn’t know where to start explaining it, or if this was one of those things people didn’t say out loud.
So, instead, Shaw walked past Weiss and North and Andersen to inspect the other cell that was open. The room inside held only a metal bunk bolted to the wall, a thin mattress, and a stainless-steel toilet and sink.
“Who was in this room? Uh, cell. Who was in this cell?”
“Philip Welch,” Weiss said.
“The inmate who escaped?”
Weiss nodded.
“Why was he in here?”
“Gang affiliations. It would have been too risky to house him with the general population.”
“Because it’s full of neo-Nazi white trash,” North said.
Andersen stiffened.
“Because it would have been too risky,” Weiss said again.
Shaw glanced around, but the other cells looked unoccupied. “Was anyone else in the isolation unit?”
“No,” Weiss said.
“So, Welch was the only one who could have gotten to Dalton?”
Weiss grimaced. “Nobody should have been able to attack Mr. Weber in his cell. Everyone should have been locked down for the night. In the isolation unit, they’re locked down twenty-three hours a day.”
