Page 65 of On Your Life

Fuck, what now?

Then it dawns on me. If the captain is involved in something so heinous, maybe some of the other people are too.

I go through each office, pulling out drawers and looking through cabinets. I dig through garbage cans, finding nothing but old paperwork, food wrappers, and enough coffee cups to fuel a small army.

I wipe my hands down the front of my uniform, trying to get the sticky remnants of a peanut butter jelly sandwich off of my fingers.

This is a new low. I stare at the mess on my hands. What would I even do if I found something? Who would I tell?

The warden.

My footsteps are silent as I make my way toward the big corner office at the front of the hall. Even though I know I’m alone, I still check my surroundings to give myself some peace of mind.

I reach for the handle and the door opens without protest. I didn’t have to clean much in here. It was pristine yesterday and mostly empty today aside from a few gum wrappers in the trash.

I guess being the warden means you don’t have to hold down a desk all day.

His office is set up almost exactly like the captain’s with a large L-shaped desk. The only difference is that the walls are bare. There are no inspirational quotes or collages of family portraits. Just an empty wall. I don’t know why that bothers me.

My hand wraps around the desk drawer handle. Locked. I try every drawer with no luck. No key in sight.

I exhale sharply and turn toward the computer. Two monitors sit side by side on the desk. I jiggle the mouse before I stand to leave and the screen flickers awake. My knees almost buckle causing me to sit back down. The desktop is open. He must have forgotten to log out.

The disorganization of the desktop makes my skin crawl. At least fifty folders are scattered across the blue background in no particular order.

I click on a random one and it pulls up the employee files. The first one to pop up is Conner.

Conner Knight

TITLE: Corrections Officer

DATE OF HIRE: 06/01/2009

The file continues on with emergency contact information, a home address that I heard a million times during the trial, and a bunch of other random information that seems completely unnecessary. At the very bottom of the screen a single word is typed out in red

ACCEPTED.

Before I can talk myself out of it, I back out of the screen and scroll through hundreds of employees. I scroll up and down an embarrassing amount of times. Eventually, I give up and decide to settle on the search bar at the top.

F-O-X

Two names populate and I click the first one.

Luther Fox

TITLE: Captain

DATE OF HIRE: 03/19/1980

Definitely not this one. I toggle back and click the second name.

Damon Fox “Fox”

TITLE: Corrections Officer

DATE OF HIRE: 06/01/2009

My jaw drops when I see the date of hire is the same as Conner’s. They started this job together. My heart hurts looking at the small photo in the right corner of the screen. He looks so young and full of life.