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“I’ve heard it all before,” Ray snapped. “You’ve already said it wouldn’t happen again, and yet here we are. Just know that I’m docking your next paycheck for every day you’ve missed work for the past six months. Maybe that will remind you who’s the boss around here. And if that puts you in the red, we’ll just hope you’ve saved up enough money to get by until your next paycheck, okay?”
Emily gulped. “Uh… Exactly how many days will that—”
“Twenty,” Ray snapped. “We’re done here. Go back to work.”
Emily’s eyes welled. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry.”
Ray said nothing.
She slipped out of his office far less bouncy than when she’d entered.
Ray was still frowning when he went back to work.
***
Danny Biggers wasn’t sleeping. He was a walking zombie, just going through the motions while waiting for the end to come. The key rattling at his cell door happened every morning around three. He knew guards were making the rounds, but they weren’t jiggling their keys like that at every other door. It was a warning that he was being watched.
Yesterday he’d passed out during exercise time on the grounds and woken up in the infirmary with an IV in his arm.
Joseph Weller, the prison doctor, asked Danny if he was sick, and Danny just shook his head.
“Something is wrong. Your pulse is slow. Your blood pressure is low. Are you passing blood?” Dr. Weller asked.
Danny shook his head again.
Weller frowned. “Something is wrong. If you don’t talk to me, I’ll wind up having to run a dozen tests on you to see what’s happening here.”
“I’m just waitin’ to die,” Danny said.
Weller frowned. “From what?”
“Payback. I’m a dead man walking, and the suspense of when it happens is sucking the life out of me one minute at a time.”
“Who wants you dead?” Weller asked.
Danny shrugged. “Got no idea. I just pulled a job for someone and got caught. Them people don’t leave loose ends.”
“What people?” Weller asked.
Danny looked up at the doctor as if he’d lost his senses. “Didn’t I just say I don’t know? I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I just wish it was over.”
“I’ll talk to the warden,” the doctor said.
Danny scoffed. “Just let it be. I’ve done things. Bad things. I always knew I wouldn’t live to be an old man. The sooner my heart quits, the sooner my misery ends.” Then he turned his face to the wall and closed his eyes.
Dr. Weller had seen plenty in his years on the job, but he’d never seen anyone this young so ready to die. In a way, it was almost as if Biggers was willing himself dead before anyone got to him. Like he needed to beat them to the punch.
Weller checked the drip in the IV, then went in search of a nurse.
“I want you to keep an eye on the inmate in Bed 12. He should be on suicide watch. I’m going to speak to the warden.”
“Yes, sir,” the nurse said.
Weller left the ward. The nurse pulled up a chair and sat next to Danny’s bed. But the warden was unavailable, so Weller left a note saying they needed a meeting, then went back to his office in the infirmary.
***
Boss was in a mood. Everything had been running like clockwork until the bungled kidnapping of that kid. He’d lost the chance to make a fortune and was still furious about how it had gone down. He knew Biggers was back in prison. But he didn’t know where Lindy Sheets was, and that bothered him. Part of him wondered if the feds already had her and were keeping her under wraps. But then if they did, and she’d talked, they would already have been on his doorstep.
