The adrenaline from lifting kept me sane in this hell hole, and it felt good to have some of that now. “I hear you about staying low. I just have this one thing I have to get done before I leave here, and I know Frank can help me.”
“No doubt he can. I’ll set it up and send word to you.” Austin watched the guard as he made the rounds around the perimeter of the yard.
“I don’t know how you’ve made it all these years in here, Austin.”
Austin laughed. “I’ve weathered bitter storms, my boy, but none greater than losing my wife in the summer of eighty-nine. I didn’t care to live after that, anyway.”
“You shot the perp nine times. That’s crazy,” I replied. I knew of Austin’s story through my cellmate. It was one for the books.
Austin whistled through his teeth. “Yup, that’s what happens when shit goes sideways. That guy tried to come for my baby. I had to avenge her. I didn’t know the guy would keep a gun in the house.”
Austin had received life in prison for the murder. He knew most of the lifers in the pen.
“Put me in touch with Frank. I want to talk to him.”
Austin, with his humble and wise eyes on mine, nodded. “Okay. Consider it done, Colt.”
Two
Amber
I packed up my yellow manila case file folders, gathering them from my desk. All of my questionnaires and profiling information were prepared for the visit. My job as a social worker was a time-consuming part of my life, but I loved it. I stood for justice, especially if it involved kids. This particular case involved a little cutie who was turning seven in a couple of months.
“My daddy’s in prison. I think he did something bad,” she’d said to me on my first visit to see her. I remembered her sitting with her finger in her mouth on her grandmother’s lap. She pleaded with her warm brown eyes. “I want him to come home. Will you bring my daddy home?”
Bella, the poor little girl, had a lot to contend with.
My thick blond hair was down and just below my shoulders. The Merced heat made it unbearable to be touching the back of my neck, so I opened my top drawer and placed it in a ponytail. Our office sat in the middle of downtown Merced. It was a small office with individual cubicles. On my desk, I had a few quotes pinned up to remind me why I did the job in the first place. I fingered the leaves of my potted plant, which I’d affectionately named Josie. Her leaves were looking a little dusty and dry.
“Sorry, Josie. I’ve neglected you again. Mama’s got a little water for you. My bad,” I whispered softly to my plant as I grabbed the bottled water I had left on my desk. I read somewhere that if you talked to your plants, it would help them grow faster, and they would be healthier. I poured the water into Josie’s rich earthy soil and smiled.
Lucy came by at the right moment. She, like me, was a long-standing social worker and a real hoot at times. She pulled her red-framed glasses down from her nose as she walked past. She was a buxom woman with dark hair that she wore in a bob, sometimes curly, sometimes straight. Most people in the office loved her.
“You talking to the plants again, Amber?” She put her arms around the edge of my cubicle and waited for my answer.
I gave her a haughty look. “It helps keep the plants alive. Josie is thriving. I just got a little slack with her watering.”
The tight-lipped Lucy jutted out her ample hip and narrowed her eyes at me. “You need to find you a man. This plant is doing nothing for you right now.”
She gestured in a humping motion, and I looked around to see if anyone had seen her. I shook my head, but we both giggled together. I could take a joke, and Lucy’s facial expressions would have the whole office doubled over in laughter some days. Considering the type of cases we worked on, laughter was the best medicine to keep your mind off things.
I sighed heavily. “I agree with you. It’s been a little while,” I mumbled as I packed a few items into my purse.
Lucy looked at me with pitying eyes. She’d been happily married for the last five years. “You’ll find you a good one. With all that long, blond hair and your tanned California skin, I’m sure there’s one around the corner for you. You just need to put yourself out there a little more.”
I glanced up at her. “Not so easy with my caseload right now, but I’ll get there,” I replied. At twenty-seven, I still felt like I was in my prime, dating-wise.
I stood up to leave. I didn’t want to be late to meet Colt.
“I know! Let’s go out for Friday night drinks. We haven’t done that in a long time. Blow off some steam, you know.” Lucy’s eyes started to twinkle. She dramatically flicked one hand in the air.
I shook my head in feigned pain. “I can’t. I have to help my neighbor Ruth with her planter boxes. I promised her I would.”
Lucy rolled her eyes at me. “See? That’s the reason you don’t have a man. You’re too busy helping all these other people. When are you going to help yourself, Amber? All these sexy curves are going to waste. Give them to me, and I’ll show you what to do with them,” Lucy said sassily as she slapped her hip. I watched it wobble.
Our boss, Donald, came past and spotted Lucy away from her cubicle. “Doing the rounds again, Lucy? You’ve been on lunch break for over an hour and a half. Time to get back to work.”
“Yes, Donald dearest.” She rolled her eyes at him as he walked back to his office. I laughed into my hand.
“Lucy, I have to go. I don’t want to be late.”
She gave me a curious look. “What case did you get?”
I slung my bag over my shoulder. “Colt Winters and his daughter Bella. The mother overdosed, and now Bella is staying with Colt’s mother and father.”
Lucy licked her lips and leaned closer to me, so only I could hear her. “Some of those prison boys are really good looking. I hope you at least get a hot criminal to look at.”
I gave Lucy a light slap on the shoulder. “Lucy! I’m on a case. Shame on you.”
She turned to walk away and looked back over her shoulder. “No, shame on you, honey, if you’re not looking.”
All you could do with Lucy was laugh sometimes. She was a wild one. I made my way to the glass doors and proceeded to my vehicle.
USP Atwater Penitentiary’s conditions were diabolical. The prison needed a major overhaul. Many prisoners were committing suicide in their jail cells, and the death rates were steadily climbing.
“Our hands are tied. We can’t do much about it. We’re externally funded, and they won’t give us the money to upgrade.” That’s what Warden Smith had told me on my last prison visit. I had wanted my brother, Hector, out of there as soon as possible.
My mind flashed back to my brother and when I’d last spoken to him on the prison phone. I’d said, “I’m going to get you out of here. You don’t deserve to be in here. Those charges were bogus that you copped.”
Hector, with his shaved head, put his hand to the glass, sliding his fingers down it. “Sister. I appreciate it, but we already appealed the other one, and it didn’t go through.”
One guard stood at the back of the room as I watched the clock. I had five minutes of talk time left that day. I splayed my fingers on the glass where his fingers were. “Little bro, this is what I do. Prison reform. You can’t stay here. You’re not safe. They just stabbed the prison teacher in here last year. The common room is too small. You’re all bunched together. There are over a thousand inmates crammed in this place. There’s bound to be a breakout of violence.” My eyes bugged out of my head with fear and worry for my brother. I didn’t dare tell Mom or Dad, or they would flip out. It was hard to conceal your brother’s whereabouts for a whole year, though.