Chapter 5 - A Friendly Officer
Officer Grant was the first staff member Ana trusted enough to test.
Not trust completely.
Prison had cured her of that.
But Grant treated women like people, wrote reports when property disappeared, and never laughed when somebody asked for medical care.
During morning count, Ana said quietly, “The shower camera lost power at eight-fifteen last night.”
Grant’s eyes shifted toward the ceiling.
“How do you know the exact time?”
“I was watching.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody told me it would.”
Grant stopped writing.
“Who?”
Ana glanced across the unit.
Lucia was playing cards.
Officer Phelps stood behind her, checking a clipboard.
“Forget I asked,” Grant said.
Too late.
Phelps looked up.
That afternoon, Ana was called for a random cell search.
Phelps conducted it.
He pulled books from shelves, shook socks onto the floor, opened legal envelopes, and read the front page of one letter before Ana snapped, “That’s privileged mail.”
He smiled. “Then complain.”
Renee watched from the doorway.
Phelps found nothing.
Before leaving, he bent toward Ana’s ear.
“Redwood is easier when people stop trying to fix it.”
Ana stared at him. “That advice from experience?”
His smile vanished.
That evening, Grant slipped a folded property form onto Ana’s bunk.
Inside was a message written in tiny letters.
DON’T SPEAK TO ME ON UNIT. THEY’RE WATCHING WHO TALKS TO YOU.
Ana read it twice.
Then a third time.
Renee saw her face. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s what I say when it’s something.”
Ana handed her the paper.
Renee went pale.
“Who is ‘they’?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lucia?”
“Maybe.”
“Phelps?”
“Maybe.”
Renee crumpled the paper in her fist. “You need to stop.”
Ana took it back and flattened it.
“I stopped once before.”
“This isn’t your old job.”
“No. At my old job, people lost money.”
Renee looked at her daughter’s taped-together photograph.
“And here?”
Ana said softly, “Here people learn to believe nobody will help them.”
The next morning, Warden Keller announced that several cameras would be repaired during routine maintenance.
Lucia sat perfectly still.
Phelps did not.
He turned toward Keller so quickly that the keys on his belt struck the desk.
May you like
Ana noticed.
So did Investigator Shaw, standing behind the glass observation window.
