Read Life or Death for Free Online Page B

Blushing. Desiree couldn’t remember ever meeting a man, let alone a prisoner, who was so self-assured or accepting of his fate. He didn’t care if his stairs were steeper or if every door was closed. Even when she accused him of lying, he didn’t get annoyed. Instead he apologised.
    ‘Will you stop saying you’re sorry.’
    ‘Yes, ma’am, I’m sorry.’
    Arriving at Three Rivers FCI, Desiree parks in the visitors’ area and stares out of the windshield, her eyes travelling across the strip of grass to the double line of fences strung with razor wire. Beyond she can see guards in the towers and the main prison buildings. Zipping up her boots, she steps out of the car and straightens her jacket, preparing for the reception rigmarole – filling out forms, surrendering her weapon and handcuffs, having her bag searched.
    A handful of women are waiting for visiting hours to begin – girls who ended up with the wrong guys, or the wrong criminals, the ones who got caught. Losers. Bunglers. Swindlers. Throwbacks. It’s not easy to find a good criminal or a good man, thinks Desiree, who has decided that the best of them are usually gay, married or fictional (the men if not the criminals). Twenty minutes later she is ushered into the chief warden’s office. She doesn’t take a chair. Instead she lets the warden sit and watches him grow more and more uncomfortable as she moves around the room.
    ‘How did Audie Palmer escape?’
    ‘He scaled the perimeter fences using stolen sheets from the prison laundry and a makeshift grappling hook made from a washing-machine drum. A junior officer had let him into the laundry out of hours to collect something he left behind. The officer didn’t notice that Palmer failed to return. We believe he hid in the laundry until the tower guards changed shift at 2300 hours.’
    ‘What about the alarms?’
    ‘One of them triggered just before eleven, but it looked like a fault with the circuit. We rebooted the system, which takes about two minutes. He must have used that window of time to go over the fences. The dogs tracked him as far as Choke Canyon Reservoir, but we think that was probably a ruse to throw us off the scent. Nobody has ever escaped across the lake before. Most likely Palmer had somebody waiting for him outside the fence.’
    ‘Does he have any cash?’
    The warden shifts in his chair, not enjoying this. ‘It has been ascertained that Palmer had been withdrawing the maximum amount of $160 bi-weekly from his prisoner trust account, but spending virtually nothing at the commissary. We estimate he could have as much as twelve hundred dollars.’
    Sixteen hours has passed since the escape. There have been no sightings.
    ‘Were there any unfamiliar cars in the parking lot yesterday?’
    ‘The police are checking the footage.’
    ‘I need a list of everyone who has visited Palmer in the past decade along with any details of correspondence he may have had by mail or email. Did he have access to a computer?’
    ‘He worked in the prison library.’
    ‘Does it have an internet connection?’
    ‘It’s monitored.’
    ‘By whom?’
    ‘We have a librarian.’
    ‘I want to talk to them. I also want to speak to Palmer’s caseworker and the prison psychiatrist, as well as any member of staff who worked closely with him. What about other inmates – was he close to anyone in particular?’
    ‘They’ve already been interviewed.’
    ‘Not by me.’
    The warden picks up the phone and calls his deputy, speaking like he has a pencil clenched between his teeth. Desiree can’t hear the conversation, but the tone is clear. She’s about as welcome as a skunk at a lawn party.
    Warden Sparkes escorts Special Agent Furness to the prison library before taking his leave, saying he has calls to make. There is a foul taste in his mouth that he wants to wash away with a shot of bourbon. On better days than this one he drinks too much and has to draw the blinds and cancel meetings, claiming