by Tom Barber
‘Why?’ Archer asked.
‘Because I said so.’
After a moment’s hesitation, they added them to the tray; the CO then rose and walked around from the desk, not taking his eyes off the two city detectives. He dropped and patted them both down, before lifting Marquez’s pant leg.
There was a rasp of Velcro and he came up holding her back-up piece, a smaller handgun.
‘Our house,’ he said, giving her a look. ‘Our rules.’
Nicky was now dressed in orange jumps and locked inside a solitary cell in a secure, quiet wing of the county jail; although it was slightly larger than the one he’d shared with Prez back at Gatlin and he was the only inmate inside, the space somehow felt much smaller. That was partly due to the freedom he’d experienced over the past few days, seeing vast landscapes and fields that went on beyond the horizon, but was largely down to the fact he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell he was ever getting out again. As he’d speculated while still on the run, breaking out of federal prison, assisting in armed robbery and kidnapping across State Lines was an easy twenty five to life, and it wasn’t his first offense either.
But if you’d waited, you’d have walked out of Gatlin in two days to find Kat in a coffin. The Morningstar truck robbery would have gone ahead without him last Saturday, the Loughlins would have shown up there unexpectedly anyway and Kat would have died along with the other thieves, finished off by the brothers who would have taken both bags and split. Nicky would have been a free man, but he’d have had to live with the thought that he might have been able to prevent it.
Brooks and Billy had been responsible for the deaths of a lot of people, and for that Nicky felt considerable guilt, having known about their planned escape and using it for his own ends. But he hadn’t killed anyone; all he’d wanted to do was stop Kat, knowing her desperate plan was going to end badly. In a way, his escape had given her an extra two days of life, as difficult as they’d proven to be. She hadn’t died alone either. But perhaps he’d just prolonged her agony. Maybe it would have been better for her if she’d been shot dead at the shootout instead.
He felt the cell’s walls closing in, constricting and confining him in a way they hadn’t since the early days at Gatlin. A fresh count of many thousands of days ahead, but this time any hope of release and the chance to build a normal life again one day, gone forever.
His jaw tightened, just as it had in the house on the hill before his surrender; he stared blankly at the wall, his eyes glistening, fighting down the sudden surge of emotion that hit him as he faced his new reality. He knew if he gave way to it, he’d be done.
But he’d never felt such gut-wrenching despair.
Now inside the block and being taken towards where Reyes was being held, Archer and Marquez were stopped by another CO, Pruitt the name on his tag. He was pudgy with thinning ginger hair and by the expression on his face, wasn’t exactly thrilled to see them. ‘Cap just heard you two showed up,’ he said, nodding to their escort who turned and walked back the way he’d just come. ‘Told me to pass on, Reyes is off limits. Feds want exclusivity with him when they get back here.’
‘You guys are killing us, man,’ Marquez said. ‘Radio your captain again. We earned a quick talk with the guy.’
‘No. You need to go, right now.’
‘We’re not going anywhere yet,’ Archer said bluntly. ‘Let us talk to your captain.’
‘He left to go to D Block. He’ll be back in twenty. You’ll have to wait. Go do it out front.’
‘We already signed in and handed over our possessions,’ Archer replied, looking straight at the man. ‘We’ll wait here.’
Like pieces on a chessboard, some of the people whose lives had become interconnected since the USP Gatlin breakout in Virginia on Friday were being drawn together once again. Nicky in a single cell, Archer and Marquez in the prison block wanting to see him. Even the two local hunters in the pick-up parked just outside the fence; they had more of a history in this than either Archer or Marquez could have suspected.
And at the back of the county jail, two more powerful pieces on the board had just arrived.
A CO had driven into the facility in his own truck with the sliding canopy cover over the bed. ‘Thought you were on duty?’ the guard at the gate said, having just taken over in a shift change. ‘Where you been?’
‘Wife called, remembered she’d left a heater on at home,’ the CO replied with an eyeroll. ‘Had to go switch it off.’
The gate guard smiled and made a comment, why the CO’s wife would need a heater during a warm September morning not occurring to him, and the truck re-entered the prison, swinging around towards the back of the facility. The driver reversed the truck up to an intake point out of sight of the front gate and waited; he wasn’t getting out to return to duty just yet.
Instead, he was looking up at a camera positioned on the wall above.
Its red light suddenly went dark. He got out, walked around and opened the rear gate to the bed of the truck. The pair of giants hiding in there had already changed into the XXXL jumpsuits the CO had brought from the prison when he was sent to collect them thirty minutes ago. They’d shaved their heads, Brooks his beard too in order to adjust their appearance as much as possible. There was nothing they could do about their size, however they weren’t intending to be here long enough for that to become an issue. The brothers had just come full circle.
But this time they were breaking into a prison, not breaking out.
‘He’s in solitary,’ the CO who’d driven them in and opened the gate told the brothers, before passing them each a shiv from the confiscation locker. He wasn’t related to Brooks or Billy, but like so many in the lakes area, their families went back a long way and he’d known the Loughlin clan all his life. ‘How’d you grease this?’
‘Oneida Sheriff was a friend of our pa’s since they were kids,’ Brooks said, the look he was giving the CO making the smaller man nervous. He’d been ordered to help them get inside, but just wanted to get this done and them gone; he knew how dangerous these two men were.
‘Wondered why he pushed to get Reyes sent here,’ the CO replied nervously. ‘You got a window we carved out. False tip sent the Marshals and other investigators heading to Wayne looking for you, but we got a problem. Two more cops just showed up wanting to see him.’
‘Marshals?’ Brooks asked.
‘No, smaller fry. We’re stalling them out but that won’t work with the Feds. You gotta get this thing done fast then I’ll get you back outta here. Cut up the wrists. Need to make the scene look like Reyes did it himself.’
Brooks took one shiv and Billy took the other. The extended Loughlin family had contaminated this area for years, like an infection that had survived repeated treatment and which proved impossible to eradicate; the current members had influence in several counties, established mostly through fear and intimidation, which meant they’d built some very useful contacts over the years. As well as the sheriff at Oneida and a couple of deputies, they had the captain here at Onondaga and three COs in their pocket.
Unknown to Nicky, he’d been sent into the very mouth of the beast.
With their fellow Gatlin escapee trapped in a cell, the man who’d used them to escape from federal prison, ripped them off by sabotaging their bag trade at the fair and who they’d had a vendetta against ever since his first night in Gatlin all those years ago, the two brothers were about to make sure the guy didn’t get to face a life sentence. He’d cost them millions of dollars. His time to pay for that and all the other crap had finally come.
The CO from the truck unlocked the entry point and the two fugitive brothers made their way into the facility. They may have finally just got back to familiar territory where they’d been born and raised.
But in a place like the county jail, the two brothers felt like they were truly back home.
FIFTY
‘Cameras?’ Brooks asked the guard, as he and his brother stopped just inside the
Onondaga County Jail’s corridor, waiting for the CO to secure the entry point behind them. The prisoners in the block were all currently contained, making it possible for the two fugitives to slip into the building unseen. Even if they were noticed, they weren’t the only big men in here so being immediately identified wasn’t likely, particularly as everyone thought they were still hiding out somewhere; like at the State Fair last night, the prison would be the last place anyone expected to see them. And unlike the fair, they could get out clean, as long as they left fast after doing what they were here to do.
‘Hinckley’s controlling them; he’s closing down the ones that could cause us trouble,’ the CO said. ‘We’ll wipe the tapes, say the system failed. He’ll get you out; his truck’s the one in the lot beside mine. You can hide in the back. His shift finishes in twenty and he’ll drive you clear. We don’t get checked.’
‘We got a couple of our boys waiting too, case he is,’ Billy said. His brother had arranged for two of their longtime friends to park just outside the gate in their truck, the same pair who’d been eyeballing Archer and Marquez. The men also had a change of clothes, weapons and supplies for Brooks and Billy to help them disappear into the wilderness for months afterwards.
The CO passed the brothers a set of keys. ‘These’ll unlock the solitary wing and surrounding corridors. You only need Hinckley for one access door, just before you reach Reyes’ wing. He’ll see when you’re ready.’
Inside the guard control center for A Block, Archer and Marquez had been trying to reason with Pruitt and another CO about letting them see Reyes, but as Marquez was continuing to argue their case, Archer happened to glance at the camera feeds.
His curiosity, suspicion and sense that something was wrong had been slowly escalating since he and Marquez had arrived from the neighboring county. Sheriff said you’ve got a full house. Reyes was taken to Onondaga instead; a statement that had come as a surprise to the two Oneida cops who’d told him their lockup was rarely full.
So why transfer Reyes to another jail when theirs more than likely had space?
The wrong thing said to the wrong man. Archer latched onto details like that. And as he took the opportunity to look at the screens, his attention suddenly snapped to one in particular.
‘Are these cameras static?’ he interrupted, cutting across the ongoing argument. Marquez and the COs looked at him as their back-and-forth stopped momentarily.
‘Why?’
‘I think I just saw someone.’ He tapped the screen. ‘Coming down that corridor.’
The other CO, a man with a pinched face whose nametag identified him as Hinckley, walked over and looked. ‘Probably a guard. Can’t see nothing.’
‘Can you show me where the entry point on that side of the facility leads?’
Hinckley shot a quick glance at Pruitt, then after selecting the correct camera with controls, he tapped a screen and swept the lens across from the left to right and back again, moving it as far as its field of vision would allow.
The corridor it was covering was empty.
‘What did you see?’ Marquez asked as Archer frowned, looking at the screen.
Who he thought he’d seen was the question. It wasn’t possible.
Or was it.
‘I’m not sure,’ he told her. ‘But it looked like-’
‘You two look like you haven’t slept so good in a while,’ Hinckley interrupted. ‘Might be time to leave and let us handle our prisoners. Reyes isn’t going anywhere. You can talk to him after the Feds do. Maybe.’
Archer ignored him, checking each screen in turn before focusing on one corridor in particular. After studying the shot for a moment longer, he turned and without a word, left the control center, realizing from the layout that the hallway in question was very close to this one. ‘HEY!’ Pruitt called.
Continuing to ignore him, Archer made it to the window in the door in time to catch the back of a huge man on the other side, passing across a T cross-section of the corridor ahead. A second later, another appeared and glanced behind him just before following the other individual, quickly moving out of sight; they were the same pair he’d glimpsed in orange jumpsuits on the cameras.
Both men were huge and although they’d changed their appearance by buzzing their hair and shaving their beards, Archer immediately recognized them. He’d also seen that neither man was in handcuffs.
They were roaming free.
‘Send personnel to protect Nicky Reyes right now,’ Archer said to Hinckley and Pruitt after running back into the control center. ‘It’s the Loughlins,’ he told Marquez. ‘They’re in the block.’
‘What?’ she said in shock.
‘The hell are you talking about?’ Pruitt said. ‘Those brothers haven’t been captured, they’re still out there.’
‘Enough of this shit,’ Hinckley added. ‘Time for you two to go.’ He stepped forward to usher them out but then Marquez looked at the screens too and saw Archer was right.
Brooks and Billy appeared in shot, moving down another corridor. They stopped at a locked door and looked straight up at the camera, just as she and Archer had done during the riot at Gatlin three days ago.
Waiting for the door to be opened for them.
In that instant, she understood why she and Archer had been blocked from seeing Reyes; why the captured fugitive had been brought here inside of the jail a county away.
And why these two COs had been doing all they could to get the NYPD pair out of the control center ever since they’d shown up.
Hinckley quickly drew his baton while Pruitt kicked the door shut to keep Archer and Marquez inside, but before they could turn on the two detectives Archer swiped a mug of coffee left on the desk near his right hand and threw the contents into Hinckley’s face. It wasn’t hot but still momentarily blinded him, the CO yelling and dropping the baton as he tried to wipe the liquid out of his eyes. Archer abandoned him for the moment to help Marquez, who was fighting to keep Pruitt’s arm down.
Unlike his friend, he hadn’t drawn a baton.
He’d pulled a handgun.
A few corridors away, the Loughlins suddenly heard a gunshot while still waiting at their penultimate access door. Brooks checked behind them as Billy tried to use the keys on the lock, but they were just for the SHU area of the prison, not here, and none of them fit.
Shouting started to echo down the corridors, inmates reacting to the gunshot.
‘The hell they waiting for?’ Brooks hissed.
When Archer had gone to Marquez’s aid, the firearm discharged as they fought Pruitt for control of the weapon. Still trying to clear his vision from the faceful of coffee, Hinckley managed to reach the controls for the cameras on the console and started to quickly tap some buttons; realizing what he was doing, Marquez left Archer to deal with Pruitt, scooped up Hinckley’s dropped baton and brought it down hard on his arm before hitting him again over the head, knocking him away from the controls and to the floor.
Meanwhile, Archer wrested the pistol out of Pruitt’s hand, then slid his right arm around the back of man’s neck, the fingers of the right hand going into the sleeve of his left. He brought his left forearm around quickly to apply a judo Ezekiel choke; Pruitt panicked and tried to fight Archer off but five seconds later went limp, temporarily unconscious, allowing Archer to release the hold and cuff him, Marquez using her own set on a dazed Hinckley.
As soon as he was secured, she went back to the screen but saw Brooks and Billy were no longer standing there waiting for the door to open.
Hinckley had managed to open it before she could stop him.
Nicky had also heard the gunshot from his cell and was kneeling to look out through the food slot in his door, wondering what was happening. This place wasn’t familiar to him like Gatlin and with no time to adjust to the various noises and rhythms of the jail, the unexpected sound made him far more uneasy than he would have been in territory he knew.
Then to his surprise, the electronic locks on his do
or suddenly buzzed and it slid open. He rose and stepped forward uncertainly, checking outside.
No-one was there; no guards, no federal agents, no other prisoners.
The hell was going on?
Sensing a trap, he took a couple of wary steps out of the cell. It was then, through the bars of what he suddenly hoped was a locked door at the end of the corridor, he saw Brooks and Billy.
Walking towards him in solitary, with only that door between them.
‘They’re gonna kill him!’ Marquez said from where she and Archer were watching in the control room, having found the screen for the solitary wing corridor. Someone else had just unlocked Reyes’ cell and they saw the captured fugitive emerge just as the two Loughlins appeared down the corridor.
Both detectives watched helplessly as the three inmates from USP Gatlin came face to face, almost certainly for the last time. However, the three men were still separated by one more locked door, but not for long apparently, as they saw Brooks yelling something at his brother who one-by-one was trying keys in the lock.
‘OPEN IT!’ Brooks shouted, seeing Nicky and gripping the shiv he’d been given as Billy fumbled through the various keys. He finally found the right one, feeling the mechanism turn, but Nicky had already taken off down the corridor in the opposite direction, other inmates in the solitary wing peering out through their food slots and calling out, wondering what was happening.
Nicky reached the barred door at the end, frantically pushing at it, but it was secured. Behind him, he heard the other door get slammed back and swung around to see the two Loughlin brothers running towards him, both of them carrying a shank. He didn’t have anything to fight them with and backed up against the door, the two huge brothers closing in on him.
He remembered looking out at the landscape earlier when Kat had died in his arms. Now just a few hours later, his own life was about to end. He hoped it would be quick.
