“No idea.”
“It’s funny, isn’t it…”
“What is?”
“No one asks what each other is in for. They ask about the time, the sentence, but never the crime, but we all find out anyway.”
“Maybe some people are ashamed, or they fear they’ll be targeted for their crimes.”
The bed shook, and Rory clutched on. He felt safer when Sebastian was below him, but when he stood naked in front of the bed, his heart started thumping.
“What did you do?”
“What?”
“There’s that word again.” Sebastian huffed. “Eight years, for what?”
“Drugs.”
“Drugs?”
“Smuggling, selling…”
“Using?”
Rory shook his head. “No, I didn’t use it. I knew what was in it.”
Sebastian laughed. “Yeah, I bet. You know what I’m in for, right?”
He leaned closer, and Rory shifted his head along the pillow to keep their distance.
“How would I know?”
Sebastian’s stare was so intense, Rory was sure he saw his blue eyes shimmer, the same way animals’ eyes shone in low light. Then he took a step back and laughed.
“I told you sixteen years, remember? Why don’t you guess…”
“Murder.” Rory whispered.
“Who’s a clever boy. Murder. Do you know how I did it?”
Rory shook his head. “No.”
Sebastian chuckled, then lifted his arm. “The good thing about hands … they’re always on hand.”
He laughed and wriggled his fingers in the air. Rory didn’t laugh or smile, his stomach twisted in a knot. He knew how Sebastian Claw had murdered. He strangled with his right hand, didn’t even need two, he had enough strength in one to snuff out Lester Yates.
Sebastian hung his arm at his side again. “He deserved it.”
“What did he do?”
Sebastian turned away and looked up at the small window. “Betrayed me. We were close, or at least I thought we were, but he rats on me to the police. What would you have done?”
Rory bit his lip. “I would’ve asked him to explain the situation … tried to understand, found a way out—”
“That’s the thing. If he’d told me, it would’ve been different. We could’ve sorted it, I could’ve helped, but he didn’t. I gave him plenty of chances to tell me, but he never did. Even when I was strangling him, he looked at me with this confused expression, like he didn’t understand why. That made me even angrier, and I couldn’t stop.”
“Do—Do you—never mind.”
“No, ask me.”
Rory avoided Sebastian’s gaze when he asked, “Do you ever regret it?”
“No, and I’m not gonna swear I’ll never do it again.”
Rory had heard Sebastian and Lester’s last conversation, and Sebastian wasn’t lying. He’d given Lester plenty of chances to admit what he’d been doing, admit he was a rat, but he hadn’t. The recording software on Lester was sensitive enough to pick up his splutters, and chokes as Sebastian killed him.
“Anyway, that’s all in the past now. I’ve almost served my time, only nine months to go, and then it’s goodbye to this cell, those gates, them guards.” He smacked his closed fist into the wall. “I’ll be free.”
“What will you do when you get out?”
“I’ll drink, I’ll fuck, I’ll work out, all things I do in here, but they’ll be sweeter on the outside, and then … then…”
“Then what?”
Sebastian tipped his head back, wrapped his arms around his stomach, and laughed. Rory pulled his sheet closer, and kept his fingers bunched in the fabric. The laugh rivalled Captain’s screams of terror.
Sebastian’s delight tapered off, and he stayed staring at the ceiling. His arms fell away, and he rocked back a step, then fixed Rory with a cold stare.
He shivered, despite the cell being too hot, and clutched the blanket up to his chin. That look meant revenge.
“I’ll celebrate my release with a big, fucking, bang.”
****
“Out of everything so far, this has been the best.”
Rory shot a skeptical look at Ollie, then glanced down at his tray. Vegetables, gravy, rice, what he assumed was chicken, and two cookies. “If you say so.”
Captain sat opposite, flexing his fingers. There were bruises on his knuckles, and the skin had split.
“How did that happen?” Rory asked.
“When I was having a dream, turned over and punched the wall.”
“The wall owned you.” Ollie snorted.
Beside the tiredness in his eyes and his slumped stance, Captain managed a laugh.
“Benjamin Tracy?”
Captain looked up at the guard. “That’s me.”
“Come with me.”
Captain sighed and got to his feet. His hand hung at his side, and several pairs of eyes snapped to it, analyzing the damage. “I’ll see you guys later.”
Captain no longer blocked the sight of Pauly and his table of friends. He perked up, waited until Captain had passed through the gate, then got to his feet.
“Sweetheart, now your bodyguard’s gone, we can finally have a chat.”
Pauly sat down on Captain’s seat and reached across the table. Rory quickly pulled his hand away and went to stand, but two hands pressed down on his shoulders, keeping him in place.
Pauly turned to Ollie. “Take a walk.”
“But—”
“No buts, get up, and leave.”
“It’s all right.” Rory whispered.
Ollie stood up, grabbed his tray, and moved to the opposite end of the room. He darted concerned glances back, and Pauly wobbled his lip to mock him.
“Poor little baby, have I stolen his favorite toy.”
“What do you want?”
“I told you the other day … you.”
“I’m not … gay.”
It was a lie. He’d realized he was gay when he was twelve and he obsessed over boybands. Not the songs, or the dance routines, but their bodies when they whipped off their shirts.
“That’s okay sweetheart, neither am I, but in here, a hole is a hole, and you’ve got two I’d love to get acquainted with. And fucking Sebastian Claw’s cellmate, when I know you’re exactly his type, is the cherry on top.”
He leaned back in the chair and joined his hands behind his head. “I’m thinking of it now, you going back to your cell with my cum on your breath, my bites on your neck, your lips all swollen, and I don’t mean the ones on your face.”
“I’m flattered, but I’m fine how I am…”
Fingers dug into Rory’s shoulders, and he gasped, and slapped his hand down on them, trying his best to tug them away. They kept pressing until he was certain he’d have bruises.
“Stop.” Rory panted.
Pauly hummed. “That sound is music to my ears.”
Ollie returned to the table with Teddy in tow. Teddy grunted and slammed his tray down in front of Pauly. The food splattered Pauly’s lap, and he gawped before gritting his teeth.
“Son of a bitch…”
Teddy brought his hands up, fists closed, knees slightly bent, ready for a fight. Pauly huffed and looked down at himself.
“I’ll have to change now, make myself look all sexy for our date.”
Rory shook his head. “There’s no date.”
“I think you should consider my offer. Eight years is a long time, you’ll learn to love being on your knees for me, and in return, no one will lay a finger on you, you’ll be mine. Mine to finger, mine to fuck.”
“I’ve considered your offer, and my answer is still no.”
Pauly winked. “Later, sweetheart.”
He left the table, and Rory rubbed at his shoulders. They throbbed, and the bones ached like they’d been marked, too. Ollie sat down and offered Rory a weak smile.
“All right?”
“Never been better.”
He looked at
Teddy shoveling food in his mouth. “Thank you.”
Teddy paused, glanced at Rory, then gave Ollie a longer, softer look.
“Yeah, I get it.” Rory snorted. “You did that for him not for me.”
“That guy’s not gonna leave you alone,” Ollie mumbled.
“He’s bluffing.”
Teddy made a short, sharp sound, then shook his head.
“I’ll stay out of his way.”
Ollie wrinkled his nose. “For the next eight years?”
“For all we know, he gets out in months.”
“He’s three years into a life sentence,” Ollie murmured.
Teddy tapped his finger on the table to get Rory’s attention, then flicked his gaze in the direction of Sebastian. Rory looked, then quickly looked away.
“He hates me.”
Teddy shrugged.
“He might be the lesser of two evils,” Ollie mumbled, “get him onside.”
“I don’t know how. He scares the shit out of me.”
Teddy snorted, then he smiled at Ollie. Ollie grinned back and lowered his gaze.
“Win him over.” Ollie suggested.
“How?”
“Spend time with him outside your cell. Go over there right now.”
Teddy slapped his palm on the table, and sternly shook his head.
“Or not.” Ollie muttered. “All I’m saying is, Sebastian is clearly in charge of the wing.”
Teddy bobbed his head, then smiled at Ollie.
“Get him onside, and you’ll have his protection. Pauly won’t touch you.”
Teddy clapped his hands and smiled brighter.
“Yeah, but how do I do that?” Rory asked.
He’d been trying for the past five days to find common ground, but he was getting nothing back from Sebastian.
“No idea.”
“Exactly.”
The bell sounded for yard time, and the inmates queued at the gate. Rory sighed, and took his unfinished lunch to the front. Ollie and Teddy stood next to each other near the front of the line, but Rory didn’t dare try to cut in, he took a space in the middle, and kept his head down. They walked in single file down the corridor, then they suddenly stopped and Rory narrowly avoided bumping into the man in front.
“Oi, newbie… Can you get the ball from the cupboard?”
Rory nodded, and pointed at the door closest to him. “This one.”
“Yeah, that’s it. There’s a box of balls inside.”
Rory pulled the string dangling from the ceiling, but the light didn’t come on. He stepped further in, and something crunched under his feet. He realized it was glass from the broken bulb. The door closed behind him, and the latch clicked.
“Wait … hold on…”
Rory backed up a step, knocking into something firm. An arm wrapped around him, a hand pressed over his mouth, muffling his shout. He tried to pry it free, but they were swaying in the dark, and Rory lost his footing.
A sharp pain erupted in his side, and a burning took over. An intense burning that stole his breath and made it impossible to scream. The arm released him, and he fell to his knees clutching his side. His hand registered wetness, his nostrils pulsed at the ironlike scent in the air.
The door opened, Rory saw a glimpse of light as a shadow passed out, and then the door shut again, leaving him in the dark. He heard footsteps, more like a marching band of racket passing by the door, but he couldn’t call out. He tilted his body forward, and felt the trickle leave him.
He reached, managed to find the handle, but didn’t have the strength to open it. He panted shallowly and attempted to bang on the door. He couldn’t be heard above the laughter in the corridor, or the stamping feet.
“Hey, newbie, you get lost in there?”
The door opened and slammed into Rory, but he didn’t feel it. He landed on the broken glass, but pain only came from one place, and that was his side.
“Shit!
The pain escaped his mouth in a groan, an unhuman groan he hadn’t thought himself capable of. His vision spun, his hearing warped, and the smell of blood no longer registered. All senses were softened, apart from the pain, which only got worse, more specific, more agonizing. It wasn’t fair. If he wanted a sense to numb, it was his sense of touch, of feeling, not everything else.
“Rory!”
Captain’s panicked voice for once was welcomed by Rory. It broke through the rushing sound in his head. He jolted, and his head flopped unsteadily as Captain picked him up.
Captain was calling for help, rushing him down the corridor towards the wing. Rory heard feet running, lots of them, and heard muffled shouts from the guards. The inmates were being told to get back inside, back on the wing.
“I’ve got you, Rory.”
He saw Ollie’s frightened eyes, saw Sebastian’s lined with amusement, and Pauly’s that said, ‘I warned you’, but the last eyes he saw before all went dark, were Captain’s. Tired, strained, and with the shadow of death lurking in their depths. He’d seen men die, Rory could tell, and his eyes said he was desperate not to see another person leave him.
Chapter Four
Rory opened his eyes. Instead of staring up at a grey ceiling, a light buzzed above his head. The overly bright room made him wince each time he woke up, it was too white, too clean. Rory shuffled, then curled forward in pain. No longer sharp and stabbing, a dull ache throbbed in his side. Sometimes it felt far away and he could ignore it, other times it demanded his attention until he called the nurse and she drowned it with morphine. He’d been in prison six days and in the hospital for seven, not a record he was proud of.
He’d been stabbed. Rory didn’t know by whom. The doctors were worried about infection, not from the stab wound, but the broken glass in his thigh.
Rory had failed in his mission, and could have lost his life in the process.
He saw the inspector pass by the window and braced himself. The door opened, Inspector Hamish stepped inside, and fiddled with his moustache. He hummed as he glared at Rory, then clutched his brow. He was in his sixties, but his hair was brown, not a single grey. Rory knew he dyed it, some days he could smell the peroxide when he spoke, not from the hair on his head, but the furry slug on his top lip.
He pressed his lips together in a grim smile. “That didn’t go as planned.”
Rory averted his gaze. “I wanna see my sister.”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
Hamish gestured to the window, and the officer stood outside. “You’re still undercover.”
“It’s pointless. I wasn’t getting anywhere, and now all I want to do is go home, get better, and see my sister.”
“What about Sebastian Claw?”
“What about him!”
Hamish flared his nostrils. “We know he’s planning something.”
“Do we?”
“Yeah,” Hamish rushed forward, and collapsed on the bedside chair. “All his old gang members have reappeared. Hovering around the city like a bad smell.”
“Then let them do something incriminating when he gets out, then arrest him.”
“Let him do something incriminating? Did you not read the file I gave you about him?”
Rory lowered his gaze and didn’t reply.
“He went down for murder, but he did a whole lot worse. Selling illegal firearms to gangs, complex explosives to terrorists. He’s a danger to society, we need to be one step ahead.”
“I can’t do it, I’m not your man.”
Hamish pointed at Rory’s side. “That’s taken all the fight out of you.”
“Yeah, it has. I don’t wanna fight anymore.”
“I know you can do it, Rory,” Hamish mumbled, then he edged closer, “And you owe me, remember.”
Rory bit his lip and frowned. The door swung open, and inspector Morris stepped inside. Her salt and pepper frizzy hair was tied back, and her lashes were coated with black mascara. She looked at Hamish, then at Rory.
“You re
ady to go back inside?”
“No.”
“Knew you didn’t have it in you.”
Rory gave her a venomous glare. “You try getting stabbed, see how you feel.”
“It’s barely a scratch.” Morris argued.
Rory closed his eyes. “Someone trapped me in a storage room and stabbed me. I can’t go back there. I just can’t.”
“Did you blow your cover?” Hamish asked.
“No.”
“So this is inmates being inmates, a welcome to prison tradition.”
“It hurt…”
Hamish shuffled his chair forward. “I believe you, but you can’t give up. Sebastian Claw is evil. I put him away all those years ago, and I need to do it again. If us three do this, we’ll be heroes in the community.”
“I never wanted to be a hero.”
“You’ll climb the ladder like me and Morris. More money, more respect. A man your dad would’ve been proud of.”
Rory flashed a look at Morris, then at Hamish.
“Look, if you can’t do it, step aside,” Hamish muttered, “but it’ll be a wasted opportunity. I brought you into this because I trust you, I see huge potential. You could be a successful police officer, maybe even an inspector one day, like Morris.”
“Twenty years ago now.”
“And you jump from division to division.” Rory murmured. He didn’t add ‘and bed to bed,’ but Morris narrowed her eyes like she knew Rory was thinking it.
“Morris is one of the best officers on the entire force. I asked her specifically to help me with this case.”
He gazed up at Morris, and she pouted her lips, then fluttered her overdone eyelashes. “And I came running.”
Hamish turned back to Rory and grabbed his hand. “I know you can do it. I’ve always believed in you, you can’t let me down…”
Rory chewed his bottom lip and didn’t speak. His silence earned him a pat on the shoulder.
“That a boy. Now think back to this past week. Has Sebastian said anything, anything at all that could hint at what him, and his old friends are planning?”
“He said when he gets out, he’s gonna celebrate with a big bang.”
“A bang?” Morris mumbled. “Like an explosion, a bomb?”
“I don’t know, that’s all he said.”
Hamish itched his moustache. “We all know he’s done deals with terrorists before, sold devastating bombs over the dark web. What would he want to blow up? The court that sent him down? The police station he was charged in—”
The Rat Page 3
