Undercover Inmates

by Madison Johns

  “Maybe she’s still considering it.”

  “I suppose. I think Barlow is against us for suggesting she might have something to do with Lopez’s murder.”

  “I have a feeling the warden told her what you said,” Eleanor pointed out. “The officers and warden most likely stick together.”

  “I guess we’ll have to investigate without the warden’s permission.”

  “We won’t be able to do much of anything other than question the inmates then. If the inmates try to rise up in protest, the warden will never give us the chance.”

  I nodded and rang the bell outside the locked kitchen door. Teresa answered the door with a roll of her eyes. Since she hadn’t made a rude comment to us at the steam table this morning, I had thought she would be civil. But what do I know.

  “We’re here to pick up the trash.”

  That brought a smile to her face. “It’s about time. The bags are leaking on the floor.”

  I sighed. I knew this wouldn’t be a cushy gig.

  The bags piled on the kitchen floor not only leaked, they reeked. I tried to hold my breath as we picked the bags up and tossed them into the bin.

  “Yuck,” Eleanor said as she wiped the front of her shirt. “My clothes are filthy now.”

  “Mine, too, but I imagine that’s what Barlow wanted to happen. Probably why she suggested that we come into the kitchen first.”

  “Or it could be because we have to clean up the kitchen sometime before we have to make lunch,” Teresa said. “That is if you old bags ever get your cabooses in gear.”

  The other inmates in the kitchen stared at the three of us. I quickly noted the butcher knives chained to the stainless steel counters. I noted the chains were not nearly long enough to allow Teresa to grab one and reach us.

  Once we had all the kitchen trash collected, we hurried from the kitchen.

  I pushed one bin and Eleanor the other until we reached the back room. I pushed the button and the door rattled as it rose along the tracks. The Dumpsters were huge. There was no way we’d be able to throw the bags inside – the covers were closed and too high for either of us to reach.

  Eleanor found and slid open a side door and we proceeded to sling the bags into the Dumpster. The bags continued to leak and the pungent aroma almost caused me to lose my breakfast.

  Both of our hands were nasty. Only when we moved the emptied carts back in did I spot the box of gloves! “How nice that Barlow didn’t tell us there were gloves,” I said as I turned on the water at the sink.

  “What do you expect? She’s already proven to be an irritating officer. I wonder when Schulze will be back. I haven’t seen her today,” Eleanor mentioned.

  “And here we thought Schulze was bad. I wonder if we should make nice with her. We need at least one guard that doesn’t hate us.”

  “I’m not sure hate is the right word. Barlow has a job to do, but I can’t imagine she thinks much of inmates. We’re all guilty in her eyes,” Eleanor said.

  I sighed. “Except the only crime we’ve committed is taking on this assignment.”

  Eleanor chuckled as she washed her hands after me. “Good! I thought I was the only one wishing we were back in Tawas.”

  We collected the many trash bags in the pod, some of which had been tossed from the second-floor cells. “At least these aren’t leaking,” I said.

  “No, but some are certainly heavy,” Eleanor replied.

  When we went back to the Dumpster to toss this load, I heard voices on the other side a wooden fence. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t put a package in the dirty laundry this time,” a man’s voice said. “Someone else loaded the truck today.”

  “Well, you had better make darn sure you have something the next time. If the warden finds out what you’ve been doing, you’ll have a cell all of your own to rot in the next thirty years,” a woman threatened.

  “That’s Mary,” I mouthed.

  We slowly backed away. I was afraid to move until I no longer heard Mary’s voice. The last thing I wanted her to know was that we had overheard her conversation.

  I led the way back inside and climbed the steps to the second level to make certain we hadn’t missed any trash. I then met Eleanor at the bottom of the stairs. “There’s nothing up there.” I reported.

  “Good, let’s take a shower. You stink.”

  “I believe that aroma is both of us.” I smiled.

  Chapter Eight

  I enjoyed standing under the hot water that surprisingly pounded my body with more pressure than I remembered. But that could be because I was the only one showering now, except for Eleanor, who was whistling in her stall.

  I smiled as I lathered my hair until I heard a throat cleared. “Who gave you permission to take a shower now?” Barlow asked.

  “I swear you told us after we were done picking up trash that we could shower. After all, you’re aware how nasty those bags in the kitchen can be.”

  “Probably why you told us to go there first,” Eleanor added.

  “Hurry it up. The warden wants to speak with you.”

  Finally, I thought. We hurried and nearly bumped heads when we flew out of our shower stalls. Eleanor and I dressed in a hurry and headed back to our cell, where we brushed our hair in a hurry before joining Barlow outside our cell.

  She sighed and led us through the maze of corridors and locked barred doors until we came to the warden’s office. Barlow escorted us inside, where Warden Geyer and Deputy Director Smith waited.

  “You can leave, Barlow,” Smith said. “I’ll take them back after we’re finished.” Barlow reluctantly left, and Smith offered us chairs. “Please take a seat, ladies.”

  Geyer cleared her throat. “I should have called you earlier to my office, but Barlow informed me that you had already started your work assignment.”

  I tried my best not to double my fists. Barlow did that on purpose. “I see,” I said, exchanging a look with Eleanor.

  “Yes, the warden told me about your … unorthodox … proposal,” Smith said. “I must tell you, that’s just not done.”

  “That’s what I told them,” Geyer said.

  “But under the circumstances, I don’t think we have much of a choice.”

  “What?” Geyer exclaimed. “You could have filled me in before you told them that.”

  “I believe I had, in so many words. The truth is, we have a murderer loose in the prison.”

  “And it may not be an inmate since Lopez was murdered in the lounge,” I added.

  “Of course, we’ll have to check that out to be certain,” Eleanor said.

  “The inmates seem to be comfortable about our investigation,” I added, hoping to settle the warden down.

  “I need to some assurances that you’ll fairly investigate,” Smith said. “While I’ll allow you to interrogate the officers, I expect you to do the same with the inmates.”

  “I promise we’ll do our best to find the murderer,” I said. “We’ll have to keep our conclusions to ourselves. To whom should we report?”

  “You can tell me,” Warden Geyer said.

  “I’d rather they report to me, actually,” Smith said. “After all, I’m the one who gave them permission to investigate.”

  “I still can’t believe you’re allowing this, but I’ll go along with it. But I’m running this prison,” Geyer said. “I’m certain you have more important things to attend to, deputy director.”

  “I’ve cleared my calendar. I want to be kept informed, and the only way that can happen is if I’m here. You’ll have to tolerate my presence for a while longer, Felicia.”

  I noted the familiar way Smith referred to the warden, although I imagined that they had known each other for some time.

  “We’d like to question the officers first,” I said.

  “Of course. Which ones?” Smith asked.

  “Deputy Barlow and Dr. Franks. They were both here yesterday.”

  “Absolutely not!” the warden gasped.

  “
You promised me that you’d allow for an impartial investigation, Felicia. And I’d appreciate it if you keep what’s said in this office to yourself,” Smith censured her.

  “But what will I tell the officers?”

  “That you have allowed for an independent investigation led by myself and Barton and Mason here. They have been selected by the inmates to look into the matter of the deaths of Trudy Taylor and Maria Lopez.”

  The warden sighed. “I’ll need time to assemble the officers. They all have duties and as you know, we’re understaffed.”

  “I’m sure Officers Schulze, Miller and Yates can look after the pod.”

  “Oh yes, we’d like to speak with Officer Yates, too,” I said. “Sorry, I forgot until now.”

  “The warden will bring you to one of the offices after lunch. I’d also ask that neither of you tell the inmates what you find out in your investigation. If an inmate is the guilty party, it won’t go well.”

  Barlow was waiting for us outside the door when we left the warden’s office. I didn’t smirk since it was enough that we’d be able to question her soon about the murder of Lopez.

  * * *

  We were the first ones to the steam table for lunch. Teresa wasn’t there, but Jana’s smiling face greeted us. I tried my best to not outright stare at her black eye, but the yellowing purple bruise was hard to avoid.

  She scooped a creamy gravy filled with what I hoped was chicken over a biscuit. She also set a banana on our trays.

  “This smells wonderful,” I had to admit.

  “Yes, we have a new chef. We’re having vegetable lasagna for dinner.”

  “That sounds great — minus the vegetable part,” Eleanor said.

  We had our pick of the tables.

  “How difficult do you think it will be to not tell the other inmates what we find out?” Eleanor asked.

  “Very, although I think the less we say the better.”

  Char, Yolanda and Velma joined us as inmates filed into the chow hall. “I was wondering if we’d see you two,” Char said.

  “Why wouldn’t you?”

  “I just wondered what job you were given today.”

  “We had to pick up all the trash,” I informed her.

  “That’s a horrible job,” Yolanda declared with a shake of her head.

  “I did that once and smelled like garbage for an entire week,” Velma insisted.

  I smelled my arm just then and shrugged. “Barlow told us to empty the kitchen trash first.” I grimaced.

  “It figures,” Yolanda said. “I think she gets her jollies out of giving us jobs like that.”

  Velma took a sniff. “You must have gotten in a shower at least.”

  “I’m not sure we were supposed to, but we took one anyway.”

  “Barlow wasn’t around,” Eleanor added.

  “So what did you do today, Char?” I asked.

  “I always work in laundry because I’m the only one who seems to know how to use the sewing machine.”

  “I’m surprised they let you use one,” I said.

  “They post a guard in there, and believe me they count the needles.”

  “I believe someone ran the sewing machine while you were on the outside, Char,” Velma said with a sly smile.

  “Velma and me picked up trash in the yard. The warden might give us permission to plant flowers, but she hasn’t given us the go ahead yet,” Yolanda volunteered.

  “That would certainly brighten up the place,” I said.

  After lunch the five of us walked outside for our yard time. I have a feeling there is safety in numbers. Still, it could have been anyone messing with my towel in the showers last night.

  Mary was talking to a group of inmates who threw their arms skyward and stomped their feet.

  “This is a bunch of bull,” one of them shouted.

  “It’s out of my hands,” Mary said, “and that’s all I have to say about the matter. We’ll all have to wait until next week.”

  I focused on the ground so as not to make eye contact with Mary. I picked up a few candy wrappers, depositing them into the trash can. I had thought that Yolanda and Velma cleaned the yard already. Perhaps they hadn’t finished, or perhaps the inmates were slobs.

  “Mary is getting flak now,” Yolanda said. “I heard she didn’t get her shipment.”

  “There are going to be a lot of pissed off inmates,” Velma said.

  “Serves them right,” Char added. “If they get hooked on that garbage she peddles, that’s what they get.”

  “We’re talking drugs here, right?” I asked in a near whisper.

  “Yeah, it’s not hard to figure out.”

  I was shocked at Char’s tone. “Don’t you feel bad about inmates who are addicted to drugs?”

  “Why should I?”

  “Don’t some of them rely on drugs to get by in here?”

  “Drugs can be a physical addiction,” Eleanor added.

  “How do you two know so much about the subject?” Char shot back.

  “You don’t think we were straight when we decided to rob a bank and steal a car at our age do you?” I asked. “I’m ashamed to admit I became addicted to Oxycontin after a car accident,” I lied. “It wasn’t fun in jail trying to kick that stuff. I’m just glad that I did.”

  Char cocked a brow. “So you’re saying what Mary does is fine in your book?”

  “No, but I understand the dependency.”

  “What jail were you in anyway?”

  Oh no, now I did it. “The Iosco County Jail.”

  Eleanor shot me a look, but I realized my mistake too late.

  “Do you live in Iosco County?” Char asked suspiciously.

  “No, we were just passing through.”

  “It seems like that would have been on the news. Two old ladies holding up a bank I mean.”

  “The sheriff there wanted to keep it quite because it’s a tourist town,” I insisted.

  “So it happened in Tawas?” Yolanda asked. “My mother spends her summers in Tawas. It’s no wonder the sheriff wanted to keep it quiet. My mother goes to Tawas to enjoy the crime-free atmosphere.”

  The loud tone signaling the end of yard time startled me. My heart was throbbing so hard that I thought they could all hear it. I might have made a blunder too big to recover from. If the inmates figured out who we really were, it might go bad for us. They’d find out we have helped put people behind bars!

  Eleanor and I splashed water on our faces in the bathroom.

  “Agnes … .”

  “I know.”

  We needed no other words. Eleanor was the first person I made friends with when I moved to Iosco County. I only hoped we wouldn’t meet our end in this prison.

  We were reading in our cell when Schulze knocked on the open door and motioned for us to follow her. I was glad we had been summoned so soon after yard time. It would help if I could regroup.

  Schulze led us into an office and then left with a stiff smile. We sat down and tried to relax, but I had an ache in my chest. Warden Geyer poked her head inside. “Officer Barlow will be right in.”

  “At least we don’t have to wait long,” I said.

  “Who is leading the questioning?”

  “I thought I could. You can jump in anytime you like.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  The door opened and Officer Barlow dragged her feet all the way to the indicated chair. She interlaced her fingers until her knuckles loudly cracked while staring at me.

  “Officer Barlow, thank you for coming,” I began.

  “Like I had a choice.”

  “Very well, then. Tell us why Lopez took your place yesterday to watch over us?”

  She leaned forward. “You made it clear that you didn’t want me to supervise your work.”

  “Yes, but you also made it clear that’s exactly what you planned to do.”

  “Why would you have an inmate oversee the work of another one?” Eleanor asked. “Do you have something to h
ide?”

  “No,” she growled. “Lopez is a trustee and has certain privileges. She often supervises other inmates.”

  “In the office area?” I asked.

  Her eyebrows knitted. “I have no idea whether Lopez has supervised anyone in the office area before.”

  “Perhaps you should make a point of knowing,” I suggested. “Isn’t the warden’s lounge kept locked?”

  “Usually.”

  “Why wasn’t it yesterday?” Eleanor demanded. “Who opened that door?”

  My eyes widened at Eleanor’s determined face without a hint of the familiar smile.

  Barlow shook her head. “I knew this was a mistake.”

  Somehow I had to play good cop. “Just answer the question,” I said kindly.

  “Fine. So I might have unlocked the door for Lopez.”

  “Please be clear. You might have unlocked it or you did unlock it?” I asked.

  “I can’t remember.”

  “But that was only yesterday,” Eleanor said. “How could you have forgotten a detail like that?”

  Barlow folded her arms now. “I don’t have to answer your questions. I’m over this,” she said as she moved to stand.

  “According to the deputy director you do. Of course, you’re within your rights to speak with him about the matter. But I can’t say it will go well for you. He gave us permission to question you,” I said.

  “I unlocked it for Lopez. Are you happy now?”

  “No need to be hostile.”

  “I’d like to know why?” Eleanor asked, “if Lopez was supposed to supervise us in your stead.”

  “Because it’s comfortable to sit in there. The warden always has doughnuts and coffee.”

  My eyes widened. “I was under the impression that the warden was out yesterday until Lopez’s body was discovered.”

  “You’d have to ask her that. Good luck with that, by the way.”

  “Let’s get back to you, Barlow. Where did you go when Lopez took over?”

  “I went to the break room. We had a potluck yesterday.”

  “And did Dr. Franks go with you?”

  “No.”

  “But you came back together,” Eleanor pointed out.

  “Yes, we walked up the hallway together. He always goes to his car for a cigarette break.”