Chapter 1 - The Blanket

"Give me the blanket, new girl."

The woman blocking my sunlight was built like a refrigerator and wore a smile that made every other prisoner in the courtyard look away. Darlene Knox. They called her Dee. I had been inside East Briar Women's Correctional Facility for forty-three hours, but I already knew her name.

I pulled the gray blanket closer around my shoulders. "No."

A plastic chess piece clicked against concrete somewhere behind us. The courtyard went quiet.

"You think I asked?" Dee said.

"I heard you."

She bent close enough for me to smell mint gum on her breath. "This is how things work. I take something. You learn to behave. Everybody gets to go eat lunch."

I glanced at the camera mounted above the recreation door. Its black eye faced the basketball court. Every eleven seconds, it swept back over our bench.

"You've got about eight seconds," I told her.

"Until what?"

"Until you do something you'll regret."

She grabbed the blanket. I kept hold of the other end. Her fingers closed over my wrist, and I felt the old fear climb my throat. I swallowed it. The camera motor hummed.

Dee yanked hard. I slid off the bench, caught myself on one knee, and heard someone shout, "Leave her alone!"

The camera turned. Dee raised her fist.

"Now," I said.

"KNOX! HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!"

Officer Callie Ortiz came through the recreation door at a run. Dee let go as if she'd touched a hot stove. Ortiz separated us, made Dee back away, and checked my wrist. The camera's red recording light glowed over her shoulder.

"I told you not to start anything," Ortiz said quietly to Dee.

"She attacked me."

"I watched the whole thing."

For the first time, Dee looked uncertain. I thought it was over. Then Lieutenant Graham Pike appeared beside the door. He looked past Dee, past Ortiz, straight at the blanket clutched against my chest.

His face drained of color.

"Mercer," he said. "Where did you get that?"

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Before I could answer, he spoke into his radio.

"Lock down the yard. Nobody leaves until I have that blanket."