Chapter 14 - The Price of Being Believed
Jo looked smaller under a white hospital sheet. Her left arm rested in a brace. The nurse adjusted the oxygen tube and stepped outside, leaving Naomi in the corner with her official recorder visible.
"You shouldn't be here," I told Jo. "Not like this."
"And you shouldn't be in orange," she answered. "Life keeps disappointing us."
She squeezed my hand. "It was Officer Brant. He was the one who brought the blanket to intake. I thought he was helping. He said Mina's things would finally reach somebody who understood the reports."
"Then he threw you down the stairs?"
"He wanted to know whether I'd told you about Locker Seventeen. When I wouldn't answer, he grabbed me. I slipped. He didn't help me get up. I heard him call Marr before anybody called medical."
"Why would he give me the blanket at all?"
"Because he was supposed to get it back. They needed you to take possession of it first. Make you look like the person hiding contraband."
I sat back. That explained why the blanket had arrived in my intake bag, why Dee had been sent after me, why a prepared statement existed before the confrontation. It hadn't been a clumsy attempt to scare me. It was a trap with a camera, a planted memory card, and my name on the paperwork.
Jo pulled at my sleeve. "Listen. Mina didn't just track medicine. She found out why your report never reached the board. Marr asked HalePoint to put your name on the invoices after you'd already flagged them."
"How do you know?"
"Mina heard Brant bragging about it. I didn't tell you because I thought you might be part of it. Then I saw you refuse Dee."
Jo's eyes filled. "I was ashamed I waited."
"You're telling the truth now."
Naomi's radio chirped. She stepped outside, returned immediately, and said, "The warden has ordered an emergency facility sweep. Every prisoner in this wing is being moved."
May you like
Jo gripped my hand so tightly it hurt.
"That's how they moved Mina," she whispered. "The night she died."
