Chapter 17 - A Witness with Nothing Left to Sell
Dee asked to see me before evening count. By then she'd spent six hours in disciplinary holding for faking the emergency that stopped my bus. An officer stood by the gate while we spoke through the mesh.
"They offered to wipe my tickets," Dee said. "All I have to do is say I attacked you because you insulted my son."
"What are you going to say?"
She laughed without humor. "I spent twelve years telling everybody nobody could push me around. Then Pike said I could speak to Eli for twenty minutes and I did exactly what he wanted."
"You can tell the truth."
"And if they take my phone privileges? What do I tell my kid?"
"Tell him why you stood up. He deserves the truth."
She looked past my shoulder at the courtyard where our fight began. "Mina used to say being tough wasn't the same as being brave. I hated it when she said that."
Dee signed a statement in front of Naomi that night. She described Pike's promise, his specific instruction to take the blanket, and the fact that she had been told to confront me in Camera Three's blind spot. He'd gotten the timing wrong. I'd noticed the lens turning, and the officers had interrupted before he could manufacture the version of events he wanted.
Her statement was not the entire case. It was the piece that explained intent.
In the morning, Naomi showed us the camera footage from a backup copy preserved on an independent security server. Dee grabbing me. Ortiz intervening. Pike ordering the yard closed. All of it recorded, time-stamped, and now protected by a court order.
Then the video continued past the point where I'd been led inside. Pike walked toward the camera and spoke to someone offscreen.
"Marr wants the girl moved before her sister gets here. Don't let her see a lawyer."
May you like
The person who answered stepped into view.
It was Warden Nora Vale.
