Page 48 of Fighting for Tawny

“Possibly. And I believe the fire camp is part of what Stoltz, Cohen, Jones, and Whitcomb are doing.”

“Drugs. It’s always about drugs,” Terrin declared. “Under the former warden, they weren’t coming into the prison.”

“That’s what we think,” Tawny agreed.

“What do we do now?” Yolanda and Terrin gazed at her expectantly.

“We watch out for the others. And we wait for the next piece of the puzzle to fall into place.”

After lunch, Tawny ran a martial arts session. It helped release their excess energy and tension. She assigned them partners and had each pair practice sparring as she moved among them, correcting their form, making suggestions, and praising their technique. In the middle of the session, a police car drove into the yard. An officer opened one of the back doors, and Joy and Precious jumped out. The group rushed to embrace them.

While they led Joy and Precious into the bunkhouse, Moira stayed behind to speak with the officer. Joy and Precious appeared pale and tired, with dark circles beneath their eyes. They plopped down onto chairs, and Yolanda handed them bottles of water.

“Are you hungry?” she asked. “I could fix you something to eat.”

“Nah. We’re good. Mr. McAdams brought us lunch before we were released,” Joy replied.

“What happened after the cops took you?”

“Could we talk about this after we take a shower? We stink,” Precious stated.

“Yeah, sure.”

Precious grabbed clean clothes off her bunk and went into the bathroom. Joy did the same but took her bundle to Bunkhouse B to shower and change. When they joined the others twenty minutes later, their color had returned, though they still bore the physical signs of their ordeal. The dark circles remained prominent beneath their eyes, and their movements were slow. Yolanda set a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies in the center of the table, and everyone nibbled on them as they listened to Joy and Precious’ story.

“That mean sheriff, Sheriff O’Grady, sent four of his goons to haul us to jail after he heard about Colfer,” Joy began.

“He swore he’d make us pay for killing a corrections officer,” Precious continued. “He put us in two different rooms and hounded us to confess and turn on each other.”

“We were dyin’ of thirst, had to pee, too, but he wouldn’t let us. When we complained, he said we didn’t have any civil rights because we’re already prisoners of the state.”

“Sheriff O’Grady said he could do what he wanted with us.”

Tawny’s gut twisted with disgust as her respect for the sheriff diminished.

“The verbal beatdown went on for hours,” Joy said. “And then, wham! Just like in the movies, that bigshot lawyer, Cameron McAdams, swooped in to save us.”

“Mr. McAdams threatened to sue the pants off Sheriff O’Grady and the entire department for what they done to us. Next thing we know, we had bottles of water and were escorted to the bathroom.”

“He made sure we were treated with respect until we were officially cleared when our fingerprints weren’t found on the rock.”

Precious gazed at Moira, who’d joined the group sitting at the table. “Thanks, Captain, for defending us. No one believed us when we said we didn’t do nothin’ to Colfer. He was a good guy, even though we called him ‘Stoneface” behind his back, and we liked him.”

“You’re welcome. But I’m curious about what happened out there. Did Colfer say anything before he disappeared?”

“Just normal conversation,” Joy replied. “But he was checkin’ his cell phone a lot like he was expectin’ a call or text, somethin’ like that.”

Tawny frowned. She didn’t recall seeing Colfer’s cell phone near his body. Perhaps it had been in his pocket at the time of his death. If it wasn’t bagged as evidence, then the murderer took it. “That’s a clue,” she remarked nonchalantly and bit into a cookie. “Maybe Mr. McAdams should look into the cell phone angle.”

“Happens in the movies all the time like that,” Joy commented. “At least that’s what Bette used to say.”

Silence descended as they remembered their former inmate.

“Anyway, Captain, we ‘preciate all you done for us, but me and Joy, we talked it over, and we’re not cut out to be firefighters.”

“Yeah, we figured Stoltz is gonna pull us out anyway, so we’re quittin’ on our terms.”

Their announcement startled everyone. Protests went around the table. Yolanda and Terrin shot concerned expressions at Tawny.

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