Page 54 of Rat

“It was a waste of time coming today,” Morris mumbled, then she sighed. “Do you really not have any new information, anything at all?”

Rory frowned at his lap, then lifted his head. “He’s got a phone.”

Morris rushed towards him. “See, that’s the kind of stuff you should be telling us.”

“I haven’t heard him use it, though, and I don’t know where he hides it, but I know he’s got one.”

Rory had been the one to pull it from the fake rat after all.

“We need that phone,” Hamish said. “I’ll talk to the governor, get the officers to search the cell.”

“What if he doesn’t keep it in the cell?” Morris asked.

“Then it’ll be up to Rory to find out where he does keep it. It’ll have contacts, messages.” Hamish rubbed his chin. “We need that phone, understand?”

Rory nodded. “Yeah, I understand.”

Hamish snapped his fingers. “Phone.”

Morris held the mobile out to Rory, who smiled at the thought of speaking to his sister. Her voice, her chatter, it was a stress reliever. Hamish left the room, Morris stayed, and Rory relaxed into his chair, greeting his sister with the predictable, “Hey Eric…”

Ollie was waiting at the gate. He grinned when Rory stepped back on the wing.

“Lawyer again?”

Rory nodded.

“Captain’s already in the gym.” Ollie checked his watch. “We’ve got thirty minutes until they bang us up again.”

“We’d better make the most of it then.”

Ollie nodded. “Hell yeah. I beat you yesterday.”

“You’ve been training with Captain longer, and remember, I was stabbed.”

Ollie rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you said that yesterday, a lot, especially after I got you in that headlock.”

“It wasn’t my finest hour, and it didn’t make me feel any better when Teddy gave you a standing ovation.”

Ollie grinned brighter. “He was proud of me.”

Captain and Zeke were engaged in intense conversation when they arrived. Zeke looked up, then excused himself.

“We didn’t mean to interrupt,” Rory said.

Captain shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay. He’s trying to convince me to see the therapist again, says it helped him.”

“And?”

Captain rocked back on his heels. “I can still picture how frightened he looked when I started yelling. Maybe…maybe in a few weeks, I’ll have the guts to apologize.”

“Don’t wait that long,” Rory mumbled.

“Anyway, come on, stretches first…”

Ollie was wiping the floor with him, quite literally. Rory panted and made a time-out sign with his hands.

“You’re getting better,” Captain said.

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