Page 76 of Captive Hearts
Twenty-Nine
‘Sweet Jesus, did you get that?’ Ashley asked.
‘Of course I got it, what do you think I’m doing, filming my shoes?’ Gina said. ‘Is that a cut, by the way?’
‘I reckon. They dragged the guy off to solitary, I think the fight’s over,’ Ashley said.
Gina dropped her camera off her shoulder, holding it down by her side. She hoped they might knock off now. It had been a long morning.
‘How much battery you got left,’ Ashley asked. ‘Might go and talk to the loser of that fight?’
Gina tutted. ‘Do youevertake a break?’
‘He’s still bleeding through the nose. I think you’ll have to leave it for now,’ the prison guard said.
Ashley sighed. ‘Yeah, fine.’
Gina nudged Ashley in the ribs. ‘I’m starving, I want lunch.’
‘You can just get something from the prison cafeteria.’
Gina fixed her with a look.
‘Fine, sorry, we’ll leave it there if you like. Go somewhere proper to eat,’ Ashley said repentantly.
Gina smiled. ‘That’s more like it.’
Ashley turned to the guard. ‘So, we’ll be calling it a day, Mike, OK?’
‘You coming back tomorrow?’ the guard asked.
‘I’m coming back every day until my access is revoked,’ she told the guy with a cheeky grin. ‘I wanna get the whole male prison experience, really get in deep.’
The guard looked baffled by that. Then he remembered something. ‘Oh, the warden said yes on Steven Peace, by the way.’
Ashley gave a small whoop.
Gina’s eyes went wide. ‘Oh. I was kind of hoping he wouldn’t grant usquiteas much access as that.’
‘Peace is never getting out,’ Ashley assured her. ‘He was given a hundred and fifty years for what he did.’
Gina shuddered. ‘That’s what bothers me. I mean, what he did to those cows alone… And that thing with the meat cleaver and the tricycle?’
Ashley raised an eyebrow. ‘Gina, come on. We go…’
‘…Where the story is. I know. You don’t have to keep saying it.’
Ashley smiled. ‘Maybe I like saying it. The “we” part. It was always “I” before. Nice to have a plural.’
‘Plurals can be nice,’ Gina agreed.
They left the prison and got in the van. As Gina drove through the prison gates, Ashley checked her phone.
‘Anything interesting?’ Gina asked, turning up the road in the direction of town.
‘Just another job offer,’ Ashley said dismissively. ‘I’ll send them my generic rejection.’
Gina smiled to herself. It had been a long time since Jimmy’s Pizza. A lot had changed.
