Bad Moon On The Rise (24 page)

I wasn’t even sure he’d heard
me.

“
What is it?” I asked,
brushing my fingers against the side of his hand. It was so warm, I
wanted to cry.

“
I’m from here,” he
explained. “This is my mountain. The feds think this ring is local,
that the roots run deep here. They’re not going to believe I’m not
involved. I wouldn’t believe it either.”

“
They have to believe
you,” I whispered furiously.

“
No, they don’t,” he said.
“And, trust me, they may not.”

I sat in a silent panic as the whole
mess played out in my mind like a bad movie: Shep going down for
the conspiracy charges, the guards turning on him, testifying
against him in exchange for reduced sentences, knowing full well
that the real culprits were going free. And me? Me being
transferred to someone else’s supervision within the system where
it would take weeks, maybe months, to establish my real identity
and to prove the charges against me involved a man who doesn’t even
exist.

I couldn’t last another day in here,
much less a month.

I had to get in touch with Bobby.
Bobby was all I had. If Shep couldn’t help me, Bobby D. was all I
had.

Bobby. Bobby had the tape I’d made of
my conversation with Shep. That tape did more than prove my
innocence. It did more than prove I was in prison undercover—that
tape proved Shep was innocent as well. He had talked about his own
investigation. It was clear he wasn’t involved. Sure, someone might
argue that the tape had been staged, but it might be enough to
dislodge some stubborn fed’s opinion, at least. It might be enough
to get Shep off the hook for long enough to get me out of
here.

“
I taped our
conversation,” I said, too loudly. We both looked toward the
window. The guard was leaning against a wall, eyes closed, as if he
were asleep.

“
Which
conversation?”

“
The one on the mountain.
I trust you remember? When I agreed to go undercover for
you.”

“
You taped us without my
knowledge?” He sounded pissed.

“
Yes,” I said defensively.
“And it might save your ass. Take the tape to the feds. Let them
listen to it. It’ll convince them you aren’t involved. And it will
get me the hell out of here.”

Shep’s mouth curved in the oddest way,
as he could not decide whether to smile or bite someone.

“
What?” I mumbled. “Don’t
look at me that way.”

“
I love you, Casey,” he
said, taking one of my hands. “I love every inch of your suspicious
little mind.”

“
My mind?” I
complained.

“
And every inch of your
suspicious little body, too,” he assured me.

Cool. I could live with
that.

“
I have to call Bobby,” I
told him. “He won’t give the tape to you until I tell him to. And
he’ll want to make a copy of it first.”

“
Call him,” he said. He
nodded toward the window. “I’ll get the guard to let you make a
call.”

“
If I know Bobby, he’s
still at breakfast. He’ll be in a good mood. How long until I get
out of here?”

Shep frowned.

“
How long?” I asked
again.

“
Look, I’m not a sheriff
right now. I’m a suspect. Even if I can get someone to listen to
the tape, they’ll still have to verify everything I say, then check
out that you’re who you say you are. They’ll need to verify that
you’re a licensed private investigator, but that’s just a phone
call and shouldn’t take long.” He noticed my expression. “What? I’m
not going to like this, am I?”

“
I’m not exactly a
licensed private investigator,” I mumbled reluctantly.

“
Why not? A dead dog could
get a P.I. license in this state.”

“
Not if it has a record.
And I do have a record. In Florida. It happened over fifteen years
ago.”

“
For what?” he asked
grimly.

“
Felony drug charges. I
did a year and a half. I’m in the system.”

“
You’re in more than
that.” He looked angry. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“
I was a different person
back then, it was a different life. I left it all behind a long
time ago. It has nothing to do with this.”

Shep shook his head. “Casey, I’ll be
lucky if I can get you out of here in a month. Forget any national
databases, they’re going to do a state-by-state search to make sure
you have no outstanding warrants, and they’ll do god knows what
else to slow it down. No one is going to give a crap about
expediting it now that they know you have a record. You are now
officially at the mercy of the paper pushers. You should have told
me.”

“
A month?” I repeated,
horrified. I jerked my hand away from his. “I can’t do four weeks
in here. It was a mistake to try four days. I need to get out
now.”

He read the panic in my face. “Just
call Bobby,” he said softly. “Tell him I need that tape. Once I’m
cleared, I’ll do everything I can for you.” 

“
How do I know I can
believe you?” I asked bitterly. I wasn’t angry at Shep. I was angry
at myself, for what I had done so long ago, and all for such an
unworthy person as my worthless ex-husband. I wondered if I would
ever really be able to leave it all behind. Because the world sure
didn’t want me to.

“
You don’t have a choice,”
Shep pointed out. “You have to trust me. But I promise you this,
Casey. And I want you to listen to me very, very carefully.” He
leaned toward me until his mouth was barely an inch from my ear. I
could feel his warm breath against my skin and it made me not only
shiver, it made me want to cry with an overpowering longing to be
in a safe place with him, a place like his cabin on a sunlit
morning.

“
I will move heaven, if I
have to,” Shep whispered in my ear. “Or I will move hell. I will
move this mountain itself to get you out of here. You have my
word.”

Shep had been right—the guard agreed
to take me to the common room for a quick phone call. The rest of
the women were still at breakfast and the room seemed eerily quiet,
as if any conversation I attempted on the phone might echo to every
corner of the cavernous room. I headed for the bank of telephones
against one wall. The guard watched me closely from the doorway,
even though Shep had stuck around to divert his attention while I
talked to Bobby.

I said a pray and dialed. The
reception was so terrible on Bobby’s end I could barely understand
him when he answered.

“
Bobby,” I whispered
frantically, “Can you hear me? Can you hear me?”

There was big gulp on the other end
then his voice came through as clearly as if he were standing right
next to me. “Of course I can hear you. I was just finishing my corn
cakes. They’re quite excellent. Bunny puts a little…”

“
It can wait,” I
interrupted. “I need your help now.”

“
Anything,
babe.”

“
Give Shep the tape I made
on the mountain.”

“
No,” he said.

“
What?” I asked, the panic
returning.

“
I’m not giving him my
only copy of the tape.”

“
Fine,” I hissed. “Make a
copy, then give him the original. It might be sent to a lab, so
it’s got to be the original. Please, I’m begging you.”

“
Just give me an hour to
make a copy and it’s his. I’ll even drop it by his office on a
silver platter. Dare I ask why I’m doing this?”

“
No,” I said. “And here’s
why: I’m going to tell you about it in person. Because I have to
get out of here. Today. What can you do? There has to be something
you can do.”

“
I’m not a real lawyer,
Case,” he started to say. “I’m not up to speed on how
to—“

“
I don’t care how you do
it.” I glanced over my shoulder. The guard looked impatient and was
only half listening to whatever Shep was telling him. “Bobby, this
is the most serious thing I have ever said to you: you have to get
me out of here. By any means possible.”

There was a silence on the other end,
then I heard laughter. The bastard was actually laughing at
me.

“
How dare you?” I said
before he cut me off.

“
Relax. I’m laughing
because I’ve got an idea. Oh, it’s a sweet one. I hope I have
enough time.” There was a brief silence and I wanted to scream with
impatience. Hope. He was giving me hope and I needed to grab onto
it now.

“
What is it?” I
practically yelled. 

“
It’s better you don’t
know.”

“
Don’t know what?” I
asked. The panic was coming back, it was inching its way toward my
brain. Was I insane? Did I not know, better than anyone, what
harebrained schemes Bobby could come up with? What was I agreeing
to?

“
What time is exercise
time?” he asked me. “When you’re out in the yard?”

“
From four to five. Unless
something happens, like you come to visit waving some piece of
paper that says I can get the fuck out of here. Which is what you
really need to figure out how to do.”

“
Be in the exercise yard
this afternoon,” he told me, a curious confidence in his voice.
“Dress warmly.”

“
Dress warmly?” I asked
incredulously. “You think they hand out mukluks around here or
something?”

“
Dress as warmly as you
can,” he corrected himself. “Find an empty spot in the yard, near
the fence. Scan the perimeter.”

“
Scan the perimeter? What
the fuck does that mean?” I asked. “Scan the perimeter of
what?”

“
The mountain,” Bobby
said. “Check the edge of the trees on the perimeter of the prison
grounds. I’ll be hard to spot, probably in camouflage.”

Bobby in camouflage? Not so hard to
miss, actually. “Okay,” I said dubiously. What choice did I have?
“I’ll scan the perimeter for Commander Kurtz minus the jungle
natives. What then?”

“
It’s best you not
know.”

“
How can it possibly be
best that I don’t know?” This time I did scream into the phone,
which was a mistake. The guard was moving toward me.

“
I’ve got to go,” I
whispered. “Just give Shep the tape. And get me out of here.
Please. I’m begging you as my friend, Bobby. Please get me out of
here.”

“
Be outside at four,” he
said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

Oh, sweet Jesus god, what was I
getting myself into? I hung up the phone and leaned against the
wall.

“
Life sucks and then you
die,” the guard said cheerfully. He took my arm and guided me
toward the door. “Your favor is up. Time to get back to
work.”

I looked around, needing to see Shep,
but he had disappeared. I thought I knew why. Word would start to
get out any moment inside the prison that he was no longer acting
sheriff.

Oh, god, I thought, as I trudged back
toward the kitchen. My fate was in Bobby D.’s big fat,
chocolate-stained, sausage-fingered, catcher’s mitt hands now.
Would he come through?

The day crawled by. I sought refuge in
the kitchen, scrubbing pots so furiously that Peppa stopped to
stare at me.

“
What?” I asked. “Prefer
them dirty? I can always just leave this two inch crust of black
shit on them to flavor the next pot of beans.”

“
What happened this
morning?” she asked. “Who was here to see you?”

“
I can’t tell you,” I
said, realizing I sounded like a total bitch and that none of it
was Peppa’s fault. “I mean, I could tell you—but it’s better for
you that you don’t know.”

“
Let me take a wild guess:
you could tell me, but then you’d have to kill me?”

“
Something like
that.”

“
You hear about the
sheriff?” she asked, watching me closely.

“
What sheriff?”

“
The Bartow County
sheriff,” she said. “Tall, tan white dude. Not as much of a jerk as
some of them.”

I shrugged as if unconcerned, but my
heart was hammering in my chest. “What about him?”

“
Feds got him. Say that he
might be behind that thing I told you about. I never would have
thought it. He was okay. For a sheriff.”

Her gaze was making me uncomfortable.
“So?” I asked.

“
So, does that make much
sense to you?” she said. “You think he’s part of it. The leader or
something?”

“
How should I
know?”

“
Thought you might be
working with him. He’s the one who checked you into this place,
right?”

“
I work alone,” I said
glumly.

“
Sure you do,” Peppa said.
“We all do.”

I didn’t say anything back and she
just shrugged. “Well,” she told me, “you just keep on working on
those pots, L.D., ya’ hear?”

“
Thanks, I will,” I
mumbled, ashamed of myself for making it obvious that I did not
trust her.

I avoided everyone after that, taking
to my cell once work detail was done. I climbed up on my bed and
lay there, feeling the minutes tick by, as silent and withdrawn as
my roommate, Risa, who lay in her characteristic stupor on the
bottom bunk, staring into the shadows.