Page 142 of After Anna

Kathy stood up, touching Maggie’s arm. “Honey, you know what? Maybe they’re right. Maybe we should just go to the hotel, check in, take a shower, and wait it out.”

Maggie turned to her, confused. “Why should we let them off the hook? They have all the information. They’re barely lifting a finger, and that’s okay with you?”

Kathy put an arm around her. “Maggie, listen. We’ve had a long day, and this has been upsetting. We can call the Chief after a good night’s sleep. I think we need to decompress and debrief.”

“You do?” Maggie asked, nonplussed.

“Yep, let’s get Caleb and go.” Kathy shouldered her purse and started shaking everybody’s hands. “Gentlemen, thank you so much. We know you’ll do your best to find Anna and that you’ll stay in touch with us.”

“Thank you.” Roger smiled tightly, shaking Kathy’s hand.

“Yes, thank you.” Whitaker shook Kathy’s hand, then offered his hand to Maggie. “Maggie?”

“I’ll be damned if I’ll shake your hand!” Maggie snatched up her phone and purse.

“Gentlemen, thank you, bye.” Kathy tugged Maggie from the office, collected Caleb from the waiting room, and hustled them all out of the Administration Rotunda into the cold and dark.

“You want to go to thehotel?” Maggie stopped her under the portico, zipping up her coat.

Kathy looked back slyly. “How long have you known me, girl? I got an idea.”

“What is it?”

“Race me to the car.”

“Me first!” Caleb called out, taking off.

Chapter Sixty-nine

Noah, After

Noah experienced the night as a horrible blur, COs running into the cell, taking the dead inmate away, locking down the cellblock, and taking him, Peach, and the other inmate into the security wing for questioning. Police and prison officials interrogated Noah for hours, and he told them what had happened, except about the contraband needle. He’d grabbed the needle off the floor during those first moments of confusion, palmed it, and dropped it in the hallway outside the cellblock.

They finished questioning Noah by dawn, deciding not to write him up because they credited his account that he didn’t know about the fight or that their cell door was unlocked. He hadn’t been given a chance to coordinate his story with Peach, but they’d been in jail long enough to know not to snitch. The higher-ups knew that Noah had just arrived at the prison, which gave credence to his story, and they had an internal problem, since a CO must have intentionally left their cell door unlocked. Noah assumed it had been CO Evesham, unless a different CO had done it after he and Peach had fallen asleep. He’d heard the stories of guards who would leave a cell door unlocked at night, looking the other way so the inmates could fight, sell drugs, or have sex. In any event, it wasn’t his problem.

But during the process, Noah had had the realization that hehad no control overanything. He had always been the guy who had everything in control, even in medical school. That was what his notetaking had been about, and the belief that hard work would lead to success and happiness, as if to control the process was to control the outcome. But there was no logical relationship between process and outcome, in life. And it had taken everything that had happened to him to arrive at that understanding, starting with Anna’s moving in and ending at Graterford, being questioned about another life he hadn’t been able to save. But learning that lesson had cost him Maggie, Caleb, and his freedom.

Hisfamily.

By morning, Noah was permitted to shower and change, with a CO posted. But Noah didn’t trust even him. The COs would be no friends of his, now that he’d caused one of them to be disciplined or fired. He began to feel shaken by the violence he’d seen. He couldn’t get the images out of his head, and now that he knew he had no control, he felt even more vulnerable.

He was escorted to breakfast late and hustled down the hall to the cafeteria. By then, the prison was no longer on lockdown, because lockdown at mealtimes was a logistical nightmare, since inmates had to be fed in their cells, requiring extra manpower that strained personnel and budget.

Noah entered the cafeteria and joined the back of the line, grabbing a tray, plastic cutlery, and a napkin, glancing behind him, reflexively. The cafeteria was a long rectangle with stainless steel tables and the same grimy cinder-block walls. COs were stationed along the wall, entrance, and exit, and Noah guessed they had extra guards because of the murder, but it didn’t reassure him.

The line shifted forward, and so did Noah, moving his tray along and eyeing the powdered eggs, gloppy chipped beef, and white bread. He lifted his plate and accepted the food, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see inmates beginning to notice him, their heads turning to check him out. Noah was willing to bet they knew more about the murder than he did. Only during his interrogation did he find out the name of the inmate who had been killed. Jeremy Black.

Noah reached the end of the line, taking a carton of milk. He turned to the tables, which were beginning to empty, the inmates looking back at him as they left, their expressions hard. He spotted an empty table on the left, so he walked over, sat down with his tray, and dug into his eggs, which were lukewarm and oversalted.

Noah started on his chipped beef, and a brawny inmate sat down across from him with his tray. The man’s head was shaved and tattooed with tribal markings, and he had narrow-set brown eyes and a lower lip that jutted forward from an underbite.

“Hey,” the inmate said quietly.

“Hi.” Noah gulped down another forkful of chipped beef. The guards were looking over, their heads turning.

“Name’s John Drover.”

“Noah Alderman.” Noah could see the guards coming over, but he didn’t understand why.