Death Row novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Real Number

The knock came through the vent at six in the morning.

Three soft raps, then a pause, then three more.

I was off my bunk and on my knees at the grate before I was awake.

"Dorrie?"

"Good morning, Leah." Her voice was hoarse and dry, and it was the best sound I had heard in four days. "They gave me my cell back. I didn't even have to ask."

"Why?"

"Ask the officer."

The officer with the cross came by with the breakfast cart a little later.

She slid my tray through the slot and spoke to the wall behind me.

"Hauck gave the lab page to a woman at the state paper," she said. "It ran last night online. Dean Fell, the dead man's print, the cup banging on this tier."

"Is it big?"

"The warden's phone has rung since five. Somebody upstairs decided isolation looked bad."

She moved the cart on.

I ate every bite of the oatmeal.

Marlene came at ten.

She didn't wear black this time, only a gray coat, buttoned to the throat, and her hair was pulled back hard.

She sat down in the booth, and she did not pick up the phone until I did.

"I read the paper," she said.

"Did Dean?"

"He doesn't read the paper."

"Then you told him."

"I told him what you said." Her eyes held mine. "I told him about the ledger."

"What does he say?"

"He says there's no ledger."

I leaned back.

"He's right that you're not the sort of woman who takes things," she said. "You never were. You asked permission to use the good towels."

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