Undercover Prison King novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Welcome Home

He did not go to the infirmary until the evening count was over.

The ward was dim and nearly empty, a single lamp burning in the glass office at the end.

Lorena sat behind the desk with her glasses off and her hands flat on the blotter.

She looked up when he came in, and she did not smile.

"He knew you," she said.

Sawyer stopped in the doorway.

"The orderly saw the visit. Ten minutes through the glass with the chief executive."

She stood.

"Ernest Harlan has never once come near this place. He doesn't make time for a line cook."

"He wanted to know if I had a complaint."

"Don't."

Her voice was tired, not angry.

"I'm sorry. I should have told you in my notes, in the hall, in the bed. I wanted to a hundred times."

"Told me what?"

She came around the desk slowly and stopped an arm's length from him.

"Welcome home, Mr. Harlan."

The room did not move.

Somewhere deep in the ward a monitor ticked off one second and another.

"Say that again," Sawyer said.

"Sawyer Harlan, thirty-three. Former Army combat engineer."

She said it flatly.

"A burn scar down the left forearm, a castle on the right arm. Son of Silas Harlan, who built this place."

She paused.

"The only man alive who can open the records room."

"Since when?"

"Since you came through the door on the first day. I knew you by the way you stood."

His mouth had gone dry.

"Your father wrote to me," Lorena said.

"My father."

"Six weeks before he died. Three months after I filed my complaint about Dale with the state medical board."

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