“Officer Dodd, I’m Det. Cameron and this is Det. Fallon,” Cam says. “We were the ones who found you at the prison. We wanted to ask you a few questions about your attack.”
Dodd tries to prop himself up using his good hand, but doesn’t have the strength. The other hand comes out from under the sheet. It’s wrapped in white gauze with a net over it. There are a few yellow spots where the ointments have leaked through. At least I think they’re ointments. “Um, okay,” Dodd says, still groggy.
Cam sits in the chair by his bedside, and I pull out my notepad. “We’ll try and make this as fast as possible, okay? What can you tell us about the night you were attacked?” I ask.
“Everything was normal. Everything was fine,” he says through the drug haze. “We’d just checked on the inmates.”
“You and Stu Moore?” Cam asks.
“Yeah. I was in the office reading a magazine, when I heard Stu shout something, I don’t know what. I checked the monitor. Alkaline was out. He stood across from Moore, something coming from his wrist. Then Stu’s head, um…” The boy can’t finish. As part of Alkaline’s sentence, the holes where Ryder’s acid reserves spring out, through the extra hollow bones in his wrists, were surgically closed. It must have hurt like hell when the bone pushed through.
“Where was Stu when this happened?” I ask.
“By Alkaline’s cell. Where he died.”
“How did Alkaline get out?” I ask in hopes of sparing the poor kid.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t watching the monitors. I should have been when Stu was walking the block, but…” Dodd tears up. “I don’t know.”
“What happened next?” Cam asks.
“I ran out there. But…he got me. I couldn’t think. He had Stu’s gun on me. I was so freaked, I forgot to pull mine. He told me to take off my uniform and give him my card key. I did.”
“And then?”
“He said ‘Thank you.’ He took the card, smiled, and then…it came out of his wrist again. That bone, and then the acid. It hurt so bad.” He’s crying now, almost sobbing. “My hand. It just fell off. I’ve never felt anything like that in my life. That’s the last thing I remember.”
“I think that’s enough for now,” the doctor says.
“Just a few more questions,” Cam says, “please. Is that okay, Logan?”
“I guess,” Dodd says, trying to calm himself down. He takes a few deep breaths. “I want this over with.”
“Were any of the guards particularly attentive to Alkaline?” Cam asks.
“I don’t know,” he says, “I noticed he had an extra brownie for desert once.”
“Any idea who gave it to him?”
“Maybe Stu, I don’t know. It was like a month ago.”
“Did he ever speak to you? Alkaline?” I ask.
“We weren’t allowed to talk to him. He never even tried with me.”
“Did you ever see Officer Moore talk to him?” Cam asks.
Dodd is quiet for a second. “I don’t think so. I don’t know! I don’t know how he got out! When are you going to find him? He—he’s gonna come back and finish me off! Why haven’t you caught him yet?” The kid has gone wild, trying to kick his covers off.
Dr. Sharma steps over to him, acting as a buffer between us and Dodd. “Okay,” the doctor says, “that is more than enough.”
“He’s gonna kill me!” Dodd shouts, near hysterics.
“You have protection,” I say.
“Leave. Now,” Sharma says.
The big, bad police walk out just as Sharma injects a drug into Dodd’s IV. I rip off the stifling protection in frustration. “You woke me up for that?” I ask with a sigh.
“Could have gone better,” Cam says.
“They’re not going to let us back in there,” I say, “not until he’s discharged. Not that it matters. He didn’t see shit.”
“Or he’s lying and he’s the one who let Ryder out,” Cam says.
“We’re not going to find out anytime soon. They won’t let us press him, and we’re running out of time. If that psycho isn’t about to do something heinous, then I’m a supermodel.”
We start walking down the hall toward the elevators. I punch the button hard enough to break it. “You need to chill,” Cam says. “You’ll get an ulcer.”
“You sound like Justin,” I say. The elevator doors open and we step in. “I’m being held together by coffee and adrenaline. If I chill, I’ll fall to the ground and start babbling like an idiot.”