“Somebody’s idea of a joke?”
“I don’t know, sir. I was wondering if… well, if it could be involved with the escape attempt somehow.”
There was a silence.
“If so,” Imhof finally said, “then we’re dealing with a more sophisticated plan than we initially assumed. But the bottom line is this: every single escapee was recaptured and is accounted for. We’ll be interrogating them in the days ahead to unravel exactly what happened.”
“One other thing troubles me,” Kidder went on. “During the escape, a morgue-mobile arrived to take Lacarra’s body away. It was kept waiting outside the gates until the Code Red came down.”
“And?”
“When the code was called off, the ambulance came in and loaded the body. The chief physician witnessed the loading and signed the papers.”
“I don’t see the problem.”
“The problem, sir, is that it wasn’t until fifteen minutes later that I found Lacarra’s body in Sidesky’s bed.”
Imhof raised his eyebrows. “So the wrong stiff got picked up in the confusion. That’s understandable. Don’t be too hard on yourself, Kidder. Just call the hospital and sort it out.”
“I did that, sir. And when I called the hospital, they said our call to pick up the body this morning was canceled right after it came in. They swear they never even sent a morgue-mobile.”
Imhof snorted. “That damn hospital is always screwing up, a dozen layers of administrators who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. Call them back in the morning, tell them we sent them the wrong stiff and they should go look for it.” He shook his head in disgust.
“But that’s just the problem, sir. We didn’t have any other corpse at Herkmoor. I can’t figure out what cadaver went to the hospital.”
“You say the chief physician signed the papers?”
“Yes. He went home at the end of his shift.”
“We’ll get a statement from him tomorrow. No doubt we’ll straighten out this confusion in the morning. Anyway, it’s tangential to the escape attempt. Let’s get on with the debriefing.”
Kidder fell silent, his face troubled.
“All right. The next question is why the yard seemed to have no supervision at the time of the breakout. My time sheets show Fecteau and Doyle were on yard 4 duty at the time of the escape. Fecteau, could you please explain your absence?”
A very nervous guard at the far end of the table cleared his voice. “Yes, sir. Officer Doyle and I had yard duty that day—”
“The nine prisoners were escorted to the yard on schedule?”
“Yes, sir. They arrived at two P.M. sharp.”
“Where were you?”
“At our yard posts, just as required.”
“So what happened?”
“Well, about five minutes later, we got the call from Special Agent Coffey.”
“Coffey called you?” Imhof was truly astonished. This was way out of line. He glanced around: Coffey still hadn’t shown up.
“Tell us about the call, Fecteau.”
“He said he needed us right away. We explained we were on yard duty, but he insisted.”
Imhof felt his anger rising. Coffey had told him nothing about this. “Tell us Agent Coffey’s exact words, please.”
Fecteau hesitated, colored. “Well, sir, he said something like ‘If you’re not here in ninety seconds, I’ll have you transferred to North Dakota.’ Something like that, sir. I tried to explain that we were the only two on yard duty, but he cut me off.”
“He threatened you?”
“Basically, yes.”
“And so you left the yard unattended, without checking with either the chief of security or me?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I thought he must have authorized it with you.”
“Why in hell, Fecteau, would I authorize the removal of the only two guards on yard duty, leaving a gang of prisoners to their own devices?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I assumed it was… because of the special prisoner.”
“The special prisoner? What are you talking about?”
“Well…” Fecteau had begun to stumble over his words. “The special prisoner who had exercise privileges in yard 4.”
“Yes, but he never made it to yard 4. He remained in his cell.”
“Um, no, sir. We saw him in yard 4.”
Imhof took a deep breath. Things were more screwed up than he had thought. “Fecteau, you’re getting confused. The prisoner remained in his cell all day and was never escorted to yard 4. I checked on it personally during the code—I have the electronic logs right here. The anklet scans show he never left solitary.”