Fisk grimaced.
“I mean your farm,” she said, correcting herself. “I can see why you wanted to get away ASAP.”
“So many of my buddies got sick. COPD, autoimmune diseases, cancer. So much cancer. When my friend Ron was diagnosed with colon cancer, he went to the Department of Veterans Affairs right away. He waited for two years. A week after they denied coverage, he died, and his wife lost their house trying to pay for it all.”
“That’s terrible.”
Fisk spit into the dirt. “I went in green, but true red, white, and blue. Now, I’m as gray as my hair.”
In the past, Cara had written off people like Fisk as ignorant crazies and kooks without a second thought. But if it weren’t for his righteous civil disobedience, she would be in custody right now.
“Thank you. For your service. For everything.”
“Might want to hold off on your gushing and eat your sandwich,” he said, pointing to a steep scree field ahead. “You may not like me nearly as much by the time we get to the top.”
THIRTY-ONE
JORDAN
Hope @MaderaCASheriff is watching social media. I know I am! Vote Silverman for Sheriff!
—@Troy4MadSheriff
Jordan carried his fistful of signed paperwork to the front desk, dropped it in the out-box, and made sure the duty sergeant saw it was ready to go. An UberEats driver was lining up Burger King sacks, dinner for the second shift. Jordan’s stomach gurgled. He’d ordered a double Whopper meal and planned to inhale it as soon as the CDCR van arrived and LaDonna Williams had been loaded on board.
The pickup was scheduled for 4:45 p.m. and the transfer was routine—but then, Molly Bailey’s had been, too, two days ago, and now the habitual drug user was lying in the county morgue waiting for a family member to claim the body.
Jordan wanted to check in on the prisoner for his own peace of mind. He also wanted to ask her one last question.
At the back of the station, Deputies Lopez and Cameron already had Williams cuffed and shackled and were watchingthe video monitor as the prison van entered the outer gate of the sally port. The inner door would not open until the outer gate was securely closed. Jordan had instructed them to actually bring the van inside to avoid providing a photo op.
“You again!” said Williams when she saw him.
“You cleared the medical exam?” Jordan asked. “No injuries?”
“I tried to tell the doctor I sprained my ovaries so they couldn’t transfer me, but he wouldn’t listen. Guess I’m healthy enough to incarcerate.”
Jordan had to admire her sense of humor. Not many people cracked jokes on their way to Chowchilla. Even though she had been thoroughly questioned by his team, a CDCR investigator, and one of Wen’s Marshals while she waited for the next van to arrive, maybe she’d remembered something new.
The outer gate was closed. The security door shielding the garage bay began rolling up with a loud clatter.
“Listen, did Cara Campbell tell you anything about what she had planned or where she was going?”
Williams rolled her eyes. “Like I told you and everyone else, we weren’t all huddled around plotting ourescape. Opportunity knocked that van wide open, so we just took off, and I wasn’t about to star in some movie about a sassy Black thief and a famous White murder lady on the run.”
Lopez had been pretending not to listen, but he couldn’t help laughing at that.
“But if you’re still looking for her,” Williams added, seeming to reconsider, “maybe I should have followed that fancy bitch.”
The CDCR van backed inside, loud beeps echoing around the spotless garage bay. One of the guards climbed out and came around to open the rear doors of the van. As Cameron started helping Williams into the inner cage-like compartment, Jordan headed for the door.
Williams stopped him by calling out. “Seriously, I can’t believe you haven’t caught her yet. You still looking out in that nasty-ass forest? Hunt that lady down in the nearest mall. She needs to get her hair and nails done. And she wants some clothes. She won’t be happy until she trades out those Crocs for Louboutins. If I were you, I’d be searching every store from here to San Francisco.”
Jordan turned and nodded. LaDonna Williams may have been a career criminal likely to spend most of her life behind bars, but he liked her.
His pocket buzzed. He took his phone out.
Amber Alert.
