June licked her lips, but didn’t answer.
“For whom?”Emily demanded.“Why is she doing it?”
But June was already backing away.“Jesus, honey,” she said.“I’ve never heard anybody ask that question as much as you do.You’re the only one who gives a shitwhy.What did I just tell you?”
Emily watched her as she began to stride slowly backward down the dimly lit hall, big hips swaying beneath her faded brown dress.
“Money,” Emily said.
The ghost of a smile flitted across June’s face.“Gotta get that money, honey!”
As she backed away, another thought flashed for Emily.“And why is she so vicious?What’s going on there?”
June’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head.“That one’s got nothing to do with money.And I’d advise you not to dig too deep on it, reporter lady.She’s dangerous.”
Emily took a step toward June.“Will you help me with this?”
June’s red eyebrow arced.“I thought I just did.”
She disappeared around the corner and for a fleeting moment, Emily wondered why she was being so forthright.But then she remembered that June could expose her at any moment, get her thrown out of the prison—or worse.Emily might have sussed out June’s under-the-table accord with the doctor, but if it were to get out, it wouldn’t be the madam suffering for the bribe—it would be Dr.Stone.Emily gave a half laugh.June didn’t need to care how much Emily knew.She still held the cards, and that was all that mattered to her.
What is going on in that office?Emily wondered, her mind jumping ahead to what lay beyond Stone’s door, right beneath her feet on the floor below.There had to be a paper trail of some kind for this drug trial, whatever it was.Or at least enough detail to fit the pieces together with some accuracy.Enough for the story.
A shiver skipped down Emily’s body, goosebumps erupted on her bare arms.
Thebetterstory.Therealstory.The one she’d had no idea was even lurking beneath the surface of all the truths of the whistleblowing inmate’s note.
If Eris Stone was not only abusive but actuallycorrupt, that was the real scoop.And—another tingle crept from the back of her neck downward—if the corruption led back to the government’s front door, for funding a vermin-infested, dilapidated institution where women were subjected to this kind of horrific abuse forprofit…that was headline, national news.
But this wasn’t just about Emily’s career anymore.This wasn’t about a promotion or an office with a window, her name in the byline.It wasn’t even about escaping a marriage she didn’t want in favour of the life she did.This was about her existence as a woman, and Annie’s and Eliza’s and all the girls who were imprisoned here—or could be—because of that law.She’d come to know them now, knew that they had lives and dreams that were constantly overshadowed and ruined by the fear of living in this system where women could be imprisoned and abused and even tortured on the government’s dime.
Fire burned in her gut.She needed to break this story.For all of them.It was a moral imperative now.
She needed to see the patient files, Dr.Stone’s personal records.Anything concrete she could get her hands on to prove the drug trial, the abuse of power.
She needed to break into Stone’s office.
PARTTHREE
intolerable
(Adj.: unendurable; insufferable)
I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change.I am changing the things I cannot accept.
ATTRIBUTED TO ANGELA DAVIS
CHAPTER 28
EMILY
December 15, 1961
Day 179 (4 to go)
Emily was feeling the pressure.There were only a few days left in her sentence, and she still had to gain access to Dr.Stone’s files, or all of June’s claims of bribery and Emily’s own deductions about the doctor deliberately infecting the women were nothing but hearsay and suspicion.She needed facts.Her infection had cleared and she was due for release on time.She hoped she wouldn’t need more, but if it came down to the wire, her plan was to try to find some way to convince Stone that she felt the warts returning, or had burning of some kind that wasn’t visible.If she had to swap another couple of weeks of painful treatments to get everything she needed for this new, bigger story, she would.If she were able to secure the evidence she needed, she could lay bare all of Stone’s corruption.The power was about to shift drastically in Emily’s favour, and it would feel sweet.
But she needed to get her hands on the evidence before she could indulge that fantasy.She had an idea for how to accomplish that now, and had woken early, keen to get on with it.She was eager for work today, since she would be on shift with Eliza.
