“Yes,” June said.“There’s a filing cabinet beside her desk.Patient files and other papers, too, I’m sure.”
“How you know that?”Eliza frowned.
“ ’Cause I’ve been in there,” June answered, one eyebrow raised as though daring Eliza to challenge her again.She didn’t.
“How much time do you need to pick two locks?”Emily asked.“And what supplies?”
“Not long,” Eliza said, “unless it’s somethin’ fancy I ain’t never seen.And just a paper clip or somethin’.”Emily nodded.Those were easily sourced, even at the prison.
“So are we doing this in the evening, or overnight?”June asked.“ ’Cause I think evening, when the girls are all out of their cells.Creates more chaos in the diversion.”
Emily thought for a moment, but Eliza leapt in.“Yeah.You get all the matrons away to the rec room or dining hall or somewhere, and Emily and I can wait down the hall from the infirmary.When the night matron comes out, we go in.Doubt she’ll lock the door if she’s leavin’ in a hurry.If she does, I can get in.It’s not even a deadbolt, that one.Easy.”
Emily felt a smile forming despite herself.“Could you get yourself out of your own cell, Eliza?”she asked.
Eliza straightened.“ ’Course I can!But I told ya, I don’t want outta here, do I?Nice to know I could get out if I wanted to, though.”
June laughed this time, a low rumble of a thing.“You’re starting to grow on me, kid.”
Emily saw the colour rise in Eliza’s cheeks.Something told her Eliza would be happy at June’s, and that brought her a surprising sense of comfort.
“Okay.”Emily considered the stages of the plan in formation, her mind darting ahead, looking for tripwires.“What if there are girls in the infirmary overnight?”She directed the question at Eliza, their little mastermind.“If we get in when the matron runs out, what do we do about anyone else in there?That’s a possibility we can’t control.”
Eliza ran her tongue over her teeth and shrugged.“Sometimes there’s people around ya don’t expect.Like you say, can’t control it all, even with a good plan.”
“So what do we do in that case?”Emily asked.
Eliza cocked her head to the side and surveyed Emily with a frown.“You say you got yerself sent to prison so’s you could get a story, eh?What wasyerplan?”
Emily was speechless, taken aback.Eliza waited, still frowning.June’s eyes were on her, too.
“I suppose…” She tapped her thigh with a nervous finger.“I knew I needed to get in here.I didn’t think much beyond that.”
“Why not?”
Emily swallowed.“I didn’t know what to expect.I figured I’d just have to take things as they came.”
“Right,” Eliza said, looking at Emily as though she were simple.“Half a succeedin’ in somethin’ is just flat believin’ ye can do’t.We need to get this shit outta Stone’s office, so we will.”
A wry smile crept across Emily’s face as Nellie Bly’s refrain echoed in her head once more.
I said I could, and I would.
CHAPTER 30
EMILY
December 17, 1961
Day 181 (2 to go)
Emily’s nerves were on edge as she sat in the dining hall with Annie, pushing food around her plate as her stomach swirled.
After giving the idea and plan a day to settle, Emily, June, and Eliza had decided to execute their plan that night.Dr.Stone left by six in the evening every day, around the time supper began for the inmates.After that, it was recreation and bath time until nine.The plan was straightforward enough: around eight, June would provoke a fight between two of the most aggressive inmates she could lay eyes on—Thelma at the top of her list—either in the recreation room or the third-floor corridors.Eliza and Emily would lurk in conversation near the stairwell on the second floor and listen for the commotion.June’s goal was to create enough of a tussle for the attending matrons to whistle for backup.It was easy enough to goad others into fights, June claimed, especially in a place where no one felt like they had enough.All you had to do was tell someone her neighbour had received special treatment, or stolen something.It wasn’t ethical, but Emily had agreed to it, weighing the cost against the ultimate benefit.
“Are you quite all right, Emily?”Annie asked her before lifting her tin cup to her lips.“You’ve hardly said a word all meal.Unusual for you.”She smiled fondly.
Emily forced a smile.“I’m all right,” she told her friend.“Just tired, is all.It was a rough cleaning shift today and I didn’t sleep well last night.”She hated to be disingenuous with Annie, but she didn’t have a choice.Because the plot involved June, whom Annie still believed was a terrible influence on any girl who crossed the madam’s path, it would be easier to fill Annie in on their exploits once they had actually—hopefully—succeeded.
