“Was that so hard?”
“Sometimes it was. A lot of the time it was just boring as all get out, following all the rules and instructions. Everything was structured so we couldn’t make many choices for ourselves. We had worktime. We had exercise time. We had computer time. We had some classroom time, like life instructions. We had everything that we needed, I guess, but what we didn’t have was our family, any real friends, or any personal freedom.”
“What about group coaching to make friends?” she asked curiously.
“Didn’t I just tell you that?”
She thought about the other murders. “Who would know that you were in these different prisons?”
“I don’t know. Anybody who could search the system or the database, I guess. Can people get a hold of that stuff?”
“Sometimes.” Her mind was thinking rapidly.
“Well, maybe you should talk to them. If you found other cases, I’ll talk to my lawyer about having my case cleared. And then you can bet this goddamn city owes me some fucking money for the years they incarcerated me.”
“And again, not so fast,” she said. “It could be the shoe is on the other foot.”
“What are you talking about?” he roared.
“Hate to keep saying this, but you confessed, which wasted a lot of time and money, not to mention that other people were killed afterward.”
“Jesus,” he said, “it would be just my luck to have it turn out that way.”
“And again, I don’t know how any of that works,” she admitted. “Let’s deal with one thing at a time. We need to catch a killer.”
“And what good will that do me?” he snapped.
“Well, for one, it’ll clear you. Two, you won’t be hounded by the police anymore, and you’ll have a halfway normal life maybe for the first time ever. A life where at least you can hold up your head and say you didn’t do this.”
“You think anybody will believe me?”
She thought about what she’d heard in his voice, when he had told her about his sister’s case. “You know what? I don’t think it would take very long. Once people realize the truth, the tide will turn in your favor.”
“Jesus, I hope so,” he said. “My parents have been through enough shit.”
“What about you?”
“I’m young, and I can handle it,” he stated. “At this point in time, I’m getting more and more bitter and worried about them. It was just my sister and me, and, with her gone and me in jail, there was nothing for them.”
“No, that’s a tough deal all the way around. How did your dad handle it?”
“He didn’t. How does any dad handle seeing his son go to jail for something like that?”
“Yeah, a tough deal. I’m sorry.” She didn’t really know what else to say. “I’ll look into your case and get the records for your transfers and when, and just see what we can come up with. But, if you think of anybody you spoke to about your sister’s murder, anybody who might have been a little too interested in the methodology used, I need to know their names,” she stated. “Somebody out there knows the details.”
“Yeah, but that could be any cop too,” he suggested. “Anybody who’s seen the case files would know the details.”
She hated to admit it, but he was right. “That’s one aspect, yes,” she agreed, “but there’s also the fact that it could have been somebody close to you, somebody you told, either in one of your therapy sessions or in some of your treatments, or when you guys were just joking around and trying to tell the world you were a tougher nut than the next guy.”
“Yeah, that happened a ton too,” he agreed, groaning.
“Of course it did. You were still kids with egos, trying to survive in a place where a hierarchy was even more important.”
“Well, if you didn’t survive that,” he noted, “you were pretty well stuck for later on in life.”
“Of course,” she agreed. “And, as much as we don’t like that aspect of society, it’s pretty common.”
“I think in any group,” he added, “even at work, I mean, there’s a hierarchy.”