“I’m going to ask you nicely not to kill her.”
“Fuck you.”
Visitors and inmates are separated by thick, floor-to-ceiling bullet-proof glass.
Lucky for him.
“Look,” I said. “You want to go after someone for killing those pukes, go after me.”
“We plan to. You’re a dead man walking.”
“Fine. So leave Alison alone.”
“No way. She suffers. It’s part of the code, man.”
We looked at each other through the glass. “I’m willing to barter,” I said.
“You wanna barter? Get me out of here.”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“Then no deal. I got little to gain and nothing to lose. I got no family, nothing to live for when I get out.”
“You could have had family waiting if you hadn’t killed them.”
He shrugged his shoulders and stroked his wormy beard. I kept quiet, waiting for him to get to the question I knew he had to ask.
“What’s she look like?” he said. “She hot?”
I took a plastic baggie from my pocket, held it up to the glass. Inside the baggie was a picture of Alison, fully dressed.
“Not bad,” he said. “Tell you what: you get me a hundred grand and a conjugal visit with her once a month, and I’ll let her live for a year.”
I’d have bet a grand he couldn’t have pronounced the word “conjugal.”
“I can do the hundred grand,” I said. “Not the sex.”
“No deal, then.”
“Look. They’re not going to let you anywhere near a woman for the next three years. Surely they explained that when they put you in the hole.”
“You’re a big shot with the government, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. So make them do it.”
“Doesn’t work that way unless you’ve got something huge to bargain. And we both know you don’t.”
“Which is why she’s gonna die.”
“I’d rather she live. And what’s more, she’d prefer not to die. Let’s wrap this up, Gumby. Here’s the best I can do: a hundred grand and a hundred naked pictures of Alison.”
“Th ey won’t let me have naked pictures in here.”
“They’ll never know.” I showed him Alison’s picture again. “The reason this is in plastic, it’s a rub off . You give me the name of your guard, I’ll make sure he sneaks you the pictures a few at a time. The way it works, you rub the picture with your finger. Th ere’s a totally naked photograph of Alison under this coating.”
“Bullshit.”
I held the photo at an angle so he could see the raised portion above her clothing.
“How long they been doing that?” he said.
