Page 61 of Driftwood Daffodil 3
Son of a bitch.
There was about to be another Ford with a murder charge on their record.
NOVALEE
There were plenty of things in the Louisiana State Pen that sent a chill up my spine, but this visit was almost daunting. Now that I was here there was no escaping the reality of the situation. My anxiety about what Kato may know was at heightened peaks, but my heart was hammering for a different reason.
Atlee took me over to a door on the left side of the building and gave three quick knocks, followed by two slower taps.
A few seconds later the door was thrown open by a man in a uniform. He looked at me, then Atlee, and stepped to the side for us to walk in. It was all very mission impossible.
I walked into the building and instantly got the distinct sense that this was more than an unregulated visit. It was a show of power. Almost as if Gio’s dad was following me around and whispering in my ear.
When the side door that shouldn’t be used by the general public to enter the building creaked, the voice in my mind laughed. And it wasn’t a whimsical, ”I snuck into the movie theater laugh.” It was a manacle ‘look what I can do’ snicker. When various guards nodded at Atlee, I heard the words ‘it would be for us to get to him’. Then came the buzz and clink of the sliding barred door. With that I could picture hyenas picking over my brother’s bones.
The guard that opened the door for us stopped at a desk and tipped his head at the guy sitting behind it. “You can leave your phone, keys, and purse here with Ed.”
“Do I look like the purse type?”
Not to mention I wasn’t carrying one. That should’ve been obvious, but who was I to judge? We’d been on the highway for an hour before I noticed I was wearing two bras. For all I knew this guy thought I had one of those tiny little purses that would barely fit my ID.
The guard gave me a once over and said, “your phone and keys then.”
I shrugged, dropped my keys on the desk and pulled out the flip phone Maw Maw gave me.
“What the hell is that?” Atlee pointed.
I looked at where his finger was aimed. “That is a communication device called a cell phone. Some people use it to call other phones.”
Not me of course. I was more of the texting type. Or I normally was, but on that thing it was almost as exhausting as talking to someone. I had to press the number buttons a hundred times just to send Memphis a hello. I would not have survived in the nineties.
“That is not a phone.” Atlee argued. “That is a relic. What happened to your regular phone?”
“I threw it in the lake.”
“Alright,” he nodded, as if that was a perfectly normal explanation.
I wasn’t sure how to take that. “You aren’t going to ask me why?”
“Nah. I get it. I’ve smashed three phones this month.”
He smashed them? Okay, I had to know. “Why?”
“My dad says I have anger issues.” He shrugged.
“Do you?”
It was hard for me to picture Atlee’s face with anything other than a smirk, but there was that one time in home ec when I mentioned his mom.
He swung his eyes my way. “I do when I’m talking to him.”
Okay, I could understand that. Most teenagers could. Being mad at our parents came with the territory.
The guard who let us in waved down a hall to the right. “This way.”
Was it that time already? I had been thinking about this moment for days, but now that it was here, my feet felt heavy. If Kato knew about Gio he was not going to be happy. Hence why I wanted to convince him otherwise. But now I couldn’t help but wonder if I should just tell him the truth? He would find out eventually.
“Come on.” Atlee pushed on my back.
