Page 61 of In Death, Love Survives
That’s why I’m lurking around Crawley’s office hallway, waiting for his assistant, June, to leave for lunch. He’s out the entire day, and I know there has to be something about Wolfe inside that office.
If there’s anyone here who is corrupt, it’s him. He’s always going on about the good old days and small-town antics, topics that shouldn’t be part of discussions anywhere, but especially in a professional setting.
I hear chatter in the distance between June and an officer, someone whose voice I’m not that familiar with yet. The prison has had high turnover in recent years, so it’s no wonder I can’t keep track of everyone.
“Beats me,” she says.
“Think it’d be alright if I headed out early?”
A pause lingers in the hallway.
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s fine. Johnson should be here soon.”
“Thank you. My girlfriend is dropping off my lunch.”
“Oh. Well. Yes. Just don’t tell anyone,” June says.
“I owe you one.”
Hurried footsteps pass me, and the opening and shutting of the double doors sound. I focus back on June’s shuffling at the opposite end of this small office section of the building.
A phone vibrates on a desk. June huffs, and I feel like she’s putting her purse on as she goes to pick it up.
“Hey, I’ll be right out,” she says.
Nothing but silence.
“Two seconds.”
Her footsteps start, and soon, they sound like they are inches away. She goes through the same set of double doors that the officer just did.
I let out a long breath of air that I hadn’t realized I had been holding in this whole time. I’ve been doing riskier things than I usually do since Wolfe came into the picture.
I slink up the small hallway where I’ve been hiding and confidently stand in the main hallway I have been eavesdropping by.
No one is here.
As casually as I can, I walk up to Crawley’s door and try to open it. It’s unlocked, so I push on in.
I have to pray that no one will watch this camera footage back. Crawley will be furious if he finds out I’m in here.
I slowly shut the door behind me and lean against it once it’s fully closed. Deep breaths in and out. My heart feels like it’s going to pop out of my chest with how fast it’s going.
Glancing around the office, I see that it’s a mess.
Papers are everywhere on the desk, and there are old soda cans in a line along the horizontal set of drawers behind his chair. The stench of cigarettes hits me, and I see an ashtray with about a dozen cigarette butts sticking out of it.
In and out, Nova.
Hurrying to his desk, I look through the papers as fast as I can without disturbing his mess. Sometimes, messy people feel like they have a system in place. If that’s the case, he’ll notice something wrong.
I look behind his desk at the cabinets that run the length of the wall. Scanning the labels, I come across a set that lists prisoners with last names beginning with W.
I open the cabinet and start to thumb through the files, looking for Walker. I finally reach his last name, grab his file, and pull it out.
Shaking it in the air like a winning victory, I open it up to see that there’s not much in here.
I hunch over, annoyed.
