“She doesn’t need proof,” Silas interjected. “I’ve been keeping a diary for twenty years, Arthur. Names, dates, the ‘accidents’ in the laundry room, the kickbacks from the food vendors. I have it all stashed where your goons will never find it.”
The Warden looked like he’d been struck. “You’re bluffing, old man.”
“Try me. I told Ellie where it is. If she doesn’t make it out of this building safely today, that file goes to the District Attorney and the local news.” Silas smiled, a slow, dangerous grin. “You thought you were throwing her to the wolves. You forgot that wolves look after their own.”
Ellie looked at Silas. She realized he was risking everything—his safety, his meager comfort—to give her a fighting chance. “Thank you,” she mouthed.
Miller backed out of the cell, his bravado gone. “Get her out of here,” he barked at the guards in the hall. “Just get her out of my sight!”
Ellie walked out of the cell block, her head held high. She didn’t look back until she reached the main gate. As the heavy iron doors hissed shut behind her, she took a deep breath of the morning air. It tasted like freedom.
She knew the fight wasn’t over. Miller had connections, and the system was slow to change. But she wasn’t the same girl who had walked in there twenty-four hours ago.
She went straight to a payphone across the street and called a number Silas had whispered to her. It wasn’t a lawyer or a cop. It was a retired investigative reporter who had been trying to crack Blackwood for years.
Over the next few weeks, Ellie worked in the shadows. She was officially “on leave,” but she spent every waking hour organizing the evidence Silas had helped her find. She found records of inmates who had “disappeared,” and she found the paper trail of the Warden’s offshore accounts.
The “wolves” had provided the map; she just had to follow the trail. The story broke on a Sunday morning. The headlines were devastating. “Corruption and Cruelty: The Secret Life of Blackwood Penitentiary.”
The Department of Justice moved in within forty-eight hours. Warden Miller was escorted out in handcuffs, his face shielded from the cameras. Sergeant Vance and several other guards were indicted shortly after.
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