Free Trust Me by Melinda Metz - Fingerprints - 3 Page B

inside the prison, through the metal detector, past the drug-sniffing dogs, then into an elevator and up to the warden’s office. It didn’t matter how cheerful and chatty the guard was. It was like the prison itself was sending waves of fear directly into her bones.
    Rae rubbed her hands together. Her fingertips felt vulnerable without their coat of Mush. The last thing she wanted to do was touch anything in here, but she knew she was going to have to if Yana managed to get her close enough to Tony Fascinelli for Rae to take another shot at him.
    Jon pressed down the intercom button. “Powning here. I have the girls,” he said. He released the button, and a second later there was a long buzz and the click of the lock releasing. Jon shoved open the door and gestured the girls in ahead of him.
    “Just one second,” the man behind the desk-the warden-said. He held up one finger and did hunt-and-peck on his computer keyboard with a finger on his other hand. He stabbed at a couple more keys, muttered a curse under his breath, hit another key, then looked up and smiled at Yana. “Welcome back. I’ve got everything set up for you.” He turned toward Rae and stuck out his hand. She shook it, managing to avoid fingertip-to-fingertip contact.
    “I’m Jason Driver, the warden,” he told Rae. “You’re pretty much guaranteed an A on your paper, thanks to your persuasive friend here.” He winked at Yana. Yana winked right back. “After we’re through with you, you’re going to know exactly what it feels like to be a prisoner at Scott State,” the warden continued.
    Rae wrapped her arms around herself, hoping the little shiver that had skittered through her at his words hadn’t been visible to anyone. “Great,” she answered. “That sounds great.”
    “Yeah,” Yana added. “I told the warden that you and I had already toured a women’s prison but that we wanted to do a compare and contrast with a men’s prison.”
    “Great,” Rae repeated.
    “Our tour is going to be a little different,” the warden told them. “We want you to see the place through the eyes of a prisoner. So the first step is to get you into your prison clothes.”
    Anthony stared at the prison through the windshield of the Hyundai. What could Rae and Yana possibly be doing in there? It wasn’t even visiting hours-at least, Anthony hadn’t seen anyone else going in.
    He twisted in his seat, trying to get more comfortable, but his muscles were too tight. There could be a completely
    normal reason for them to be here, he told himself. Except if the reason was so freakin’ normal, why had Rae been sneaking around, lying to him?
    Anthony glanced over at Yana’s yellow Bug. It was parked in the row ahead of him, in plain sight. Rae wasn’t going to get out of the lot without an explanation.
    How long have I been in here? Rae wondered, her heart beating so fast, it felt like a flutter in her chest instead of a steady glub-dub, glub-dub.
    It can’t have been even half an hour, she told herself. Smiling Jon the guard is just giving you a taste of the hole.
    He’s having a cigarette or chewing some gum or whatever. In a minute he’s going to come and let you out.
    Rae pulled her knees tighter to her chest and tried to scoot even farther away from the open toilet. It was pointless.
    Her solitary cell was so tiny that no matter where she moved, she was way too close. Jon had told her and Yana that the toilets in the hole were flushed automatically by the guards every few hours. It smelled more like it was every few weeks. But maybe some of that smell came from the other prisoners. Part of the punishment for the men kept in the isolation area was no personal hygiene. No showers-not even splashing birdbaths in a sink-no toothbrush, no deodorant, no hairbrush. Just you. Your little patch of cement. And the toilet.
    I wish I had my watch, at least, Rae thought. But Jon had made her hand it over before they started the tour. If she had it, she knew