Free Bodies in Winter by Robert Knightly Page A

usually get sent there. But Lodge was never eligible because he was a violent felon.’
    â€˜And that’s why he came to Attica?’
    Beauchamp shook his head. ‘Lodge started out at the Cayuga Correctional Facility, in Moravia. That’s medium security. He went into their protective custody unit and stayed for almost two years.’
    â€˜I can understand why he went into protective custody, given that he was cop,’ I said, ‘but not why he came out.’
    â€˜Protective custody is nothing more than segregation. You stay in your cell twenty-three hours a day, you get an hour for exercise, you get two showers a week. After a while, even the yard looks better.’ Beauchamp picked up a chunk of quartz crystal lying on top of a stack of papers and stared at it for a moment. ‘When your lieutenant called me yesterday, I went through Lodge’s file, lookin’ for an answer to your question about how Lodge got to Attica. Turns out, he was transferred from Cayuga more than four years ago, but his file don’t say why. So what I did was call over to Cayuga, ask a lieutenant I know, a huntin’ buddy, for a heads-up.’
    I leaned forward and laid my elbows on the desk. ‘Now why,’ I asked, ‘do I think this is gonna be good?’
    Beauchamp’s brown eyes were sparkling and his smile was back. We were two cops exchanging stories now, which is exactly what I wanted.
    â€˜Seems like a month after Lodge came out of segregation, a man named Jimmy Fox, a white supremacist from Syracuse, was killed with a shank. A month after that, Lodge was on his way to Attica.’
    â€˜You’re saying Lodge killed Fox?’
    â€˜The administration’s snitches kept naming him, but he was never charged because there was no evidence.’
    â€˜Then why the transfer out of medium security?’
    Beauchamp sneered. ‘Let’s just say, in the correctional system, we have ways to punish offenders without putting the state to the expense of a trial.’ He returned the crystal to his desk and leaned back in his chair. ‘Now I expect you’re gonna ask me about the motive. Why would Lodge kill Fox?’
    â€˜It was right on the tip of my tongue.’
    â€˜Well, it goes like this. When you first come into the system, no matter who you are, somebody’s gonna test you, see if maybe you wouldn’t mind becoming a victim. That’s just the way of it.’
    â€˜And David Lodge, he passed the test?’
    â€˜That’s the word I got.’
    We were interrupted at that moment by a uniformed officer who told us that Pete Jarazelsky was waiting in an interview room down the hall. Beauchamp waved him off, then asked, ‘Anything else I can do for you, Harry?’
    â€˜Yeah, Jarazelsky. An officer told me he’s in protective custody. Was somebody after him?’
    Beauchamp laughed. ‘Old Pete, he’s a work of art. He snitched out so many inmates, the whole prison wanted a piece of his ass. Now I don’t know who finally caught up with him, but he took a serious beating right before he went back into protective custody.’
    I nodded. ‘Seems like a good reason to spend twenty-three hours a day behind bars. But let me ask you this: Jarazelsky was sent up for burglary. How’d he end up in Attica with David Lodge?’
    â€˜No mystery there, Harry. It was the luck of the draw, simple as that. Pete asked for protective custody right out of the box, just like David Lodge, only instead of being assigned to Cayuga’s unit, he was assigned to ours. The way the state sees it, if you’re in protective custody it doesn’t matter what prison you’re sent to. If you’re protected, you’re safe.’
    â€˜Until you ask to come out.’
    That brought another laugh, then an explanation. ‘When Jarazelsky couldn’t take being alone with himself all day, he asked to go into population. It was his