12th of Never

Chapter 81

FBI UBERAGENT RON PARKER sat with Randolph Fish in a small cement-block room in the bowels of the prison. Two cameras were focused on them; one angled through the oneway glass, and the other was positioned in a corner of the ceiling.

Fish was shackled hand and foot by a chain that ran through a hole in the center of the table to a loop in the floor. He was so pale you could almost see through his skin. There was a fresh hand-size bruise on his jaw, and Parker had seen the photos of the larger bruises and abrasions all over his body.

The day before, a couple of guards had been escorting Fish to the yard when they were drawn into a dispute between two other prisoners and took their eyes off Fish for a moment.

The dispute was a diversion, giving another prisoner a chance to pull Fish against the bars of his cell. He twisted Fish’s arm until he went to his knees. Then a second prisoner got Fish’s pants down, kicked his legs apart, and did him with a sawed-off broom handle.

The assault had been over quickly, but it had turned Fish’s head around entirely. After the emergency medical treatment, which involved a row of stitches in a place where the sun don’t shine, Fish had asked for Ron Parker, who had driven up from L.A. to see him.

Now Parker was watching Randolph Fish, killer of at least five but possibly twice as many young women, think over what he was going to say in an effort to come up with something the G-man might go for.

“I can’t stay here,” Fish finally said. “I’ll be killed.”

“I feel for you, I really do,” Parker said in a voice that conveyed that he really didn’t give a crap. “I would raise a real stink if I were you. Name your attackers. That’s what I would do.”

Fish didn’t rise to the bait.

“I’m ready to make a deal,” he said.

“Yeah? Listen, you dumb shit. I can’t promise anything anymore. You made me look like a moron too many times. The governor has had enough of your bull. He said, and I quote, ‘Don’t tell me anything about that psycho unless his last words were “I’m deeply sorry” and that he suffered before he croaked.’”

“The guards could’ve protected me. They didn’t, and I think they set me up,” Fish said.

“I’ve got a meeting in an hour,” said Ron Parker. “What do you want and what are you going to give up? Get real or drop dead. I no longer care which.”

“Move me to another prison. I’ll give you the names of four girls you know nothing about. I’ll tell you where they are.”

“That’s what you told me last time, Randy.”

“Last time I hadn’t been corn-holed with a broom.”

“Give me the names,” Parker said.

Fish squirmed. “Got a pen?”

Parker typed the names on his phone and said, “I’ll see what I can do.” He called for a guard, then turned before he left the room.

“Stay out of trouble,” Parker said to the serial killer. “Watch your ass.”