The Sanctuary

36

MY MELTDOWN BEGAN with that phone call ten days earlier, but sitting in the corner of that dark holding cell at the back of the administration wing, I faded away to nothing.

There was nothing left. I had propped myself up with a blazing sense of purpose and hope for ten days, and just like that it had all been crushed in one final blow. It was done. Finished. I tried to think of a way out, but as Keith had first said, breaking into prison was one thing; breaking out was another. And this wasn’t just any prison, it was Basal.

I didn’t even question how it could be done, I knew that it couldn’t, not now. Not in time to save Danny, not in time to save ourselves.

The cell the captain had taken us to was a ten-by-ten concrete room with a thick metal door, nothing else except for the fluorescent light on the ceiling, which was off.

They’d marched us through back halls at gunpoint and ushered us into the cell without saying another word. With each step I tried to tell myself that something would happen to fix this. The real authorities would come busting in to free us. Keith would throw himself at the guards and give me a chance to escape. Danny would run through the door and save us.

But it was totally hopeless, and I knew that.

Keith tried to reason with the captain, promising to bring the whole prison down under a storm of controversy that would put them all behind their own bars. He was an attorney and knew the law. He had contacts in law enforcement on the outside. He knew congressmen and senators.

His threats fell on deaf ears, and with an ashen-faced glance at me, Keith gave up.

He sat on the floor beside me, slumped against the wall. Neither of us spoke for a few minutes. My mind was lost.

“You realize what this means,” he said. It was a statement, not a question, and I knew the answer.

“The warden can’t let us leave this place,” I said.

“We know too much.”

“He’s going to kill us.”

“No one even knows we’re here,” he said. “The records have us as Julia Wishart and Myles Somerset. None of the inmates or guards have any idea what we really look like. There’s not a single bit of evidence that Keith Hammond and Renee Gilmore ever came to Basal.”

I hadn’t thought about that.

“They’re torturing the inmates here. The only way that happens without an OIG investigation is through a high level of planning and control. Brainwashing, even. The warden was one step ahead of us all the way. He already knows how this is going to end.”

I sat like a lump in that corner, feeling ill. Too sick to cry anymore. A hundred thoughts crammed into my mind. What if I’d gone to the police at the beginning? What if I’d hired the biggest law firm on Wilshire? What if I’d refused to let Danny turn himself in to the authorities three years ago? But none of the questions had any answers.

“I’m scared.”

He didn’t respond. There was nothing to say.

“So what now?”

“Now we hope we can convince the warden to let us go.”

“But he won’t.”

“Maybe I can call his bluff, say I have a file that will be released to the press if we’re not home in twenty-four hours. Something…”

“Maybe,” I said. But then neither of us said anything because we both knew the warden was too smart for any of that.

Realization slowly settled in my mind.

“All along Sicko’s plan was to get me to break into his sick, twisted prison to save Danny.”

It suddenly made more sense than anything else. The escalating threats, the constant pressure, the progression of the game—all of it led me here, into his own house to crush Danny.

“That’s why he led us to the judge,” I said, eyes straining in the darkness. “He needed us to think we were outwitting him.”

“Maybe. But why?”

“Revenge.”

Keith sat for a moment.

“There’s something you’re not telling me, Renee. Something about who would go to all this trouble to set things straight with Danny. If we knew who…”

“I told you, I don’t know. The only victims I know about are dead.”

“Because that’s the key to this whole thing. Who? If we knew, we might be able to use the information as leverage.”

“I think it’s the warden. But I don’t know what he’s got against Danny.”

The door suddenly rattled, then swung open. Backlit by the hall stood the tall form of the warden, Marshall Pape, in his crisp suit, hand on the doorknob.

He reached over and flipped a switch. The overhead light stuttered to life.

The warden stepped inside, slid his hand into his pocket, and smiled down at us. Keith started to get up, but the warden stopped him.

“Please, remain seated. We don’t have much time.”

Keith eased back to his seat.

“I thought it would only be fair to explain why I’m going to allow what’s about to happen,” the warden said. “The common man might cringe, but he can’t understand this world any more than the politicians who pass the laws do. They send us deviants and then pass more laws that make correcting their ways impossible. Basal’s all about learning to do it right.”

I stared up at him, filled with hatred. I hated the smug curve of his lips as he spoke, the round spectacles balanced on his nose, his manicured fingernails, his perfectly pressed suit. His self-righteousness made me sick.

This was a stoning and he was going to cast the first stone.

“There’s a reason for the law, my friends. Breaking it comes with consequence. But before you’re punished you have the right to know what you’ve done wrong.”

“You make me sick,” I said.

“And you, me.”

He clasped his hands behind his back.

“Danny’s guilty for many crimes that he hasn’t confessed yet. His deal with the DA was a sham. He has so much to learn from me. Now you too have broken the law in my house, and I don’t take that lightly. As punishment, I’m going to use you to break him. I hope you’ll understand the justice of that.”

If his words were meant to unnerve me, they didn’t. I felt only rage. Marshall Pape’s twisted philosophy of punishment defied reason. I stared at him, too furious to speak.

“You should have known better, you really should have. But now it’s too late. The sad part is that you still don’t really have a clue. It’s going to get very ugly, but in that you will see that I’m not your devil, Renee. By the way, I think Sicko’s an adorable name. It’s so…you.”

He looked at Keith. “As for you, Mr. Hammond, you’ll get your turn soon enough. They’ll be down for both of you soon.”

The warden turned around, flipped off the light, and left us in darkness again.

Keith muttered and cursed under his breath, then fell silent.

The trembling in my bones began then, when I had nothing to do but stare into the darkness as the warden’s words rang in my head. I tried not to think about what he meant by very ugly, but endless images burrowed into my mind.

I had to be strong, I knew that, but my strength was all gone. Tears began to fall down my cheeks. It was all so wrong! I hardly could remember what had happened to get me into that cell at Basal.

“I’m so sorry, Renee.” Keith rested his hand on my knees.

My tears swelled. I couldn’t speak past the knot in my throat.

“Listen to me, this isn’t over. There’s still Danny. He may still find a way.”

I began to sob quietly in the darkness. I knew Keith was only saying that for my benefit, but he couldn’t have said anything more appropriate to me in that moment. He was right, Danny was our only hope now.

Danny always saved me.