Douglas Preston - The Book of the Dead

Then he relaxed his features. “Overall, the response to the escape attempt was immediate and by the book. First responders were at the scene at two-fourteen and a Code Red was immediately sounded. More than fifty guards were mobilized for the response. In well under an hour, every single escapee had been recaptured and all prisoners had been accounted for. By three-oh-one, the Code Red had ended. Herkmoor returned to business as usual.”

He paused for a moment. “Once again, I offer my congratulations to all involved. Everyone can relax, this is merely a pro forma meeting-as you know, a formal debriefing is required by regulation to occur within twelve hours of any Code Red. I apologize for keeping you here past your normal workday: let’s see if we can’t tie up any loose ends quickly so we can all get home to dinner. I urge any of you with questions to ask them as we proceed. Do not stand on ceremony.”

He looked around the room. “I call first on building C security manager James Rollo. Jim, could you talk about the role of Officer Sidesky? There seems to be some confusion about that.”

A man with a pour-over belly arose with the sound of jingling keys, adjusted his belt with more jingling. His face had assumed a stolid look of high seriousness.

“Thank you, sir. As you mentioned, the Code Red was sounded at two-fourteen. The first responders came from guard station 7. Four responded, leaving Officer Sidesky to man the guard station. It appears one of the escapees overpowered Officer Sidesky, drugged him, tied him up, and left him in the nearby men’s room. He’s still disoriented, but as soon as he is lucid we’ll get a statement.”

“Very well.”

At this point, a restless-looking man in a nurse’s uniform rose. “I’m Staff Nurse Kidder, sir, in charge of the building B infirmary.”

Imhof looked at him. “Yes?”

“There seems to have been some kind of mix-up. Early in the escape attempt, the EMTs brought down an injured guard claiming to be Sidesky, in uniform with his badge and ID. He then disappeared.”

“That’s easily explained,” said Rollo. “We found Sidesky without his uniform and badge. He must have left the infirmary. And then, evidently, one of the prisoners must have stripped Sidesky after knocking him out.”

“That sounds logical to me,” said Imhof. He hesitated. “Only thing is, all the escapees were apprehended in their prison garb. None were wearing uniforms.”

Rollo rubbed his wattle. “The prisoner who stripped Sidesky probably didn’t have time to put on the uniform.”

“That must be it,” said Imhof. “Mr. Rollo, please record those items as missing: uniform, badge, and ID belonging to Sidesky. I expect they’ll be found in the trash or in a dark corner somewhere. Can’t have them falling into prisoner hands.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Mystery solved. Continue, Mr. Rollo.”

“Forgive me for interrupting,” said Kidder, “but I’m not sure the mystery is solved. This man claiming to be Sidesky was left in the infirmary awaiting the radiologist while I attended to some of the escapees. He had several broken ribs, contusions, a facial laceration, a-”

“We don’t need the complete diagnosis, Kidder.”

“Right, sir. Anyway, he was in no condition to go anywhere. And when I returned, Sidesky-I mean, the guy claiming to be Sidesky-had disappeared, and in his bed was the corpse of the prisoner, Carlos Lacarra.”

“Lacarra?” Imhof frowned. He hadn’t heard this part before.

“That’s right. Someone had moved his cadaver and stuck him in Sidesky’s bed.”

“Somebody’s idea of a joke?”

“I don’t know, sir. I was wondering if… well, if it could be involved with the escape attempt somehow.”

There was a silence.

“If so,” Imhof finally said, “then we’re dealing with a more sophisticated plan than we initially assumed. But the bottom line is this: every single escapee was recaptured and is accounted for. We’ll be interrogating them in the days ahead to unravel exactly what happened.”

“One other thing troubles me,” Kidder went on. “During the escape, a morgue-mobile arrived to take Lacarra’s body away. It was kept waiting outside the gates until the Code Red came down.”

“And?”

“When the code was called off, the ambulance came in and loaded the body. The chief physician witnessed the loading and signed the papers.”

“I don’t see the problem.”

“The problem, sir, is that it wasn’t until fifteen minutes later that I found Lacarra’s body in Sidesky’s bed.”

Imhof raised his eyebrows. “So the wrong stiff got picked up in the confusion. That’s understandable. Don’t be too hard on yourself, Kidder. Just call the hospital and sort it out.”

“I did that, sir. And when I called the hospital, they said our call to pick up the body this morning was canceled right after it came in. They swear they never even sent a morgue-mobile.”

Imhof snorted. “That damn hospital is always screwing up, a dozen layers of administrators who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. Call them back in the morning, tell them we sent them the wrong stiff and they should go look for it.” He shook his head in disgust.

“But that’s just the problem, sir. We didn’t have any other corpse at Herkmoor. I can’t figure out what cadaver went to the hospital.”

“You say the chief physician signed the papers?”

“Yes. He went home at the end of his shift.”

“We’ll get a statement from him tomorrow. No doubt we’ll straighten out this confusion in the morning. Anyway, it’s tangential to the escape attempt. Let’s get on with the debriefing.”

Kidder fell silent, his face troubled.

“All right. The next question is why the yard seemed to have no supervision at the time of the breakout. My time sheets show Fecteau and Doyle were on yard 4 duty at the time of the escape. Fecteau, could you please explain your absence?”

A very nervous guard at the far end of the table cleared his voice. “Yes, sir. Officer Doyle and I had yard duty that day-”

“The nine prisoners were escorted to the yard on schedule?”

“Yes, sir. They arrived at two P.M. sharp.”

“Where were you?”

“At our yard posts, just as required.”

“So what happened?”

“Well, about five minutes later, we got the call from Special Agent Coffey.”

“Coffey called you?” Imhof was truly astonished. This was way out of line. He glanced around: Coffey still hadn’t shown up.

“Tell us about the call, Fecteau.”

“He said he needed us right away. We explained we were on yard duty, but he insisted.”

Imhof felt his anger rising. Coffey had told him nothing about this. “Tell us Agent Coffey’s exact words, please.”

Fecteau hesitated, colored. “Well, sir, he said something like ‘If you’re not here in ninety seconds, I’ll have you transferred to North Dakota.’ Something like that, sir. I tried to explain that we were the only two on yard duty, but he cut me off.”

“He threatened you?”

“Basically, yes.”

“And so you left the yard unattended, without checking with either the chief of security or me?”

“I’m sorry, sir. I thought he must have authorized it with you.”

“Why in hell, Fecteau, would I authorize the removal of the only two guards on yard duty, leaving a gang of prisoners to their own devices?”

“I’m sorry, sir. I assumed it was… because of the special prisoner.”

“The special prisoner? What are you talking about?”

“Well…” Fecteau had begun to stumble over his words. “The special prisoner who had exercise privileges in yard 4.”

“Yes, but he never made it to yard 4. He remained in his cell.”