Page 52 of Blood and Bone
Ari disliked Warden Trent Woolworth five minutes into the conversation. He looked at them like they were idiots and treated them much the same. He spoke to them in that lazy southern drawl the same way Strother Martin’s character of the Captain, had spoken to Paul Newman who played Luke inCool Hand Luke. Ari kept waiting for him to say, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”
“I don’t understand why y’all don’t just stab ‘em through the heart and put that dead thing out of all’a our lives once and for all,” he drawled.
“Because, Warden, we’re not animals,” Eoghan replied, every last word dripping with dislike.
“But I understand that a lot of them things in there are animals, even worse than animals.” He pointed out the barred window of his office at the gray sky. “You know, we used to execute prisoners at Folsom…right out there.” He leaned across his desk and lowered his voice as if he was sharing a deep, dark secret with them. “What’d’ya say I take care’a that little vampire problem of yours?”
Ari thinned his lips, biting back the words that threatened and watched Eoghan lean toward the vile creature. “What’d’ya say I tell Chief Deputy Arizona Priest what you said and then explain it to the Agency?” Eoghan drawled right back. “Or doyou want the extraordinary amount of money you get from us to stop because you couldn’t keep your word and treat our prisoners fairly and humanely?”
Woolworth looked outraged and Ari just wanted to high-five Eoghan. When the man sat back in his leather chair and picked up the butt of his foul-smelling cigar, took a puff, and blew a long line of smoke right at Eoghan, Ari wanted to launch himself over the desk and choke him. “No need to be inhospitable now.”
Eoghan said nothing before reaching for the handset to the landline on the warden’s desk since they’d left their own phones locked in the car. He held it up. “Do you want to turn Champayne over to us now or do I call my boss? We’ve got things to do.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, you’re so testy,” Woolworth swore under his breath.
“One thing,” Eoghan said, ignoring the comment.
“What’s that?”
“We need background on the prisoner.”
“You mean your chief deputy sent you here without tellin’ y’all what he done?”
“I suppose she figured you’d be willing to do it,” Eoghan said.
Woolworth sneered. “Your vampire is a killer. Took a human life from what I understand. I guess you might not want to take him to the weddin’ now.”
“We follow orders, Warden,” Ari said, “and it’s called a mating not a wedding.”
Woolworth glowered at him. “Suit yourself, boy,” he said, grinding his cigar out in the ashtray before standing and reaching for the waistband of his pants. He pulled it up over his paunch before striding straight to the door of his office. “Follow me,” he drawled before slamming it open. Hereluctantly ushered them through first and pulled out a ring of keys, deliberately locking it up, turning, and striding down the corridor with them following behind.
Ari exchanged a look with Eoghan. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been called boy and he was pretty sure the warden would’ve liked to slam the door in their faces. Clearly, he didn’t like uppity marshals. Eoghan only shook his head, warning him with one glance to keep his mouth shut.
Woolworth led them through the prison, unlocking and relocking each door as they made their way deep inside the dreary walls. Finally, they spotted a man sitting in a folding chair at the end of a long corridor with empty cells on one side and barred windows on the other. It reminded Ari of the first time he’d ever seen the jail keeper Charlie sitting in his chair at the I.S.R. when Eoghan had been giving him a tour of the facilities. He thought about his reaction to Carmine, the twelve-foot-tall snakelike alien from M-3818 planet with a barbed tail and silvery, iridescent scales the first time he’d ever seen him. He hadn’t really believed that aliens existed until just that moment. It was the scariest thing he’d ever seen in his life.
The man in the chair stood when they walked up and showed their ID. Ari noticed that he wore an I.S.R. star on his belt right next to something that looked surprisingly like the bang stick which they’d carried into the Broad museum just in case Derwin had tried to hurt them. They introduced themselves to Marshal Smith and then noticed that he’d made no attempt to unlock the door and let them into the cellblock, instead, staring at Woolworth. The warden seemed to get the hint and turned without a word, before walking away.
“I’ll ring when the prisoner is ready to go,” Smith called out.
“You do that, boy,” the warden drawled.
After he’d gone, Smith opened the door and let them through, shutting and locking it as soon as they were inside.
“This cellblock hasn’t been used to hold humans for decades,” Smith said. “You’ll see why.”
The place was exceptionally dark with only a row of fluorescent lights on the ceiling high above them offering any brightness at all. “As you know, paranormals don’t need much light to see, so they’re kept inside in near darkness most of the time,” Smith said.
Ari thought that sounded horribly cruel. “They don’t get outside at all?”
“For an hour a day and then it has to be in shifts. Vampires—of which we only have two—get an hour every night and shifters get an hour every morning.”
“How many shifters do you have here?” Eoghan asked.
“Eighteen,” Smith replied. “They’re serving anything from a year to three. We don’t have any long-term prisoners with the exception of Jack Vandross but it’s my understanding he’ll be leaving as soon as a judge grants him his freedom.”
Ari exchanged a smile with Eoghan.
“You’re responsible for that?” Smith asked.