Donny snorted. “What, you been watching reruns of Escape from Alcatraz? Look around, man, ain’t no Clint Eastwood ’round here. They been promising a library the whole time my ass has been here and I ain’t seen one damn book yet. Supposed to have GED classes on TV too, but they say it keeps breaking down. Ain’t no workshops. Ain’t no nuthin’. Get a shower three times a week for five minutes and they stick a damn poker up your butt every time they do that, like you gonna pull a bazooka out your ass somehow and blow ’em away. I’d rather stay dirty. Ain’t like I got nowhere to go.”

He popped a piece of gum in his mouth and chewed it hard with the few teeth he had.

“Visitors, phone calls home? Lawyers?”

Donny chuckled. “At Dead Rock you got to earn your visits. Get a max of two a month. You screw up the least little thing, guess what, you ain’t getting no visitors. And guess what else? From what I hear ain’t been nobody earn a visit at this place in the last five years. I sure as hell ain’t. Not like there’s many folks lining up to come see me, but still. And you got to call collect if you even get near the damn phone. And not even my damn momma is gonna pay for a collect call from me. And ain’t no lawyers coming up here. Ain’t no more appeals for these boys. Everybody’s forgotten us. We ain’t anybody no more. We Dead Rock. Gonna die here, just the way it is. Better get used to it.” He swallowed his gum and hacked up some phlegm.

Stone looked around at the other prisoners. “People seem a little mellow here.” He eyed Donny. “Little too mellow.”

Donny cracked a smile and drew closer. “You noticed that too? Most of these boys ain’t never caught on to that crap.”

“So what drug do they use?”

“Ain’t know, but it’s pretty strong.”

“Do they put it in the chow?”

Donny nodded.

“Which meal?”

“Lunch or dinner, but that’s the thing. You never know which one.”

“So why do you seem so chipper?”

Donny’s eyes twinkled. “I could let you in on my little secret, but what you gonna gimme me for it? Now that’s the sixty-four-zillion-dollar question.”

Stone started to say something but Knox broke in. “Tell us and if I ever get out of here, I’ll take you away from old Dead Rock.”

“Right, shit you will. And besides, you ain’t never getting out of here.”

“I’m a fed, Donny. Assigned to look into corrupt prisons. You think this place is corrupt?”

“Sure as hell is. But if you a fed why would you be getting me out of here?”

“Feds can do anything, Donny. You help me, Uncle Sam helps you.”