“Not sure. They must’ve started fighting again. Officer Hardy had Jacobson locked up. Strange he didn’t have them both locked up. I went back up to my desk to finish some paperwork, and that was the last I saw either of them. Until . . . the truck.”

“Who else was in the building at that time?”

“Let’s see. Nurse Anderson, and our inmate orderly, Allen Jones. I believe he was gathering the trash and cleaning the exam rooms.”

“What about the trash? When is it picked up?”

“Early in the morning usually. I’m not really sure. Our orderly always gets it ready and puts it out here to be picked up.”

“Is that orderly here now?” I asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” she said.

“Mind if I speak to him?” I asked.

“Not at all. Let’s go see if we can find him.”

She took one last, long draw on the stub of her cigarette and tossed it into the ashtray.

We found her orderly, the same old black man I had denied a phone call earlier this morning, in one of the storage closets near the back. She told him I wanted to talk to him and that we could use the staff break room around the corner.

I could tell he didn’t want to, but he swaggered toward the break room nonetheless.

“This won’t take long,” I said when we were finally seated at one of the tables in the staff lounge.

He didn’t respond.

“Sorry again I couldn’t let you use my phone this morning.”

He shrugged.

“I just want to know how you normally gather and take out the trash down here and if you did it any differently on Monday night or Tuesday morning.”

“I gather it up before I leaves every night and puts it near the back door where you’s just standing with Nurse Strickland. Next mornin’ I picks up any new trash and sets them outside the door. Officer and inmate from inside grounds comes by and picks it up and takes it out.”

“Is that how it happened Tuesday morning?” I asked.

He shook his head slowly. “Already told the inspector. Gathered it all up and put the bag in the back hall, then Nurse Anderson come say she need me to clean up a spill in the exam room. When I come back to put it outside, it was done gone. Nurse Anderson with me at the time. She can tell you. Trash wasn’t outside the door neither. No sign of the truck neither.”

“Did you see the inmates in the infirmary that morning?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Anything unusual about them?”

“No, sir. All three were lying there in they beds sleepin’.”

“All three?” I asked, the surprise in my voice obvious. “Who else was there?”

He hesitated and looked confused. “Johnson, Jacobson, and Thomas.”

“What time were you in there?”