“Not if I ain’t singing you won’t.”

After the service, I went down to Medical.

I knew the body had been hidden in the closet there. I knew that Johnson, Jacobson, and Thomas all spent a great deal of time there and were all involved in whatever was going on.

“Hey, Chaplain,” Nurse Anderson greeted me loudly as I approached the medical building. She was standing outside smoking.

She was a large, attractive woman with bleached-blond hair, green eyes the color of lime Jell-O, and bright red lips.

“How’s it going?”

“Just fine. You?”

Smoke came out of her mouth as she talked, and when she wasn’t speaking, she was puffing. In contrast to the dainty Capris that Sandy Strickland smoked, Anderson smoked full-sized Winstons. She held the pack along with a lighter and a paper cup with large red lipstick stains on it in her left hand.

“Anyone in the infirmary today?”

She nodded. “Two lucky winners.”

Behind us a steady stream of inmates, returning from the chapel, library, or dining hall, made their way back to the dorms. A couple of them remarked on my message as they went by. Many of them spoke or waved to Nurse Anderson. She was warm and friendly to all of them.

“Infirmary’s a pretty popular place, isn’t it?” I asked.

“You have no idea,” she said with a wink. “A lot of these men just need some female TLC.”

“ATTENTION ON THE COMPOUND,” a loud voice said over the PA system. The words echoed off the buildings. “RECALL. INMATES RETURN TO YOUR DORM. RECALL. INMATES RETURN TO YOUR DORM.” The stream of inmates behind us became a rushing river of blue.

“Aren’t you usually on the night shift?” I asked.

“We’re all working overtime to prepare for the ACA inspection,” she said. “I work midnights mostly.”

I nodded and she took a long drag on her cigarette and a big gulp of her coffee.

“Wasn’t that just awful what happened to poor little Ike Johnson?” she said. “He was here the night before it happened. I talked with him for a pretty good while. We weren’t that busy. I just can’t believe it. Really freaked me out.”

“Who was in the infirmary that night with him?” I asked.

She thought for a minute. “Let me see,” she said, “seems like it was only Thomas, Jacobson, and Johnson. I think that’s right. We usually have more than that, so it sort of stands out, you know? Especially after what happened.”

“Anthony Thomas?” I asked.

She nodded.

“I saw him in Confinement a couple of days ago and he was on something strong. Didn’t seem like the side effects of something prescribed. Officer down there said to ask you what he’s on.”