“They’s this dude what handles things for people on the ’pound. I ain’t gonna say his name, but I want you to know he come up to a small group of some real badasses, you know. He say he got lotsa money for a hit. He say it’s protection on the ’pound and about three hundred in canteen. I never heard anyone offer that much for anything. Then he say who he want hit. It you.”

I was silent. I couldn’t believe it.

“It really surprise me, you know, ’cause you the most popular chaplain we ever had. Everybody on the ’pound say you really care and shit. So when he say he want a hit on you, I just really couldn’t believe it. I thought you should know. But I mean, I ain’t no squealer or nothin’. I just doin’ you a solid like you done for me when my moms was dying. So we straight, and you didn’t hear it from me.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

“Just stay off the ’pound awhile, and watch your back.”

28

“We know for sure now that Johnson was murdered,” Tom Daniels was saying. “He was put to sleep in the early morning hours last Tuesday. We know that his body was kept in the caustic storage closet. The lab tested the cleaner and some fibers that were found on the floor in there and made a match. We think he was drugged between six and seven.”

We were back in Stone’s office on Monday afternoon giving him an update.

I had been operating under the assumption that Ike had been murdered but now it was confirmed by the lab.

I thought about the timing. If the estimate was right, he was put to sleep just before Security shift change and just after Medical shift change. The two are on slightly different schedules.

“A large quantity of sleeping pills were found hidden in Jacobson’s property this weekend,” Stone said. “He’s been saving them up, not taking them. He’s in Confinement now but he was there with Johnson the night he was killed.”

“Who found them?” I asked. “Who did the search?”

“Captain Skipper.”

“Of course he did,” I said. “These pills weren’t found when Jacobson’s property was searched when he was sent to Confinement, but conveniently as we’re gathering evidence against Skipper. Why is he still working? Surely after Saturday night you can suspend him now.”