He shakes his head like he doesn’t think I’m actually going to be careful, and he’s right. Whatever harm Shane tried to bring to me all those years ago, I don’t think he’s going to try anything now, surrounded by guards capable of shooting him if they need to. And the truth is, when I look at him now, it’s hard to imagine he was ever capable of it. Even when we were in the courtroom, when the memory of the air in my windpipe being cut off was still fresh in my head, it was hard to look at Shane and imagine him trying to kill me. He just seemed like Shane—the boy I fell in love with on the football field.

I still can’t wrap my head around what made him do all those terrible things. Split personality? A moment of insanity? But it doesn’t matter. Either way, he’s paying the price.

The infirmary at the Raker Penitentiary is a small unit with six beds, where we can administer basic medical treatments. We can do IV antibiotics, give fluids, and monitor patients who are too sick to be in the general population but not sick enough to be in the hospital. I’ve been stopping there first thing in the morning to do my rounds, then I make another stop before I leave.

Shane is the only prisoner who is currently occupying a bed in the infirmary. He is lying flat on one of the mattresses, his eyes shut, the bruise on his forehead much darker than it was yesterday. Even though Dorothy said yesterday that he didn’t need to be in shackles, he’s got one leg chained to the bedrail.

There’s a fresh-faced young nurse’s aide named Charlene who is sitting at the infirmary desk. I walk over to her and nod toward the beds. “Nelson do okay overnight?”

“Yes, no problems.”

I can’t help but ask: “Why is he shackled to the bedrail?”

Charlene shrugs. “Hunt came in here before he went home yesterday and put the cuffs on him. I don’t know why. He’s mostly just been sleeping. He only woke up for breakfast. I gave him some Tylenol for a headache, and he was really nice. Very polite.”

“Good,” I say.

“He’s cute too, isn’t he?” She giggles, then her face turns red. “I need to get out more, huh?”

“Yeah…”

She looks at the sole occupied bed, where Shane looks like he is still asleep. “I wonder what he did to end up here.”

Charlene is young enough that she wouldn’t remember the excitement around Shane’s trial, even if she is from the Raker area. But I’m not going to be the one to clue her in. “I… I don’t know.”