I couldn’t answer that question.
She cried.
I was trying to be gentle and patient with her. I had to keep reminding myself that she was a murderer. “I think I know why you killed them, but I still don’t understand why you just didn’t turn them in. They would’ve been punished.”
“I didn’t want Anthony to be punished. I loved him. I just wanted to free him from that nigger inmate and that fat bastard banker’s grip. They turned Tony into a monster. He used to be so gentle and kind. They took that away from him. He never made love to me again,” she said and began to cry even more. After crying for about two minutes, her face turned hard and bitter. “He would only fuck me after they sunk their claws in him. They gave him AIDS.”
“What?” I asked in shock.
“Yeah, me too. It’s just a matter of time for me anyway. I’m dying. You’re not. They gave it to me, not you.”
“But you said . . .”
“I know, but I had just found out, and I was so angry, and I knew you were looking into what had happened. So . . .”
“So you lied to me.”
“Yes, I blamed you. I blame everybody at this fucking place.”
“You didn’t blame Skipper for what happened to Anthony?” I asked.
“Yeah, I blame him the most. He’s hard to get to though, but eventually I will.”
“No you won’t,” I said. “I’ve got to turn you in.”
She looked at me with pure rage. “Of course you do, you’re a man, aren’t you? All you pricks stick together, when you’re not sticking each other,” she said as the bitterness and guile spewed out of her mouth. “Sick pricks, everyone of you.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“I loved him. He was different. You should understand that, you’re a preacher. I’d do it all over again for him. I loved him.”
“Then why did you kill him?” I asked, but what I was thinking was, I don’t have AIDS. I’m going to live-a little longer, anyway. Thank you. I’m sorry for being so angry with you. Please forgive me.
She looked confused. “I loved him,” she yelled. “I didn’t kill him. I killed those other buttfuckers to protect him. I didn’t kill him.”
“Well, the courts will have to decide that.”
“The hell they will. You won’t turn me in. I’ve got that bitch from classification that you’re in love with. I’ll kill her. I’ll slice her open, you prick,” she yelled.
She spun around on her stool to face the bed behind her, pulling off the sheet in one fluid motion.
On the bed behind her, Anna was bound and gagged. Her eyes, filled with tears, expressed the terror she was experiencing. For one brief moment, when our eyes met, there was a quick flash of relief. But that soon changed when Sandra Strickland pulled out a scalpel from her pocket and placed it at Anna’s throat.
“Pretty, isn’t she?” Strickland asked. “Tell you what I’ll do. I’ll let you have her when I’m finished. You know, a little souvenir. A forget-me-not. I won’t be around, but I bet you’ll think of me every time you see her. You think she’ll be as pretty in death as she is in life?
I want to cut her. I want to slice her open,” she said her voice becoming that of a sadistic child.
“No, Sandy. Don’t. I’ll do whatever you want. I won’t tell anybody. Just let her live. Take me. Cut me instead. I’m a man. I know you’d rather cut a man, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah,” she said excitedly, and as she did she pressed the knife too hard against Anna’s throat. As Anna began to scream, muffled by her gag, blood started pouring out of a small opening on the right side of her neck.
“Here I am, Sandra. Cut me. I have all the evidence. She knows nothing. If you kill me, then all of this will be over. Cut me, Sandy.”
“I will,” she said as she stood up. “I’ll cut you bad. I’ll cut you good. So good. But it won’t bring Tony back, will it? WILL IT?” she screamed.
“Miss. Sandy, you okay?” Allen Jones asked as he stepped into the infirmary.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said as he walked over towards her and stood between us. Her knight in shining armor. He quickly glanced at Anna, but made neither expression or comment.
She looked back at me. “I was on vacation, out of town, when my Tony was killed. I didn’t do it. I loved him. I couldn’t kill him. I want him back.”
I thought about what she said. She was right. She couldn’t have killed him. I glanced at Anna, the blood still oozing out of her precious neck.
God, help me save her. Don’t let her die.
I decided to go in a different direction to see what would happen. “That’s what killed him,” I said. “Your love for him got him killed by someone who loves you.”
“What? Who?” she asked, shocked that someone would kill her Tony because of her.
“Him,” I said and gestured with my head toward Allen Jones.
The moment of truth was upon us. It hung in the air like a bad smell. I saw the look of revelation and realization on her face. I pressed on.
“He was watching that night,” I said. “He can be seen just behind Skipper watching what they did to you on the video. So he decided to kill them, but you beat him to the punch on Johnson, so he waits for his chance to get Thomas. When you were away, his wife got him out of confinement by her accusations against me, and it got him killed. Her, too.”
Jones looked away from me and back toward her. She looked at him with pure contempt.
She said, “I loved him, not you. I loved him, and you killed him. You stole him from me.” She started toward him on the offensive. When she reached him, she slapped him hard across the face. He didn’t flinch. “You dumb nigger, you took him from me. I loved him. I didn’t love you. I DON’T LOVE YOU,” she yelled even louder.
Strickland swiped at Jones’s face with the scalpel, slicing his cheek open about three inches. As the blood began pouring out of his cut, it spilled onto the ground and mixed with Anna’s blood, his blood defiling hers.
And then it happened. Jones brought both of his arms up in one quick motion, wrapped his hands around her neck, and snapped it like a twig. Her body went limp, her head fell unnaturally to the side, and when he let go of her, she crumpled onto the floor as if all her bones had been removed. Jones spun around and ran straight for me.
Not so long ago, I had made a vow not to injure another person ever again as long as I lived. But, what I did, I did out of instinct and training, not pledges or promises. It was strictly action and reaction, nothing more. And it was more in hopes of saving Anna, who lay unconscious now, than defending me.
Just before he reached me, I snapped out a hard right jab square on his nose. It stunned him, and blood started to pour out of it, but he was not about to stop. He came again, this time ducking his head down and tackling me like a football player. I was still sore from my last beating and I felt it everywhere as I hit the floor. He sat back onto my chest now, brought his left hand down hard on my chin.
I brought my midsection up, rocked forward, then back, and brought my legs up and wrapped them around his neck. I jerked them back down again hard, and he went down with them.
I jumped to my feet and looked around. There was still no one in sight. Anna’s entire bed, once white, was now crimson. She was dying. I ran over to the door. It was closed, which meant it was locked- it locks from the outside. Normally, just inmates were in here.
I turned around to see Jones getting to his feet and reaching into his back pocket. In another moment he produced from his back pocket a surgical knife similar to the one he had used to kill Thomas.
“You get my letters, fucker?” he hissed at me.
“Yeah, but you just killed the woman those letters were meant to protect,” I said in a voice that said, You’re not only a psychopath; you’re an idiot, too.
“Well, think about this,” he said. “When I finish with you, she’s mine.” He slung his head toward Anna.
“You won’t touch her,” I said, rage pouring out through my tone more than my words. “I won’t let you touch her. IT’S OVER!” I yelled.