Dirty White Boys Read Online Free Page B

inmates, the two Pye boys and their cellmate, ah—”
    “Peed,” said Richard.
    “Yeah, Peed,” said Harry into the thing.
    “What’s the dope, Harry?” the radio crackled. “The lieutenant okay this?”
    “Say he did and you can check with him,” said Lamar.
    Harry swallowed again, seemed to lose half a shade of color, and then lied badly into the radio, “Yes, he did, Control. You can check. Got me a canary wants to do some singing.”
    “You need an escort?”
    “No, got me a pussy newboy and two soft old boys, that’s all. No sweat.”
    “You watch that fucking Odell,” said the voice. “He’s as crazy as a goddamned loon.”
    “Cleared?”
    “Cleared, but you gotta show paperwork.”
    Harry led the three men up the catwalk. At the top, they could turn and see the whole cellblock behind them, a cube cut with cells situated inside the larger cube of the housing building, with catwalks called shooting ways strung out parallel to each level, so that the screws could watch or blast away with water, buckshot, or .223s, as it fit their purposes.
    Lamar looked at it. His home. Knew every cell, every nook and cranny, every hiding place. Only place he’d ever been happy. Where he belonged, really belonged.
    “Mar,” said Odell. “Go home see mamma?”
    “That’s right, Odell. Odell go see mamma. You just do what I say, and it’ll all be fine.”
    Odell, Lamar realized, was scared. He was leaving something that he knew. He probably couldn’t even remember the outside, so small and cramped was his sad little mind.With his elbow, he gave Odell a little nudge of affection. “Lamar going to take care of Odell, make it all right,” he said.
    The main security gate at the highest level opened.
    The three inmates stepped into a cocoon of professional attention. Guards flew to them, patted them down. One of them waved a Garrett Super Scanner metal detector up and down in search of the telltale hum that revealed a hidden hatpin or razor; none came. Meanwhile, another man gave Harry’s paperwork the once-over.
    “Harry, this don’t look like the goddamn lieutenant’s scrawl, though goddammit, the man can hardly write his own name.”
    “When he drinks a bit his hand gets scratchy,” Harry said. “Whyn’t you call him for the okay?”
    The moment hung in the air. Richard had some trouble breathing, but Lamar was as slick as they come.
    “You damn boys are making it so hard on me I just might change my goddamned mind. Don’t want to think too long ’bout what I’m set to do. Might change my tune.”
    “Lamar, you have more shit in you than a goddamn outhouse,” said the guard. “Go on, Harry, get ’em out of here. I can’t believe Lamar’s turning snitch. Thought you was a tough con, Lamar.”
    “Getting old,” said Lamar. “Can’t get it hard no more. Warden’s going to get me a softer joint, you know, a country club. Maybe I can get me some pussy.”
    “Get ’em out of here,” said the supervisor. “Hope the goddamned warden knows what he’s in for.”
    Harry escorted them down the hallway beyond the security checkpoint. It seemed like a different world suddenly; the hallway was bright and airy, though the windows had mesh screens; it was just possible to see the green plains of Southeast Oklahoma outside as they fell away toward OklahomaCity a hundred-odd miles off, all farmland and low hills. And horizon! Richard saw the horizon between the two red turrets of the rear gate, accessible only from Admin Two, the building they were now in.
    The outside world: Richard had forgotten such a place existed. The weight of the prison was its totality, its immensity: in its grip, all other possibilities diminished, even disappeared. He had a brief and sweet image of his life before, of the freedoms he’d had, the pleasures, the small idiotic rights. A blast of pity for himself and his helpless ways swept over him.
    “In here,” said Lamar, putting his shoulder quickly against a locked door