Chapter 10 - Someone Inside Stateville Was Watching
Ruth confronted Doyle the next morning.
“Camera fourteen.”
His face changed.
That was enough.
“What about it?”
“You tell me.”
Doyle closed his office door.
“Who spoke to you?”
“Doesn't matter.”
“It matters if you're putting officers at risk.”
“So there is something.”
Doyle rubbed his forehead.
“Three years ago, two nights before Detective Valez died, someone visited Bianke.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You're the warden.”
“I wasn't then.”
Ruth remembered.
Doyle had been deputy warden.
“Who signed the visitor?”
“No one.”
“What?”
“The visitor entered under a maintenance credential.”
“Camera?”
“Recorded him.”
“And?”
“The footage disappeared.”
Ruth stared.
“Who had access?”
“Security supervisors.”
“Names.”
Doyle hesitated.
“Officer Powell.”
Ruth remembered Powell.
The man who had once started telling her Salvatore specifically requested something before his radio interrupted him.
“What else?”
“Powell left Stateville two years ago.”
“Where is he?”
“No idea.”
“Why didn't you report this?”
“I did.”
“To Voss?”
Doyle went silent.
Ruth understood.
“You reported it to the corrupt detective.”
“I didn't know he was corrupt.”
“And then?”
“The matter disappeared.”
Ruth paced.
“Who was the visitor?”
Doyle opened a locked drawer.
He removed a still image.
Grainy.
A man entering a corridor.
Face partially turned.
Ruth had seen him before.
Vincent Caruso.
Her pulse increased.
“He visited Salvatore?”
Doyle nodded.
“Two nights before Valez died.”
“Why?”
“Ask Bianke.”
Ruth did.
Salvatore's expression hardened when she showed him the photograph.
“He came to threaten Elena.”
“What exactly?”
“He knew Tomas was alive.”
Ruth sat.
“How?”
“I never found out.”
“What did he want?”
“Tomas's location.”
“And you refused.”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Salvatore looked toward the wall.
“He said if I didn't cooperate, he'd make sure every person I tried to protect became the reason I died.”
“And then Valez died.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Caruso was inside the prison.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell your lawyers?”
“I did.”
Ruth blinked.
“What?”
“They filed for the video.”
“It vanished.”
“Yes.”
“And no record exists.”
“Yes.”
Ruth shook her head.
“Every time I think I've reached the bottom of this—”
“You haven't.”
She stared.
“What else?”
Salvatore's silence returned.
“Salvatore.”
“No.”
Ruth slammed her hand against the counter.
“No more half-truths.”
His eyes met hers.
“You want everything?”
“Yes.”
“Even if you hate me again?”
“I never promised not to.”
Salvatore nodded.
“Fine.”
He leaned forward.
“Caruso didn't choose Miguel randomly.”
Ruth waited.
“He knew your husband from Saint Catherine's.”
“So?”
“He knew Miguel had once met me.”
Ruth's breathing slowed.
“He wanted a victim the prosecution could connect indirectly to me.”
“That is insane.”
“It was deliberate.”
“Why Sophia?”
Salvatore's face broke.
“He didn't know Sophia would be there.”
Ruth swallowed.
Neither spoke for several seconds.
Then Salvatore said:
“When Rener saw the child, he hesitated.”
Ruth's hands began shaking.
“You know that how?”
“Tomas heard them arguing.”
“What happened?”
“Caruso had ordered no witnesses.”
Ruth shut her eyes.
Sophia's face appeared.
“Stop.”
Salvatore stopped.
Ruth breathed.
Then whispered:
“No. Continue.”
“Rener wanted to leave.”
“But he didn't.”
“No.”
“Who fired?”
Salvatore looked devastated.
“I don't know.”
Ruth wiped her tears angrily.
“You protected Tomas to save a child.”
“Yes.”
“You had a code against hurting families.”
“Yes.”
“But men around you still did this.”
“Yes.”
“Then your code was worthless.”
The sentence landed.
Salvatore nodded.
“Yes.”
Ruth had expected defense.
There was none.
He continued.
“That is the truth I avoided longest.”
She looked at him.
“I told myself rules made me different from worse men.”
His voice grew quiet.
“But I built a world where men like Caruso could exist.”
Ruth listened.
“I never ordered your family killed. But I helped create the machine that killed them.”
For the first time, Salvatore was not asking to be distinguished from the crime.
He was accepting responsibility beyond the courtroom definition.
Ruth felt anger.
But something else too.
Recognition.
This was not innocence.
It was accountability.
She whispered, “Why tell me now?”
“Because if I survive, I cannot return to the man I was.”
Ruth studied him.
“You think you'll survive?”
“No.”
That answer startled her.
“Then why are we doing this?”
Salvatore looked at her.
“So you know the truth.”
Not for freedom.
Not for revenge.
For her.
Ruth sat quietly.
Then the visitation-room alarm sounded.
A guard entered.
“Bianke, stand.”
“What happened?” Ruth asked.
“Security issue.”
Salvatore looked at her.
The guard handcuffed him.
As he was led away, Salvatore turned.
“Ruth.”
“Yes?”
“Find Powell.”
“Why?”
“Because if he was on duty when Caruso entered—”
“He may know who helped him.”
Salvatore nodded.
Ruth left.
That evening Rebecca located former Officer Powell.
He had moved to Wisconsin.
They drove overnight.
They found his house empty.
Front door open.
Lights on.
Coffee still warm.
On the kitchen table sat a photograph of Ruth.
Taken that morning.
Someone had reached Powell first.
May you like
And now they were watching her too.
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