The reply was garbled.
“Slow down. I can’t understand.”
Her mother crying hit Madison in the gut. Suddenly, she was thirteen again, standing outside her parents’ bedroom while her father died inside.
“Mom, what happened? Tell me!”
“He’s—he’s gone.”
She went cold.
“Gone? Danny is dead? He’s dead?”
She started to hyperventilate.
“I don’t know. But he’s not there.”
“Where? What are you saying?”
“I went to the jail. They didn’t know where he was. They couldn’t find him in the system. They said he might’ve got moved, but they didn’t know. How could they not know?”
Rage flashed. “Ma! Jesus Christ, why would you scare me like that? I thought he was dead.”
Her mother struggled to get the crying under control.
“He might be dead. He could be dead,” Yolanda said between sobs.
“Don’t say that unless you know it’s true. You’ll give yourself a heart attack.”
“Why won’t you—you don’t—take this seriously.”
“Mom. They moved him to another prison. That’s all.”
“The guard said if he got moved, there’d be a transfer order. There’s nothing. Nothing. He’s missing from the computer, like he never existed.”
“It’s a mistake. They don’t lose inmates. He’s got to be somewhere.”
“You don’t know. You’re just saying that.”
“You don’t know, either. Calm down, please. I’m telling you, a prison is a bureaucracy. They move people around. It can take time for the files to catch up. That has to be what happened.”
“He said they were gonna kill him, and now he’s goone.”
She wailed like her heart was broken, and Madison couldn’t bear it. She made soothing noises into the phone, fighting tears of her own. What if her mother was right, and something had really happened? It would be her fault for not believing Danny sooner and doing more to help. Mom would think so, too. She’d never forgive her. She had to find Danny and help him fight the case. Enough worrying about the repercussions for herself. The repercussions of doing nothing were a hell of a lot worse, for all of them.
Her mother’s sobs were wearing themselves out.
“Ma, listen. If he was dead, they’d tell us. They might lie, say he got killed in a fight or something. But they wouldn’t claim not to know. This transfer thing has the ring of truth. I’m telling you. Mom? Stop crying, please. He’s alive. I’ll prove it. I’ll find him.”
“How, Madison? How you gonna find him when the guards don’t know anything, and that lawyer won’t lift a finger to help us?”
“Did you ask him?”
“The lawyer? Why would I bother calling that—crook?”
“You’re right. He is a crook. I researched him. He’s got a long history of disciplinary complaints. The detective in the case is dirty, too. Wallace. I don’t like the looks of him from what I see. Was he in court? Did you meet him?”
“No. But Danny says he’s the devil.”
She shivered thinking about him pounding on the door last night, only a piece of wood between them.
“Whatever happened to Danny, those two know about it. I’m going to call Logue and see what he says.”
“He won’t tell you a thing. He’ll just make trouble. When are you gonna call that judge, Madison? She could really help.”
Or hurt. She thought about the plastic bag full of cash taped inside the tank of the toilet in the master bath. When it came to Judge Conroy, the only thing she knew for sure was that she didn’t know enough.
“It’s complicated. I think there’s some chance that Danny is right, that the judge is on the take. I don’t want to approach her until I know. Where are you now?”
“I just got home, but I can’t sit still. I’m climbing the walls. I have to do something.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Talk to Danny’s friends, or—”
“No. Absolutely not. It’s dangerous. Mom, please. I need you to lie low, take care of yourself. Eat something. Get some rest. Let me deal with this. I can’t help Danny if I’m worried about you. Understand?”
“All right. But you promise you’ll find him?”
“I’ll do everything in my power.”
“Madison.”