Buried Deep by Margot Hunt

Author:Margot Hunt [Hunt, Margot]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: novella
Publisher: Margot Hunt
Published: 2021-08-02T23:00:00+00:00

I drove to the jail in a panic. I didn’t even know where the jail was in our small town, and my fingers shook as I typed the address into my phone for directions.

I expected that when I saw James, it would be like in the movies, with the two of us sitting opposite one another, a plexiglass wall between us, talking on old-fashioned phone sets. But after I went through security, I was escorted by a uniformed officer to one of the pods where pre-trial prisoners were housed. Natalie had explained on the phone that, for safety reasons, pre-trial detainees were kept apart from those who’d actually been convicted of a crime. I think she had meant to calm me with this information, but if so, it had the exact opposite effect.

Another officer buzzed us through a locked metal door.

“Wait here.” The officer who’d brought me back gestured toward a common room inside the pod that was furnished with industrial tables and chairs, all bolted to the floor. It smelled overwhelmingly like bleach. There were prisoners scattered throughout the space, wearing light-blue scrubs that looked almost exactly like the ones James wore at work, sitting and talking quietly with visitors.

“Here?” I asked. I didn’t want to be left alone, even if there was an officer at one end of the room, watching carefully from behind a glass window. A wave of nausea rose up inside of me.

“Yep.” The officer looked bored. I supposed this was all routine to him, but I couldn’t imagine how. This was a place where people were locked up, taken away from their loved ones by force, their lives forever changed . . . and this Sheriff’s deputy, who looked barely older than Paige, was trying to stifle a yawn. When he saw me staring at him, he smiled ruefully.

“I have a three-month-old baby. Well, three months next week. She kept us up most of the night,” he explained.

Somehow, I managed to smile back at him. “I remember those days. It’s exhausting, but wonderful at the same time.”

“True enough. Your husband will be out shortly.”

I sat down at one of the unoccupied tables. They’d taken my handbag away when I entered the jail, so I clutched my hands in my lap.

Suddenly, James was there, shuffling toward me. He was wearing the same blue scrubs as the other prisoners, as well as plastic shower shoes. I stood quickly and reached for him. Before I could touch him, the officer behind the glass window spoke through an intercom. “Ma’am, you’re not allowed to touch the inmate.”

I froze, staring at James wordlessly. Inmate?

“Maggie.” He breathed my name. “I wish you hadn’t come. I don’t want you in this place.”

“Of course I came. I was talking to Paige. She was freaking out, and I was in the middle of trying to calm her down when your lawyer called and told me you were arrested . . .” I stopped, as the words stuck in my throat. “What’s going on?”

James shook his head, and then briefly pressed his hands to his face.

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