The Southern Fraud (The Southern Lawyer Series Book 5) by Peter O'Mahoney

Author:Peter O'Mahoney [O'Mahoney, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roam Free Publishing
Published: 2024-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 28

Deon’s injuries took less time to heal than predicted, and for the past two weeks, he’d tried to milk it for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, he’d never been much of a liar, and it didn’t take the medical staff long to figure out what was happening. Deon lived in a place where fleecing staff for anything by any means possible was a common thing, and most of his fellow inmates could have won Oscars for their performances. Not so, Deon.

Aside from his inability to lie, he’d never been much of a performer. His life had always been serious, with his father a staunch advocate of courteous and presentable behavior. Manners, high presentation, well-spoken; it all mattered, and with Deon’s future in law, it was an expectation he embraced.

Prison, however, was a different kettle of fish, and he quickly realized that this wasn’t a place where any of that mattered. This was a place still operating under the laws of the jungle, and only the strongest survived. Either through payment or affiliation, protection mattered, and everybody paid. For Deon, if the infirmary offered him a place to hide, then this was where he’d try to remain for as long as possible.

Deon sat on the edge of his bed, feeling like his insides were about to fall through his feet. The weight of what the nurse had told him earlier continued to grow with each passing minute, and without a way of making them change their minds, his next meal would likely be back in the unit.

Nurse Chapman didn’t have to tell him, but she whispered the words to him while doing her morning rounds. He detected a look of regret in her eyes, the usual smile replaced by what he saw as concern for him. During his few weeks in the infirmary, he shared many stories with her, including his fears for the prison. It wasn’t a lie, and at no time did he try to make it sound any different. She warned him the previous week that the day would come when he would need to return. He didn’t expect it to come so soon.

It wasn’t Chapman who had told him to prepare for his return, though. The doctor had delivered that message herself, a stern woman with as much empathy as a house brick. During his half-a-dozen interactions with her, he couldn’t remember ever seeing a smile on her, and she had given him the news bluntly and directly.

“You’re well enough to return to your unit, Mr. Ramsey,” was what she had said, and without offering him a chance to respond, she had left him sitting there contemplating his next move.

The first guard stopped in about an hour later and asked whether Deon had his stuff together. With just a book and a spare shirt in his possession, the question felt almost rhetorical. All that was left to do was wait, and each time he heard a set of boots walking down the hallway, his insides tightened a little more.

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