Chapter 4
Adam Smith was coming up on his tenth anniversary at Glenwood.
While she hadn’t been there for the first half of his stint, she’d met him her first day at the facility and known him even longer than that, thanks to the media circus that had surrounded his trial.
The case had captured the nation’s attention for weeks that summer.
She had been sixteen, and Adam Smith had been a heartthrob at eighteen years old.
While the prosecutors had painted Adam as a murderous, scorned lover who heartlessly slaughtered his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Adam had pleaded innocence.
He claimed their relationship had ended on good terms, with a co-parenting plan in place for the birth of their child when she’d started a job at the county sheriff’s office as a receptionist. Adam’s claim that one of the younger officers quickly became obsessed with her fell on deaf ears.
The jury had returned with a verdict within an hour of being released.
Adam Smith was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
His pleas of corruption within the police station fell on deaf ears for eight years until tragedy struck the small outlying Florida town Adam was from.
Two of the officers who had testified against Adam were found to have done some terrible things throughout their careers.
Lying under oath to get a wrongful conviction was the least of what they’d done.
Unlike the movies, Adam wasn’t suddenly free and walking the streets because it was discovered that a few cops had lied.
There was a process to appeal a case and everything needed to be redone.
While Sarah was hopeful that his conviction would soon be overturned, Adam didn’t hold out the same hope, though she could understand why.
Being institutionalized was a truly terrifying process.
Sarah tapped on the bars of Adam’s cell.
She could tell the man had been waiting for her to arrive.
It had become quite the routine when she would stop by his cell daily.
The system had failed him, and not only was it something known within the facility, but the national news had made it the center of daily conversation and updates.
Adam smiled at her and approached the cell door.
“You’re late today.”
“A few minutes is nothing in a day in the life of a prisoner. Besides, did you have some big plans that I’ve made you late for?”
Adam chuckled. “You don’t know, I could have had something important I needed to do.”
“Well, in that case, I apologize,” Sarah said. “I’ll try to make sure I do better from now on. At least until they let you out of this place.”
“Hell, if they were going to release me, they would have done it by now. I’ll believe it when I see it at this point.”
“They’re going to make the right decision, Adam. You don’t belong here, and I’m sure they’re going to make a decision soon. We might even hear something by Monday. I think we’re going to get some good news.”
“I’m not going to hold my breath on that. Those people have left me here to rot, and I’m sure they don’t want the world to know how badly they screwed up.”
Sarah sighed. “You have to keep hope alive, Adam. Don’t let their failures control how you think about things. You’re going to get out of here, and I, for one, think it’s going to be soon. Have you started making plans for when you get to leave?”
“I’ll think more about that once I cross those lines out of the front gate. Until then, I’m going to keep my mindset right where it is. I can’t afford to think outside of those gates until they let me go.”
Sarah cringed and shook her head. She could understand his hesitation toward having hope, but she wasn’t going to stop being upbeat because of it.
They were polar opposites but somehow managed to click.
Yet she didn’t dare have hope that they could be friends once he headed out.
She could be optimistic for him but knew once he was free, he’d find his own path and forget all about her after years of having her ruling over him.
Refusing to let her sadness show, she smiled at her friend again.
“You heard about this storm coming?” Sarah asked, not yet ready to leave.
He grinned and nodded. “Sure have. You’ve gotta love how much the media blows things out of proportion.”
Sarah agreed with him, and Adam knew it.
They had spent hours talking about their upbringings.
It was amazing to hear how similar they had been despite being worlds apart.
His father had taught him how to live off the land just like her parents.
The only difference between them was the income level of the people raising them.
Sarah had been given every opportunity in life, whereas Adam had fought for everything he’d gained by the time he was tossed in jail.
She watched him as he leaned against the bars, his eyes looking out the small windows high above the first-floor cells.
Dark tendrils of hair fell into his eyes.
Sarah was sure the hair he kept long shielded his inquisitive gaze from the other inmates.
They didn’t like it when people watched them, no matter who it was.
She prided herself on the prison having an incredibly low rate of violence and inmate fighting.
If there were problems between the inmates, they worked together to solve them before the warden needed to be involved.
“You’re looking a little like you’re lost in thought,” Adam said. “Everything going okay for you?”
“Yeah. I’m just thinking about when they let you out. How different things are going to be, but you’re finally going to get to see the real world and how much it has changed.”
“I’m sure it’s going to be crazy at first, but I haven’t given it much thought. Say, you going to throw me a big party when I get out?”
Sarah laughs. “I’d throw you the biggest party you’ve ever had if I thought for one moment that you’d actually show up.”
“Well, I could tell you I would come to that, but after what I’ve seen with the corruption in this country, I’m getting out as soon as I can.”
“Planning on getting yourself out of the country then?”
“Yes, ma’am. As soon as I leave these gates, I’m getting as far from this country as I can,” Adam said.
“Have you given any thought as to where you’re going to go?”
“Actually, I have some family down in Argentina. That will be the best place for me, and I’ll be back with my relatives. I think out of everybody, they deserve to have me back home.”
“That’s good, Adam. I think it will be great for you to get some quality time with your family. Especially with how long it has been since you’ve seen them. Well, I need to get some work done before they fire me. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“They’d be making a big mistake if they ever fired you.”
It irritated her to no end that she was so bothered by Adam’s revelation.
Of course, he would have family and people who cared about him somewhere in the world.
It was a good thing he wasn’t going to be alone.
Yet the twinge inside her remained as she climbed the metal steps to her crow’s nest. Unlocking the door, Sarah plopped down in her chair and swiveled around to look out over the block.
It was going to be a long weekend with everyone on edge over the threat of the solar storm.
There was no point in telling the inmates not to get worked up over it.
They had something to do and something to focus on.
As long as it wasn’t causing them any problems, she didn’t see the harm in letting them hope for an outage.
The old buildings would quickly become hotboxes, and they’d regret wishing the power would shut off, even for the five minutes it would take for the backup generators to kick in.
They were protected by overlaying fencing woven with gold thread in an effort to protect against the threat of a solar flare.
She had done enough research on the topic to know if a major solar storm struck them, the protective cages wouldn’t do much good for the generators.
Shaking her head, she did her best to let it slip from her mind.
The threat was minimal, and the prisoners would stay locked behind the doors no matter what surges might come.
It was in her nature to worry about every little thing that might go wrong.
The reality was that nothing was going to happen, and she knew it.
They were protected not only as a facility but as a nation.
She had faith in their predictions and needed to get back to work.