Cloaked in Blood Read Online Free PDF

a guest of Attica
didn’t cover what sort of relationship Dad had with any of the
guards other than Timmons, who was supposedly a good guy.  I
thought about what Dad had to arrange before my brilliant little
jail break plan was set into motion.
    It was inconceivable to me that any prison
personnel would knowingly conspire to help him escape.  So
what sort of relationships had Dad cultivated during his near 20
year tenure in prison?  Was it more of a look-the-other-way
type of arrangement?  Special treatment?  Access to a
telephone to make private calls?
    For the obvious reasons, the latter seemed
the most likely favor anyone could offer Dad.  He’d need that
privacy to contact anyone on the outside, and the missing corpse
scenario, my father’s remains allegedly being cremated instead of
some other dead man’s, had to come from outside help.  But
who?
    And why would Dad all of a sudden take
someone into his confidence to enact such a brilliant ruse? 
Hadn’t he lectured me, after hearing my plan to free him, that I
was involving too many people?  So who would he trust with
something like that?
    Johnny strolled through the kitchen and
planted outside the open refrigerator door.  I watched him
peck through the offerings before settling on string cheese. 
The door thudded shut.  Our eyes met.
    “You want something?”
    The truth, perhaps.  I know me. 
And yes, I’ve come to terms with the reality that I’m not nearly as
enigmatic as I once believed, specifically where Johnny Orion is
concerned.  I suppose a bit of disgust had leached into my
facial expression when he frowned.
    “Now what?”
    “You tell me,” I said.
    “Sorry, sweetheart, but if I’ve done
something wrong, I’m completely and blissfully unaware of it at the
moment.”
    “You lied to me, Johnny.”
    He paused.  It was like watching his
eyeballs flicker through an invisible file of lies, trying to
figure out which one he told that had suddenly come to my
attention.  It was not a nice realization for me.
    “There have been so many that you’re not
sure which one I’ve exposed?”
    He grinned.  “There are lies, and then
there are lies , Doc.  You know that.  What did I
do?  Claim to have put the toilet seat down with I didn’t
really do it?”
    I shook my head.  “Lies and then
lies.  Those are your words.  But I remember many other
things you’ve said to me since we met, Johnny.  And it occurs
to me that Dad’s phone call to you, telling you exactly when and
where you could find me… something about that story just doesn’t
quite gel in my mind.”
    “In what way?”
    “Don’t ask me like an indulgent husband, and
don’t assume for one second that I haven’t put certain pieces of
this puzzle into place.  You had to know it was only a matter
of time – and it wouldn’t be the first little foray you took into
being an accomplice into something less than legal.”
    “Helen, I seriously have no idea what you’re
talking about.”
    “You said Dad called you and told you what I
was planning to do when I went to New York.”
    Johnny hissed a curse under his breath.
    “If you helped him, why the fuck were you so
pissed off at me when –”
    “Because you ran away from me,” he
growled.  The half eaten strand of cheese was tossed into the
sink.  Johnny’s large hands manacled my wrists and yanked me
close.  “You gave yourself to me, Helen, and then you lied to
me, walked away, were ready to get on that jet with Wendell and
disappear.”
    “I told you it was killing me,” I
said.  “Just the thought of never seeing you again.”
    “But you still went up those stairs.”
    “Johnny…”
    “If I’d known what you were doing, I
would’ve stopped you Helen.  But it was too late without
watching you get arrested and prosecuted for a shitload of
felonies.  It was damage control.  I didn’t want to… there was no choice.  Surely you can understand that.”
    I sucked in a deep breath.  “This