In the Light

Chapter Thirty-Five: Arrested

Mary picked up an ancient, and therefore priceless, axe and inspected it. She put it in the duffle bag at the center of the room. Ruby tossed an equally ancient knife into the bag. They were taking their time. Ruby took a tire iron and broke another glass box in the museum. This one had clay pots in it; she was more careful with those.

She knew it was coming, but the footsteps still made her heart beat faster. She pretended not to hear them. Then they entered the room with their guns held protectively in front of their Kevlar encased chests. "Put your hands in the air!"

"Like I just don't care or-?" The guard grabbed her shoulder and roughly pushed her to the ground. Ruby winced when her knees hit the ground. They jerked her hands behind her back. She clenched her jaw, the sudden movement sending pain through her broken rib. She gave a blank stare to the man reading her rights. She let her newly dyed black hair fall in front of her face.

• • •

Hours later, they were sent from the local police station to the nearest jail. As they got off the bus, the women in the yard rattled the chain link fence, yelling at them. "I hope you owed Denise a big favor. This is a bit much."

"Don't worry, Ruby. It's not that I owed her a favor. It's a bit more complicated than that."

"I hope this case isn't complicated," muttered Ruby, behind Mary.

• • •

Ruby didn't look half bad in an orange jumpsuit. After meal time was over, they were heading out when Mary bumped into someone. "Watch where you're going!" the other woman yelled.

"Oh. I should watch where I'm going?" Mary shoved the other woman who was incidentally bigger than her. Ruby stepped between them.

"You have a death wish?" The woman asked.

"Maybe." Ruby socked the woman as hard as she could in the jaw. It probably hurt Ruby more.

Ruby defended herself pretty well. She got hurt, and she might have won if a guard hadn't stepped in. She pushed Ruby's chin up with a baton. "Not a good start. Name?"

"Bradbury." Ruby looked the guard in the eye.

"Like the author. How nice." She took the stick out from under Ruby's chin quickly and grabbed her arm. "Up to the infirmary now."

Ruby was happy. She had a reputation in jail now and that made her want to laugh.

In the infirmary, they cleaned the cuts on her face and hands. Her rib hurt worse now. The other woman, she'd her heard being called Luca, had kneed her in the side. Ruby figured she broke her rib more, but she told the doctor that it didn't hurt that bad. They still kept her there for observation or whatever.

They put her in a pen-like room next to Luca. Ruby tried apologizing to her, but Luca just told her to shut up. Ruby had needed to start a fight so Mary could go to the old cell block. Denise had called Mary and told her that people were dying in the jail.

After some research, they figured it was the ghost of a man who had died in the old cell block. Mary was going to go there and burn anything left in his room. It must not have worked because a few hours later, Ruby was looking out into the infirmary and she saw the literal ghost of a woman.

The woman flew towards her. She was wearing an old nurses uniform. She knocked Ruby on her back and put her hand on her chest. Ruby gasped. She couldn't breath. Her heart was beating fast. She used her foot to knock the food tray off the bed. Some how, she was able to reach the plastic salt container. She flung the salt on the ghost.

The ghost disappeared, but Ruby's relief only lasted for a minute. Luca backed up and hit the wall. "What are you? No!" She hit the ground and started gasping. Ruby didn't have any salt left. She couldn't do anything.

"Guard!"

• • •

The next day, in the yard, Mary and Ruby talked to one of the older prisoners. "Yeah, I know someone like that. Nurse Glockner. People would go to the infirmary with a cold, next thing you know, they're dead."

"Let me guess. They all died of supposed heart attacks."

"Yep. I got out and when I came back, she was gone. Died in a riot. Got what she deserved if you ask me."

Mary and Ruby exchanged a look. They walked off to a corner of the yard that was empty. "This is good," Ruby said. "I mean, what happened was bad, but we can stop it now. I need to talk to Sam before we escape. We don't know when she'll kill again."

"You'll have to talk to Sam without me. I don't want anyone to see me talking to him. They have me in for murder. It's bad enough that they think we're working together. Well, we are, but..."

• • •

Ruby smiled widely when she saw Sam at the window. He smiled too, but as she got closer, he looked concerned. "What happened?" Ruby touched her face as she sat down and picked up the phone.

"Oh this? I got in a fight." She put on a smug face. "Don't worry. I did it on purpose. Wait, that sounds weird. Mary needed a distraction so she could sneak off." She waved her hand. "I'm fine. Listen. We think we found out who the ghost is. A nurse who used to work here - Glockner."

"Okay. We'll find out where she's buried and burn her. We'll be out back at eight to pick you up. Everything going as planned?"

"Yeah. You need to go and get that ghost though. Don't worry about me." She smiled again.

"I'll try not to. Your hair still freaks me out a bit though."

She twirled a strand of black hair on her finger. "I think it makes me look tough. That was the goal. I've got a reputation now." She winked. "I'll tell you about it later. I love you!"

"Love you too." They hung up.