No Escape by Mary Burton Page B

he’s stuck to a strict routine until lately when his illness became grave. He spends most days in the prison hospital.’
    ‘But he still reads the paper,’ Brody said.
    ‘That’s right. Reads it like it were the Bible.’
    ‘And he’s had no visitors or mail?’ Brody said.
    ‘He gets fan letters. We screen them all, of course, before we give them to him, but he’s not responded to a one. If he’s not getting treatment in the infirmary then he’s reading books in his cell. We can search his cell again.’
    ‘Wouldn’t hurt.’
    ‘Let me know what you find.’
    ‘Will do.’
    Brody and Jo’s ride back to the airport was strained and tense. Brody made small talk with the officer driving them, but she barely commented, choosing instead to stare out the window.
    By the time he’d done a preflight check of the plane and they’d boarded, the rain had passed. The sun now hung low in the horizon, casting a fiery light on the landscape.
    ‘I’d like to go with you tomorrow,’ she said as he’d closed the hangar door on the plane in Austin just after seven. ‘I want to know if Smith was telling us the truth or not.’
    The rain had cleared, but the air was heavy with moisture. Moonlight bounced off puddles. ‘There’s no reason for you to go. It’s going to be a long day and could well be a wild-goose chase. No sense wasting your time.’
    ‘It’s my time to waste. I want to see with my own eyes. I’m happy to drive myself.’
    Brody shook his head. ‘Not a good idea.’
    ‘You can’t keep me from going.’
    He raised a brow. ‘I sure as hell can.’
    Hearing the steel behind the words she retrenched. ‘The guy summoned me there for a reason. I’m mixed up in this somehow, and I need to figure it out.’ She tightened her jaw. ‘Come on, Brody, please.’
    Please
sounded as if it had been torn from her throat, but it accomplished her goal. ‘If you go, you won’t be driving out there alone. I’ll pick you up.’
    ‘That is not necessary. I have a sense of the area that he was describing and can find it on my own.’
    ‘You won’t get inside the perimeter, not tomorrow anyway, without me. Jim Beck is sending in all the troops. You ride with me, or you stay behind.’
    She frowned and he sensed she wanted to argue. ‘When should I be ready?’
    ‘Seven.’
    After Brody dropped Jo off at her house, she called her neighbor, Rucker, to let him know she’d returned and then quickly fed three hungry and vocal cats. In her bedroom she stripped off her suit and uncoiled her hair. She turned on the hot water in the shower and let the steam rise before stepping under the hot spray. Though she’d showered this morning, she was anxious to drown the scents of the prison. She washed her hair twice, scrubbed her skin until it was pink before toweling off and dressing in an oversized T-shirt and a thick, blue robe.
    In the kitchen she heated up a can of soup and made herself a cheese sandwich before settling with both on the couch. She clicked on the television and switched to the news.
    As she ate, her cats settled around her, waiting and hoping for a pinch of cheese. When Atticus nudged her she smiled. ‘You’ve eaten. And I promised the vet I would not feed you too much.’ She dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘You are getting fat.’
    Atticus stared at her as if miffed. He meowed loudly several times. Shaking her head, she gave him and the others small pieces of cheese.
    Jo studied a picture on the coffee table taken of herself, her sister and her parents. The picture had been snapped five years ago when she’d graduated from her PhD program. It had been the last picture taken of all the Grangers as a family. Several months later her father had died of a heart attack.
    Jo stared at her dad’s smiling face. So many times that day he’d said she made him proud. She’d been the first Granger to not only attend college but to earn an advanced degree. Her sister, Ellie, three years younger, had been