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disclaimers can be found with part 1
Justice Deferred (5/?)
by: Alex
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While Cam waited for the guard to bring her clothes and escort her to the Admin. building to process out, she thought back over the last six years. Her thoughts tried to bypass the long mind-numbing tedium of the day to day existence in this Hell on Earth but instead went over the highlights of her time as a resident of CCC.
More importantly she concentrated on how she had been changed by the highs and lows of her time here, and how some of the changes were for the better and some were definitely not good at all.
One notable incident occurred in the showers shortly after Cam had been put into the general population. A woman called Val, had caught the tall beautiful new fish taking her shower, and with the help of two of her followers, the three "chicken hawks" had attempted to take Cam by force. By the time the incident was over Cam had needed stitches in her lip and her thigh where a knife made of glass and masking tape had been stuck into it and broken off. Val and her accomplices were put in the infirmary for broken bones, various deep cuts, and bruises that went all the way to the bone, and in Val's case, a severe concussion.
After that things had gone fairly smoothly. Cam had earned her rep as someone best left alone, and she settled into a daily routine. She had been behind the walls for nearly a year when she was called to the warden's office, where she was introduced to a short stocky man that was very impressively dressed from his expensive custom tailored Italian suit, to his hand made western boots. There was something very familiar about him, but Cam wasn't able to figure out what.
He was introduced as her new lawyer, after saying and answering some coded phrases; Cam was assured that he was indeed sent by her uncles, and Cutter. For the first time since the beginning of this whole mess Cam was starting to feel like she was gaining a little control at last. He began by telling her he was using every available resource to obtain a review of the circumstances of her conviction, and the plea agreement. A plus for the man was he didn't lie to Cam or try to give her false hopes. He truthfully told her that the plea bargain she'd signed with the Benton County Prosecutor was pretty much iron clad, and so far they hadn't been able to find any loopholes in it. Since there were no witnesses to support her claim of coercion, her best hope for release was parole.
She understood and accepted his opinion, and respected the man for his honesty. She told him he was the first honest lawyer she'd seen since the beginning of this ordeal. Before he left the strangely considerate and familiar man went over a system of complicated codes and conveyances so she could communicate with her family.
The usual messages were to be in the form of personal ads in some of the "biker rags" she was already getting sent to her every month by subscription. Also he informed her that her uncles, through the lawyers, had deposited the maximum amount in her prison account, so that she could get anything she wanted or needed. For her part Cam reissued her no visitors and no mail orders as the mail was opened and read by the authorities prior to her receiving it and visits were recorded. He also gave her a list of emergency numbers so she could contact one of her several attorneys, at any time she needed them. He as much as told her that his entire firm was at her service, large or small 24/7. It turned out that this short stocky little man was a long time friend of Cutter, who, he assured her, was out of federal lock up and the firm was in the middle of a false imprisonment lawsuit on his behalf.
The lawyer gave her a predatory smile that transformed him into an entirely different man than the one she met and one she wouldn't want to cross. It was then she recognized him and knew he too had a "Black Rose" tattooed on the inside of his right forearm, after remembering the man as an "uncle" Cutter had always called "the Sargent-Major."
Once she remembered his connection with Cutter, and her family, her confidence in the deceptively calm man went way up. It also helped that she remembered that this man, like Cutter, had some unusual, and powerful, contacts in D.C. He gave her his card containing all of his private numbers, and informed her that any papers she received from him were considered confidential.
Not only must the prison officials let her have them, they were, by law, not allowed to know the contents. As the lawyer was preparing to leave, he gave her a personal message from Cutter and her uncles, the gist of it was to watch her back. It also told her that when Kreelcorp had gone after her, a fact Cutter discovered when a representative of the corporation tried to blackmail them regarding her freedom, (insinuating that they had taken her freedom and they could, if they wished, restore it) they had gone way too far over the line.
According to the message, her uncles and Cutter was going to show that rat bastard how they took care of their own, and that going after his little girl, was the last straw. They were not only going after Kreelcorp, and it's owner D.C.Kreel, but they weren't going to stop until every single person involved with hurting their family, also the hard vindictive men wanted, everyone involved with putting their little girl in CCC, to pay dearly, for their part in the war between their family and Kreel. Cutter had made it very clear to the lawyer, that absolutely no expense was to be spared in the vendetta against their business rivals, and Benton County. In his own final warning and in Cutter's own words;
"Take cover WC cause I'm cuttin' loose the dogs."
It was only two weeks later that the first and most successful attack against Cam came.
Lulled by the lack of news about her family's war with their enemies Cam wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, and allowed herself to be bracketed in a crowd by two other women with shivs. She was stabbed five times before she was able to break away from the crowd, most of which had no idea what was going on. Bleeding heavily Cam staggered away a few feet before she collapsed fortunately at the feet of the newly promoted Sargent of the Guards, Paula Carson. If the well known, and respected guard hadn't been there, Cam's assailants would have probably finished the job then, and Cam would have died right there in the exercise yard.
Paula stared slack-jawed down at the beautiful woman laying at her feet in a quickly expanding pool of her own blood. True to her training, Paula had quickly shook off her surprise, knelt down, and began doing what she could to stop the bleeding, as she called on the radio for immediate medical assistance, and extra guards to clear the yard.
The prison officials had done everything in their power to find the women responsible for the attack, but as was expected they had no luck. Everyone knew exactly who had stabbed Cam and why but without proof there was nothing anyone could do. When Cam was returned to general population in D Block, prisoners and guards alike, watched to see how the woman would retaliate for her injuries. When two weeks went by with nothing happening, the two women began getting cocky.
Everyone finally gave up figuring that the supposedly tough chick had lost her nerve because of the attack and her near death. Nobody blamed her, it could have happened to any of them, and they decided the whole incident was over, except Paula.
She had gotten to know Cam fairly well and she was sure something was going to happen. The woman was just too smart to exact her revenge when she knew everybody expected it, and there was a good chance she'd get caught. She remembered a comment Cam had once made while she was still in the infirmary. Cam told her that in prison you didn't have to be a stand up guy, but you do have to stand up. Thinking of that Paula tried to warn her superiors that the incident was far from over, but they ignored her. Paula was right.
Laying on the floor of the community day area, were the two women that had stabbed Cam, or what was left of them at least. One was dead, the other was alive, but unable to move, speak, or communicate in any manor. There wasn't a mark on them with the exception of a few small bruises on the neck of the woman still living.
When the coroner examined the dead woman his report said every major organ in the woman's body had been ruptured, apparently, one at a time, he also added that it was a long and horrendously painful way to die. He was a Vietnam veteran, and commented that the last time he'd seen a body in this condition, was when he examined the body of a Vietnamese official that was a suspected traitor. At the time it was suspected that his death was an assassination.
The prison doctor's report on the woman left alive was just as bazaar and mysterious. The first and most obvious unusual aspect, was the reason the badly injuried woman was unable to speak. Her vocal cords were destroyed, not hurt, or injured, not even cut, they were destroyed beyond any possibility of recovery, or medical repair. There were no apparent injuries to explain the unusual condition, only two small bruises on her larynx. She would never speak again. Her paralysis was another anomally, it was apparently caused by severe compression of the spinal cord, but of unknown causes.
All readings showed that the woman was aware and able to tell what was going on around her, but was completely unable to communicate, in any manor. There was nothing found to explain the cause of the injuries and also no way of finding who had caused them. The guards had responded instantly to the sound of the screams, but no assailant was ever found. Another mystery was that the bodies hadn't fallen from the second tier where they lived. The bodies had been placed where they were found and carefully arranged.
Recognising the victims as the women responsible for the Brusard stabbing the guards hurried to Cam's cell on the third tier. All they found was Cam sitting on her bunk in the lotus position eyes closed, and unresponsive until the guards called her name. They also checked and found that the cell door was locked and not tampered with. This ruled out Cam as a suspect. The tall exotic beauty smiled slightly when she heard of the condition of the two women, she even expressed an obviously insincere concern for their misfortune. The mystery was never solved by the authorities, but after that her fellow residents respected Cam's wish to be left alone.
When Paula brought up the incident in a private conversation, all Cam would say was that she heard that the women had become cocky lately, and had made many enemies. As far as she could see karma and justice had been served and she refused to discuss it further.
She could count on one hand the number of women the exotic and mysterious woman spent any time with, and none of them had ever been intimate with her, and nearly every woman that Cam had been intimate with was never allowed close to her again. In fact for a while Cam was never with a lover for more than twice then she would ignore them as if they no longer existed.
She also recalled when Brusard had first come to her attention she was known as untouchable, not that she didn't get offers, a woman as beautiful as Cam could have anyone she wanted, man or woman, prisoner or guard.
She was untouchable because that was the way she wanted it. From what was said Cam was being faithful to someone on the outside, Paula remembered thinking how rare that kind of loyalty was. Then after getting some news from her attorney Cam had gone into her cell and orders from the warden specifically stated that she was to be left alone until she indicated that she was prepared to re-enter the population. She had stayed in her dark cell listening to those old blues CDs she loved for over a week, no food only water. Then word came that she was requesting a clean uniform and a shower. After that Cam was like the D-block's own answer to Casanova. When Paula had asked her what happened all Cam would say is;
"Lovers are never what they seem, are they."
Something bad had happened to her but only the warden knew and he wasn't talking. Cam never laughed after her self-imposed isolation. She walked around with an amused smirk as if she knew the punch line to some cosmic joke and she wasn't sharing. No one was ever allowed to get close to the walls she had erected around herself.
<>Well...<> Paula thought smiling <>...no one that is until Cheryl Killian.<>
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END 5
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