• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • 1
    CommentGo Back
Download
 
George Pollock State KidIssue 35
The Prisoners Rule
 Billy Stone now had Director Carson's old job.Less than an hour after Carson had left for the day, the kid sat at the Director's big,finicky-clean desk flanked by Johnson Johnson and Billy Ruggieri. Kali, Durk and Angelsat on the couch trying to believe that this was happening.Juices surging from his ordeal with Stansky and his tabletop speech, Billy called DebraFlorsheim at the Sentinel -- and, unable to stop himself, lit into her:“I hear the Sentinel is telling people that I'm a murderer. Julio was my friend. I tell twoimbecilic detectives that and they don't hear a thing. I wonder ... is there something aboutme that causes people's ears not to work? I told you weeks ago that Joy Stojak's father was beating the crap out of her. You didn't hear what I said? I tell Carson the same thingevery day; it just doesn't get into his head. Debra, is there a universal immunity to thetruth? Why do people who run newspapers destroy lives? Out of curiosity, why haven'tyou gone after that pervo Stojak or those filthy cops?”“You're right, okay? So shut up and listen. Joy Stojak ran.”“I don't believe it.”“The Stojaks reported it. Also, Vera ran, too.”“No, I don't believe it.”“Well, it's true. O'Toole is a complete wreck. He's afraid of scandal. He wants to find Vera before the word gets out that she's missing.”“That figures. Anything to avoid a crack in the facade.”“Stojak called the paper ranting. He says it's all
 your 
fault that Joy ran, because youtraumatized her.”“Oh, great, I can see the story now.”“Also, the East Side is getting ready to blow over Julio de Cruz.”“I know.”“You know?”“You forget that this is the East Side's very own lock-up. I have sources, too.”“Look, Billy, I have the go-ahead to do a story.”“The truth?”“The truth.”“Debra, first, I'm sorry I snapped at you. I really called to see if we could make a deal.
 
Big things are happening, bigger than anything you've got now.” Billy paused. “Debra,the deal is this: I give you a huge breaking story in return for two things. You get a TVcrew here tomorrow morning and you sit on the story until then.”“Why do I have to sit on it?”“To prevent a massacre tonight. Can you sit?”She revisited basic journalistic ethics.“Yes.”“We took over the prison about an hour ago.”“Say that again.”“There's been an inmate uprising. We're in control.”“My God!”“Do we have a deal?”“I'll be right there.”***Debra Florsheim jumped in her car and drove to Granite City School for Boys whereBilly Stone gave her a tour, as well as the statement the detectives had refused to accept.“You'll never get away with this,” she said as she left.“If your next stop is the police, I would agree with you. In that case, I get butcheredtonight.”“You're putting it all on the line, aren't you?”“Yes. But if you don't go to the police and a TV crew is here tomorrow, it gets interesting-- doesn't it?”***After Debra left, Billy called David Weatherall. With the school basically shut downsince the stabbing, Billy had not seen or talked to his well-connected friend. When hecouldn't get Weatherall in his room, he told the operator at the university's mainswitchboard that there was a medical emergency and that Weatherall had to “bring themedicine to Billy Stone at the Granite City School immediately.” He left the number of Director Carson's personal line.Weatherall called back.“What the hell was that about?” Weatherall said. “They called my house and my Dadtook the message. Now he thinks one of my radical friends overdosed. Damn it all, Billy,you can't just call me at home like that.”“I had no one else to turn to.”That hit Weatherall right in a soft spot where was located a genuine concern for theunderprivileged and the suffering. Billy piled it on, even making passing reference toWeatherall's privileged life compared to his own. Then Billy told him the situation.“You what? You're crazy! You'll never get away with this. It's unthinkable. It's
 
impossible.”“I know. That's why I desperately need your help.”When Weatherall didn't immediately refuse, Billy moved in on him with outrageousrequests -- and his friend was unable to say no.***Billy went into the dining room to make sure the kitchen staff was preparing the eveningmeal. They were. He had directed that inmate kitchen staff carry on with their duties. “Wehave a prison to run,” he had said.The evening meal took place as usual, but without a guard in sight. The night-shift guardswere all locked up and Billy had meals given to them through the meal slots. Billyhimself brought a meal to his guard friend, Wally Witkowski.“Ah, Billy, you're crazy. You'll never pull this off.”“That's what everybody's telling me.”“About what House and Hawkeye did. I couldn't do anything to stop it. They would have put
me
in a cell with Stansky. I'm sorry, Billy. I feel really awful.”“Well, you can make it up to me.”“What do you want me to do?”Billy told him. He let Wally out of his cell, with critical assignments.***Billy went to each jailed guard for a private heart-to-heart. First, he told them that someinmates wanted to kill them or, more accurately, have them kill each other in Stansky-Stone-style human cockfights. “The choice they want to give you is to slice up another guard or take a bullet to the head. They want the games to start now before the place isstormed.”It was no lie. A few inmates wanted to do exactly that.“I'll do my best to stop this barbarity
if 
you cooperate.”Second, Billy laid out his case. He said, “I'm innocent and I don't belong here. I ask onlyfor a chance to prove it, peacefully. In return for guaranteeing your safety, I ask you tohelp me.”He gave each guard a copy of his Factual Account and of the statement that Lt. McGiver and Sgt. Milberry had declined to accept.“Read this. When you've read it, I know you'llwant to do the right thing.”These guards were not a high-minded lot. They were the same guards who less than anhour earlier had placed their bets on the Stone-Stansky contest. (Almost all had bet onStansky). Yet there is something about one-on-one, face-to-face, eye-to-eye, that is mind-opening. Also conducive to mind-alternation was the fact that the guards were locked up,terrified for their lives and at Billy's mercy.He showed them the wagering sheet with their names on it and the amount they had bet.“No one has to know about this,” he said. “No one has to know about how you guys set
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
11 / 25 / 2010This doucment made it onto the Rising List!
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...