Chapter 4 Loose Lips, Sink Ships
Daya lied against the brick wall, shedding tears as the words death row echoed in her head. It was her sentence as a convicted cop killer. Danny was proven to be unreliable considering she hadn't seen him in nearly a week.
Since the time had passed, Caputo was able to permanently lift the strict lockdown set by MCC officials and get things running back to normal… except 'normal' seemed to have been modified. Because of the riot, nearly everyone lost their job including Taystee, who incited the riot- instead they were given other jobs with lower wages. The food was nothing more than flavorless and served in liquid form in colors of brown and black. It was prison life punishment for attempting to beat an already corrupt system.
Daya's clothes were becoming baggy as she was losing an excessive amount of weight. Being in max had robbed her of an appetite to eat, let alone, live.
"Daya is innocent." Danny repeated to himself in the parking lot of Litchfield without any viable evidence. He sat behind the wheel, preparing himself to speak with Caputo once again to further aid his solo investigation. To Danny's surprise, he noticed Humps heading towards the entrance, but couldn't convince the guards to let him inside of the building. After a heated exchange of words, Humps stormed off to his car and Danny prepared to tail him…
Meanwhile, Ferguson stood before Caputo with her arms crossed while maintaining an expression completely voided of a smile.
"Really, Joey, you lifted the lock?" she asked in a firm manner that didn't shy away from annoyance.
"I had to babe, these girls are under enough stress as it is." he ran his fingers down his beard. "They been through enough, it was the least I could do."
"What? No! Those inmates disregarded prison policy and took it among themselves to kill a CO. They can't be trusted and your decision to lift the lock under these circumstances compromises our safety. It's only a matter of time before they repeat their outburst." she stared deeply with distressed eyes into his. "I refuse to stand by the poor choice you have made."
"Well, there's the door." He said, immediately regretting it which clearly showed in his expression as his lips tightened and eyes shut. He mentally slapped himself unable to get a word out as he watched her leave.
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An hour had passed when Humps finally stopped at a bar. He had been driving around locally, oblivious to Danny following him.
Humps was seated at the bar alongside Dixon and Stratman while Danny sat at a round table for two nearby.
Danny didn't have much of an action plan in regards to aiding his investigation. He was more of a plan-as-he-go type of guy and persistent in his ways for fighting for what's right. Danny closely studied Humps' behavior, growing disgusted by the vibe Humps was giving off. Danny found Humps' smile to be the most off-putting- it was malicious. If the world burned in a flaming inferno, Danny imagined Humps' smile would still prevail.
After a few drinks, Humps was talking more, but Dixon and Stratman felt slightly annoyed by his presence considering they didn't invite him. They were also uneasy being near him because of what happened in the past.
"Hey, wanna hear some freaky shit?" Humps smirked and they nodded in response because they were bored and didn't have anything better to do. Humps continued. "You know the inmate that got sent to Max? She didn't shoot and kill McCollough... I did." He laughed.
Dixon and Stratman stared at each other in shock before glancing over their shoulders.
"We lost our jobs because of you." Dixon said, holding back the urge to punch him in the face.
"Yea, man, that's not cool." Stratman added.
Like a child, Humps stopped laughing and became upset that they were taking it too serious.
"A couple of limp dicks. We didn't lose our jobs. Bartender another round! " Humps whistled while hitting his hand repeatedly on the bar counter. "Aren't you at least interested in how I did it?"
"No." Stratman said, almost a whisper. "Stop talking about it."
"I snatched the gun from her after hearing a gun sound off. OH! You should have seen the look on her face! She thought she was done for! And McCollough was just lying there, man, I couldn't resist!" Humps had an insane look in his eye as he reenacted the scene with his hand aiming like a gun. "Pow! I shot her just like that."
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"Holy shit." Caputo said in shock after watching what was now a phone recording of Humps admitting to the murder taken by Danny.
It was enough substantial evidence for a warrant to be sent out for Humps' arrest. Daya was taken out of Max, but not immediately, considering she held two correctional officers at gunpoint. Caputo declined a news report to cover the story, too ashamed to stand in front of the camera again in fear of being perceived of not being qualified for the position he held. Though, Caputo did say he wanted to cover a story to clear Daya's name, he never mentioned a date in doing so. His intentions were well; he visited Daya and apologized immensely for what she had to experience because of Humps. He mentioned several times how glad he was that she didn't pull the trigger on anyone and how he never trusted Humps from the beginning. Daya's expression of tears of despair transitioned to relief and tears of happiness hearing the words that she was innocent.
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Seeing the video of Humps admitting to the murder, brought Piscatella to near tears and elicited a memory from his past that brings him to embarrassment whenever mentioned.
Piscatella stepped into the break room noticing a group of his coworkers huddled in a circle, laughing amongst themselves.
Piscatella sighed. "As a severely under staff male prison, we sure do a lot of horse shitting around, when we should be watching the criminals."
They laughed harder as they looked at him. Piscatella noticed they were looking at something on a cellphone that was being held by one of the guys. He was hand signaled to join them and he felt annoyed walking over to see what they were so focused on. When he viewed the phone, his eyes widen in response to seeing a picture of himself sleeping next to inmate Goremen.
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Cindy saw Taystee sitting alone in her bunk with her elbows on her lap and her hands in each others. Cindy was too focused on what she overheard from Spanish Harlem to even notice Taystee's upset expression.
"Yo, it's crazy out there," Cindy said while taking a seat on the bed next to Taystee. "That Latina chick from the kitchen is blowing up over what happened to that chick that got sent to Max. What's her name? The older one? I think it starts with a G... nevermind. But she was going off in Spanish, talking real fast and throwing her hands in the air. Man, I wish I had one of them, um, whatchu call it- translator earpieces! I'd be eavesdropping like a motherfuckah! Let one of them say some shit to me in Spanish, I'd clap back with 'I heard what you said, shabbat shalom bitch."
Cindy laughed, thinking of all the fun she could have with an earpiece translator. She came back to the reality of prison life and began noticing the look on her friend's face; it was uninterrupted by Cindy's presence and upset.
"You okay?" Cindy asked.
Taystee shook her head, indicating no.
Cindy nodded, understanding why Taystee was upset and wished there was something she could do to make her feel better. She hated seeing her friend down, but knew nothing could be done to ease Taystee's pain, except for the CO to unkill Poussey.
Ever since the death of her best friend, Taystee had been haunted with nightmares of the event repeating in her head. She went days without sleeping just to avoid waking up angry until last night when her drowsiness got the best of her. Taystee found herself in bed with Poussey who was smiling at how Taystee's nails looked from being polished. Poussey had did a horrible job with Taystee's nails and used two different colors of polish because one ran empty. Taystee could feel Poussey's hands on hers and the touch induced warmness throughout her body. It brought Taystee to tears waking up to the realization that she was dreaming and the harsh reality that her best friend was dead. In a way, it felt like her dream was teasing her. She knew it was illogical to be mad at a dream, which is why she directed her aggression towards CO Bayley, who was scheduled to return back to work later that day, just two weeks after the tragic death of Poussey. Taystee finally turned to Cindy, making a fist to smack into her own hand.
"This isn't over." Taystee said, which made Cindy nod in agreement for they were both equally ready to plan a well-thought out revenge.
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The end.
Thanks again everyone for taking the time to read and review my first OITNB ff story! Hope you all enjoyed it.
