CORALIE CHECKED THE clock in the guard's station outside the infirmary door. It was now 1:40 a.m. Twenty minutes had passed. What the fuck was taking so long?463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡElslaY6ggR
She couldn't turn to the security camera. What ever was caught on camera got recorded into a database. If she activated the camera, even for an instant, Josette would be recorded stringing Mischa up. They're asses would be grass, Coralie included.
Coralie grabbed her cell phone and punched up Josette's private cell number. She and Coralie had agreed that any communication would take place by cell phone. They couldn't use the hand radios because other guards would hear them.
Coralie waited impatiently for one, two, three rings.
On the fourth ring, she heard a voice, breathless. "Allo?"
"Is everything okay?" Coralie asked in French.
"Yes, but there's blood," the voice answered in French. It was breathless voice, that just barely rose above a whisper.
"Blood? Blood? What did you do, Josette? You weren't supposed to beat her first!"
"Help me clean it up," the whispery voice replied.
"Help you----?" Coralie looked at her watch and sighed. The clock was ticking on their little mission. Ten minutes, tops, and they had to get out of there.
She cursed and left the guard station and buzzed herself through the infirmary door. She shouldn't have left this to Josette. She should've taken care of this herself.
She approached the window to the secured room and saw the empty bed where Mischa Barton had once lain. As she got closer she saw a woman in a guard's uniform, with sandy blonde hair and, of course, a large gauze bandage on her face, bent over, scrubbing the floor with a towel. When Coralie rushed through the door she saw a body lying prone on the floor in Mischa's prison garb.
"Goddammit, Josette!" Coralie cursed.
She started to ask Josette why Mischa was still lying on the floor as opposed to hanging from the ceiling by a strap. But other questions invaded her mind all at once, in the space of one beat of her heart.
Why did Josette's uniform seem a bit large on her? And why had her hair grown a few inches. And why did Mischa's prison uniform suddenly look so small on her?
Questions that came a few minutes too late, as Mischa, dressed in the guard's uniform and the gauze bandage, popped up from the floor and pointed a gun at her.
Josette's uniform. Josette's bandage.
Josette's gun!
"Hands on your head," Mischa said in French. "I killed Sabine and I'll kill you if I have to."
"Please don't," Coralie replied in French, the situation now fully clear to her. Mischa Barton surely had nothing to lose. She would kill Coralie in a heartbeat if she had to. Why not? She was already serving a life sentence for murder. What more could they do to her?
"Turn around," Mischa ordered her. "If you want to live."
Her hands on her head, Coralie turned around. "Don't kill me," she repeated, as she felt the stab of a needle in the side of her neck. She jumped and removed the needle. Too late. The contents of the syringe had been injected.463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3RgS8Djolw
Mischa trained the gun on Coralie. "That drug won't kill you," she said, "but I will if you make one move."463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4sf1kp1yNw
Coralie glanced over at Josette, lying still on the floor. But she did seem to be breathing. Maybe Mischa wasn't going to kill them, after all.463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡybMzlpQmhK
"I want to thank you, Coralie," Mischa said. "You arranged everything perfectly to kill me tonight. You waited until you were near a shift change. You picked the dead of night, when all the prisoners are locked down, and when there is the smallest number of prison staff on duty. You kept things to just you and Coralie. You cleared out the infirmary, and I'd be willing to bet there isn't another guard on this entire wing----is there?"463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZKEBpnRJ7x
Coralie began to swoon from whatever Mischa had injected into her.463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcYVSyEh6ct
"No, of course there isn't," Mischa continued. "You couldn't run the risk of another guard stopping by unannounced. This whole side of the prison is probably empty right now. Am I correct?"463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0LdGdRIj8B
Coralie felt her legs giving out. She fell to her knees, catching herself with her hands. She was on all fours, like an animal.463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6VptYwVN37
"Why do you----thank me?" she asked.463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCobcst0zRA
Coralie's vision became spotty. She was losing consciousness.463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8o2rJiDqBA
Mischa approached her, got down on a knee so she could whisper in Coralie's ear. Ordinarily that might be a risky move, but Coralie was on the verge of collapsing.463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡExjEFki9Dv
"Because in creating the perfect conditions for me to be murdered," said Mischa, "you've also created the perfect conditions for me to escape."463Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1cntIDJYO
