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Nationwide, whether you believed the rumors or not that people were dying in record numbers because of this new strain of flu virus, places were emptier, some courthouses shut down or only meeting remotely. Businesses had gone dark. Not many wanted to talk about the fact that the hospitals were congested in the larger cities and looking close to running out of beds in other places. In New Mexico, if you read back far enough in the paper you might have even gotten a whiff a couple weeks ago about the US Military shutting down the city of Arnette, Texas, before it disappeared entirely. Almost everyone that you could talk to was sick -- not DYING, surely, but coming down with something -- something normal, you tell yourself. That's what that cough was, if it wasn't just nothing. The streets were emptier and there was a lot less money changing hands all around, but the wheels of justice continued to spin.
That was the case for one Lloyd Henreid, whose name was now known in the area after his arrest pushed even the news of the flu off the front page. Booked for the murder of one policeman and two innocent bystanders, his partner in crime among the dead, rumored to be the one doing the shooting, but one man among the two was alive, which meant that was the one that would go upstate for it, and it was up to anyone to decide whether it was lucky for him that capitol punishment had been abolished in the state in 2009.
He had already been arraigned and processed. At the penitentiary there was something to gain in hanging onto an easy smile and taunting the guards who regarded the young man as a cop killer -- it meant fewer prisoners would beef with him. And knowing the case was high profile, the screws couldn't rough him up without trouble. For as long as this case was going on, he had time to find his feet in this place, whether that meant preparing to stay in prison for the rest of his life over killings he didn't do (fucking Poke), or by some miracle walked.
The latter started to look less likely. His first lawyer, a shrewd man with some schooling who clearly took his court assignments as seriously as he could be expected to, didn't seem to be the problem -- until he got sick. Lloyd heard it bubbling up in his throat the first and only time they met in person.
Eventually a judge granted a reassignment, but it took time when things started to shut down. (His old lawyer hadn't yet flatlined by the time he got his new one, but would soon -- not that he would know either way.) And then Lloyd started to hear more people coughing on the cell block.
He felt fine. Didn't seem like anybody else did, though. Today he was meeting whoever had been assigned to take over his case, though, and by then, he was smiling a lot less. The room where they would meet felt strangely quiet and cut off from everything else, but it was something of a relief.
The new guy didn't appear to be sick. That was a start.
That was the case for one Lloyd Henreid, whose name was now known in the area after his arrest pushed even the news of the flu off the front page. Booked for the murder of one policeman and two innocent bystanders, his partner in crime among the dead, rumored to be the one doing the shooting, but one man among the two was alive, which meant that was the one that would go upstate for it, and it was up to anyone to decide whether it was lucky for him that capitol punishment had been abolished in the state in 2009.
He had already been arraigned and processed. At the penitentiary there was something to gain in hanging onto an easy smile and taunting the guards who regarded the young man as a cop killer -- it meant fewer prisoners would beef with him. And knowing the case was high profile, the screws couldn't rough him up without trouble. For as long as this case was going on, he had time to find his feet in this place, whether that meant preparing to stay in prison for the rest of his life over killings he didn't do (fucking Poke), or by some miracle walked.
The latter started to look less likely. His first lawyer, a shrewd man with some schooling who clearly took his court assignments as seriously as he could be expected to, didn't seem to be the problem -- until he got sick. Lloyd heard it bubbling up in his throat the first and only time they met in person.
Eventually a judge granted a reassignment, but it took time when things started to shut down. (His old lawyer hadn't yet flatlined by the time he got his new one, but would soon -- not that he would know either way.) And then Lloyd started to hear more people coughing on the cell block.
He felt fine. Didn't seem like anybody else did, though. Today he was meeting whoever had been assigned to take over his case, though, and by then, he was smiling a lot less. The room where they would meet felt strangely quiet and cut off from everything else, but it was something of a relief.
The new guy didn't appear to be sick. That was a start.
