Unspeakable by Sandra Brown Read Free Book Online

Cummins."
    Because the Cummins Unit was a medium maximum-security facility, Cecil felt that a little righteous indignation was called for here. "That's right, I was."
    "You served for armed robbery, right?"
    "Right. I never killed anybody."
    "Oh, right, right. Almost forgot that. You left the actual killing to your little brother Carl, didn't you? That's why your sentence was so much lighter than his."
    This was a sore subject. Cecil couldn't argue the trooper's point or he would be confessing to a murder that, technically and truthfully, Carl had committed. But he didn't want to admit to a character flaw, either. That flaw being that, while Carl seemed unaffected, even exhilarated, by shedding someone's blood, the thought of taking another human life made Cecil slightly queasy. Disturbed by this introspection, he blurted out, "I went to prison and paid my debt to society. I found Jesus and got rehabilitated."
    Matchstick nearly choked before removing the shredded wood from his mouth so he could laugh.
    "I'm on parole," Cecil declared. "You think I'm going to do something as damn-fool stupid as my brother did? No way. Cummins was no picnic, you know. I got out and I'm staying out."
    "Uh-huh." The seated officer wasn't impressed by his sincerity. "Hear about those guards at Tucker?"
    "Heard they, uh...they died."
    The trooper came closer, until he was almost touching noses with Cecil. "They didn't die, asshole. They were assassinated. Your brother got one of them in the heart with a shank. Stabbed him through the eyeball while he was at it. Hutts slit another one's throat, nearly cut his head clean off."
    He leaned back and tugged at his earlobe as though reflecting on the prison break, which had mobilized every law enforcement agency in Arkansas and neighboring states. A manhunt had been organized for the apprehension of Carl Herbold and Myron Hutts, who were to be regarded as armed and dangerous. Citizens were warned to exercise extreme caution if they sighted the pair.
    "Have to hand it to old Carl. He planned it good," the state officer remarked. "That Myron character, he's a certifiable idiot. Hasn't got the sense God gave a rubber duck. But your brother is one smart sum'bitch. He had even figured a way to get those tracking devices off them. They were found, but Carl and Myron weren't attached to them. No, sir. All that's been found is their prison uniforms, their dog tags, and those high-tech devices, which turned out to be good for nothing. 'Cause those boys are long gone."
    The convicts had outfoxed the authorities and outrun the tracking dogs. Helicopter patrols, search parties on foot, and roadblocks hadn't turned up a trace of them during the night. Damn, Cecil was proud of his little brother!
    It was all he could do to keep from smiling proudly as the trooper enumerated Carl's crimes, which Cecil considered accomplishments on a par with those of his heroes Jesse James, John Dillinger, and Clyde Barrow.
    To conceal his pride, he worked his face into an emotional grimace. "I just hope y'all don't kill him. Our whole lives it's just been me and him."
    "Now, that ain't quite the truth is it, Cecil? Y'all had a mama. She married a nice man, who tried to do right by y'all. I got the records, see? So don't be lying to me, Cecil."
    "Our stepdaddy was a hard-ass. He hated us right off, and we hated him. He didn't raise a peep of protest when they sent us to that school for wayward boys when Carl was barely fifteen."
    "Prob'ly 'cause that's what y'all were. Wayward, I mean."
    "When Mama died, he came down on us even harder. Didn't faze me much," he added as a precaution. "But Carl, being the baby, it tarnished him. Getting no love from anybody, he grew up angry and mean. He's rotten to the core. You think I don't know he's meaner than sin? He refuses to see the light. He won't accept Jesus and get saved for nothing." For emphasis, he whisked a tear from his eye. "But he's my kin, my blood, all that's left of my family. I