In Or Out

S1E8.

❝Out: Of Reach❞
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❝In seeking absolute truth, we aim at the unattainable and must be content with broken portions.❞

Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Brig General Isaac Smith Ave, East Baton Rouge Parish Prison

"Next in."

Nodding at one of the correction officers, Harlowe walked through the metal detector near the entrance of the prison and stopped as another officer sitting on the opposite end scoured over an x-ray screen reader. With a thumbs up, Harlowe was beckoned to move forward and grab her padfolio off of the conveyor belt, and after showing her ID and bar card, she was allowed to join the line at the visitors' receptionist desk.

She hadn't visited Baton Rouge's prison grounds as much as she did the precinct, but she was familiar enough with the protocol to not look like a deer in headlights. All of the cases where she needed to come out to Parish Prison were nothing compared to this case, and the more Harlowe was reminded on who and what she had to defend, the angrier she got. She wished it was a case she could just dismiss and put on the next person, but it wasn't that simple.

Once the line had shortened, Harlowe found herself face to face with the visitor receptionist. Swallowing down her anxiousness and a bubbling irritation, the attorney slipped her ID and bar card underneath the clear guard shield. The receptionist glanced over Harlowe's bar card and quickly typed away on her computer before passing everything back through the protective barrier's opening. "What inmate are you visiting and do you have any legal materials with you such as inmate pleadings and documents that have been filed with the court?" The receptionist asked, her eyes still on the desktop monitor and her index finger clicking rapidly at the left button on her computer's mouse.

Harlowe inhaled deep through her nose before she leaned forward and spoke into the opening. "First name: Hampton, last name: Esser, and yes, I do."

Almost comically, the receptionist's incessant mouse clicking ceased and her eyes flashed to Harlowe, her gaze indecipherable before she returned her focus on the computer screen. The sound of a printer awakening rumbled behind the receptionist and seconds later, the woman rose up from her seat to retrieve a few papers printed.

"You can sign Esser's visitation list here, and for protocol purposes; I have to inform you that a review of this visitation list will be conducted by East Baton Rouge Parish Prison's Correctional Facility every time you sign it."

Harlowe hummed under her breath at that. That clearly meant they knew she would be frequenting the prison on more than a few occasions to see Hampton. Stopping herself from rolling her eyes, Harlowe grabbed the counter-pen affixed to the receptionist's desk and scribbled the date and her signature on Hampton's visitor list. She was then given a visitor's pass and instructed to follow two of the correction officers standing at the main entrance of the prison.

Drifting behind the two broad-shouldered men, Harlowe kept a reasonable distance between them as they guided her down the long hallway leading to the private conference room she'd be in for the next hour. The click of her Alexander Wang heels and the officers' keys on their tactical belts were the only sounds being emitted in the hallway, and Harlowe was scared to mumble anything about the long walk because she was sure they'd hear her.

Once they arrived at the conference room, Harlowe was told she could have a seat and that Hampton would be brought in shortly. The attorney's hands found their way onto the stainless steel table in front of her, her freshly manicured nails tapping against its surface to fill the painful silence that wafted in the room.