The Silver Lining - A Brayleigh Connor Story

Chapter 8 - The Deal

Detective Carl Murphy closed his laptop and sighed heavily.

This investigation was getting nowhere.

Well, not without Brayleigh Connor, she was the key he needed to unlock this mystery.

After talking to his fellow colleague, he understood why Gill was worried about his decision on wanting to believe and help the alleged Killer Queen.

Carl grabbed his coffee mug and took a long sip.

He glanced at the clock and saw that it was time for night shift.

Perfect, it’s now or never, he thought.

Carl placed the mug back onto the desk and made his way out of the door.

After a few minutes, he reached the entry point to Block C, where all the prisoners remained captive, responsible for the worst kind of crimes.

Carl knocked on the window pane to get the guard on duty’s attention. He cringed a bit when he saw who was on duty tonight.

It was Sandra Hollard, one of the most annoying people he had ever met.

This woman was crazy and had a crush on almost every man in this building, including him.

She noticed him and jumped up immediately to greet him.

Carl twisted his shoulder uncomfortably and tried his best to smile.

“Evening, Miss Hollard.” He started.

“Evening, Detective. How nice to see you tonight! You look good as always, that uniform is really working for you.”

Sandra smiled so broadly, it seemed impossible for her face to handle anything more.

He swallowed nervously and responded against his will, “Um…thank you Miss Hollard. Open up for me, will you?”

At first, she just sat there and looked him up and down with sparkly eyes, not saying anything.

A few minutes of awkward silence passed before Detective Carl couldn’t bear it any longer.

“Miss Hollard? The door, please.”

“Oh right, yes of course! I will do so, Detective.” She responded quickly, coming out of her trance.

Carl walked through the heavy stainless-steel door until he reached Brayleigh Connor’s cell.

As he approached it, he heard a faint sound.

Is that crying?

Sure enough, as he got closer, he saw her, lying in the infant position on the floor indeed crying.

For a moment Carl felt great sympathy for her, he couldn’t help it.

“Miss Connor?” He started cautiously.
Brayleigh stopped trembling and slowly looked up with her tear-stained face.

Great, what does he want? He is probably here to rub in my face how badly it went with my psych evaluation.

“Can I help you, Detective?” She sniffed.

Carl placed a hand on the prison cell’s bars and looked at her, “Actually yes you can. We need to talk about your case.”

Brayleigh stood up and faced him through the bars.

“Oh, fantastic, I guess you’ve heard by now by Dr Whatever-his-name is about my next-to-nothing chance of ever being believed of my innocence. Not surprising at all.”

Carl could see the misery and hopelessness in her eyes. This gave him even more reason to continue with his plan.

“Miss Connor, this is not an easy decision for me, and a lot is at stake here—especially my career and reputation and your chance for freedom. However, for some reason, I believe you and I want to help you. But for this to work, we must work together and do this discreetly and carefully. Like I said, we can get into a lot of trouble.” He said, locking her eyes with his.

Brayleigh couldn’t quite fathom what had just happened.

Was he being serious right now? Why was he so confident in her? Everything was against her and the situation seemed impossible.

“I don’t know what to say, Detective. The evidence is hard and clear against me. Why in your right mind would you want to help me?” She asked.

Carl stayed silent for a minute.

“I guess I’m hoping that, for once, a captive is not lying and deceiving us. I am willing to take that chance. Let me help you.”

For a moment, he could see a glimmer of hope in her eyes and became more determined.

Brayleigh, though still sceptical, replied with a soft, “Okay”.

“Good, we have a deal then. I will come back later tonight and release you so that we can work in my office. At midnight to be precise, lucky for us, during that time most are not here and it’s only the night shift staff working. But we can work around them. No one will know. Oh and no need to be so formal, call me Carl.” He said, holding out his hand, to seal their partnership.

She cautiously reached out and they shook hands with her saying, “It’s a deal, Carl. Also, call me Brayleigh, please.”

******

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