Chapter 8 - FREEDOM FOR ONE MANNathan Cole did not forgive Derek.
Not exactly.
His letter was more difficult than forgiveness.
It was honest.
He described headaches that lasted years.
Two surgeries.
A marriage strained by medical bills and anger.
A daughter who developed nightmares after seeing him in intensive care.
The career he lost because bright lights triggered migraines.
He told Derek there had been nights he wished Derek dead.
Then he wrote something Derek read at least twenty times.
I don't hate you anymore. Not because you earned that. Because I got tired of carrying you around.
At the bottom:
If you truly regret it, don't spend your remaining years feeling sorry for yourself. Do something useful with them.
Derek showed Walter.
Walter read silently.
When finished, he handed the letter back.
"Well?"
Derek asked.
"Well what?"
"Tell me what it means."
Walter smiled.
"Some things you're old enough to interpret yourself."
"I hate when you do that."
"I know."
Three days later, Walter's emergency hearing was scheduled.
He attended by video from a legal conference room.
Half of C Block waited for news.
At 11:37 a.m., Officer Pike entered the unit.
Nobody spoke.
Pike looked around.
Then smiled.
"Conviction vacated."
The block erupted.
Men shouted.
Pounded walls.
Solomon grabbed Ortiz in a hug that nearly lifted him off the ground.
Mason climbed onto a table.
Derek stood completely still.
"All charges?" he asked.
Pike nodded.
"Government dismissed them."
"When's he leave?"
"Today."
That word hit harder than expected.
Today.
Walter returned to C Block at 1:15.
He carried the same cardboard box he had arrived with.
Only now it held letters, books, photographs, and handwritten notes from inmates.
Derek leaned against the railing.
"You packed fast."
"Experience."
"You could stay."
Walter looked around the prison.
"I appreciate the invitation. No."
Derek smiled.
Inmates gathered.
Ortiz hugged Walter.
Mason handed him a ridiculous card made from construction paper stolen from education.
Solomon approached last.
The two older men stared at each other.
Solomon extended his hand.
Walter ignored it and hugged him.
The most feared lifer in Graystone closed his eyes.
"Thank you," Solomon whispered.
"For what?"
"Seeing us."
Walter stepped back.
"You were always here."
Then he turned toward Derek.
The room became strangely quiet.
Derek shoved his hands into his pockets.
"So."
"So."
"You gonna give me some old-man speech?"
"I had prepared forty-five minutes."
"Please don't."
Walter smiled.
Then reached into his box.
He handed Derek a book.
Same battered copy of East of Eden Derek first saw him reading.
Inside the cover Walter had written:
Derek—
Power is what you can take. Character is what you refuse to take even when you can.
Choose carefully.
—W.M.
Derek swallowed.
"I don't read novels."
"You do now."
"Bossy old man."
"Delinquent middle-aged man."
Derek laughed.
Then his expression changed.
"I'm sorry."
Walter looked at him.
"For the water."
"I know."
"No. I mean—"
"I know."
Derek nodded.
Walter started toward the exit.
Then stopped.
"You asked me whether people change."
Derek waited.
Walter glanced back.
"I should have answered differently."
"What should you have said?"
"People change every day."
He smiled.
"The question is whether they notice what they're becoming."
Then Walter Mercer walked out of C Block.
The gate closed behind him.
For the first time in almost ten years, Derek felt truly imprisoned.
Not because Walter was free.
Because Walter had reminded him what freedom looked like.
Outside Graystone, reporters waited.
Walter refused interviews for the first week.
The government formally apologized.
A federal judge issued a written opinion calling the prosecution against him "a profound miscarriage of justice."
Walter received his retirement benefits.
Civil attorneys discussed compensation.
But Walter's first public appearance surprised everyone.
He didn't go on television.
He returned to Graystone.
Not as an inmate.
As a volunteer.
The administration initially resisted.
Federal oversight officials overruled them.
Walter established the Mercer Accountability and Education Initiative, though he strongly objected to the name.
The program provided literacy tutoring, legal-resource training, family communication workshops, and reentry preparation.
His first class had twelve inmates.
Derek sat in the front row.
Walter entered wearing khaki pants and a blue shirt.
No orange.
Derek stared.
"You look weird."
Walter put down his folder.
"You look exactly the same."
"Rude."
"Prison has affected your manners."
The class laughed.
But trouble was still brewing.
Chase Rainer's power had grown.
He had absorbed Derek's former contraband routes and recruited several younger inmates.
Walter's programs threatened his influence because men attending classes stopped working for him.
One evening Chase confronted Derek.
"Old man's making everybody think they're going home to some beautiful life."
"Some are."
"Not Solomon."
Solomon had life without parole.
Derek's expression tightened.
Chase smiled.
"Exactly."
"What's your point?"
"Hope's dangerous in here."
"No."
Derek stepped closer.
"Hopeless men are dangerous. That's why you like them."
Chase's smile vanished.
"You think you're better than me?"
Derek remembered being twenty-nine.
Angry.
Defensive.
Certain everybody was judging him.
"No."
That answer surprised Chase.
Derek continued.
"I think you're becoming me."
Chase laughed.
"You're scared of me?"
"I know where it ends."
"Yeah?"
Derek looked around at the concrete walls.
"Here."
He walked away.
The next morning the prison entered lockdown.
Not because of Chase.
Because two armed federal tactical teams arrived unexpectedly.
They weren't there for inmates.
They arrested four employees.
One was Officer Haines.
Another was the prison's medical administrator.
Evidence from Rusk's drive had exposed a much larger corruption network.
But the final arrest shocked everyone.
Officer Pike entered C Block at noon.
His face pale.
"Derek."
"What happened?"
Pike looked toward Walter's classroom.
"You need to get Mercer."
"Why?"
"They found another file."
"What file?"
Pike swallowed.
"A list."
"Of what?"
"Names."
Derek waited.
Pike whispered:
"People they planned to silence."
Walter Mercer was first.
Elena Ward was second.
May you like
Officer Daniel Pike was third.
And number four was Derek Sloan.
