Chapter 36 - The prison visit
The upstate correctional facility smelled of damp concrete, cheap industrial disinfectant, and despair. Grace sat on a metal stool behind the reinforced acrylic glass, waiting as the heavy iron door buzzed open.
Sabrina walked in, escorted by two armed corrections officers.
Ten years in prison had stripped away every trace of the glamorous socialite who once wore designer silk and diamond necklaces. Her blonde hair was dull and graying at the roots, her skin pale and paper-thin, her eyes hollow with chronic fatigue. When Sabrina sat down and saw Grace on the other side of the glass, she flinched, pulling her orange jumpsuit tighter around her frail shoulders.
"Did you come to gloat?" Sabrina asked through the intercom, her voice hoarse and bitter. "Ten years, Grace. Julian ruined my life, and you made sure I stayed in this cage."
"I didn't come to gloat, Sabrina," Grace replied calmly. "Marcus Vance is out. And Alexander Cross is in New York."
At the mention of those names, Sabrina’s hands began to shake so violently that she dropped the intercom receiver onto the metal shelf. She scrambled to pick it up, pressing it to her ear with white knuckles.
"They're coming for Lily, aren't they?" Sabrina whispered, genuine terror flashing in her sunken eyes.
"Tell me what Julian did," Grace demanded. "Tell me how Vance is connected."
"Julian was terrified of them," Sabrina sobbed, tears cutting lines through the dust on her cheeks. "Before we were arrested, Julian gave Cross a duplicate set of the original Caldwell estate blueprints. He told them about the maintenance tunnels beneath the east wing. And six months ago, Julian traded information to an inmate connected to Vance. Julian isn't in a federal penitentiary anymore, Grace. They transferred him to a private clinic in Westchester last week for kidney dialysis."
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Grace leaned closer to the glass. "Who signed the transfer order?"
"A judge named Miller," Sabrina whispered. "Julian didn't have kidney failure. It was an extraction."
