Chapter 3 — Warden Mitchell’s Unease

When Elena’s final request made its way up through the paperwork, it eventually landed on the desk of Warden Robert Mitchell, and Mitchell sat with it for a long time before he did anything at all.

Thirty years in the prison system had taught Mitchell a great many things he wished he could unlearn.

He had witnessed more executions than he liked to count, had stood in the small cold room and watched the procedure carried out on men and women whose guilt was beyond any question, and he had built, over those three decades, the hard protective shell that the job requires of anyone who wants to survive it with their mind intact.

He did not let himself doubt.