Wolf Untamed (SWAT - Special Wolf Alpha Team #11) - Paige Tyler Page 0,82

looked at Clark to see her shrug. “I’m not sure if I’d describe it as crazy, but I was in the room as the board members were prepping for Cowell’s parole hearing. Based on the number of physical altercations Cowell had been involved in, not to mention the fight in the cafeteria, they had no intention of supporting any kind of early release. Fifteen minutes later, I come back to find out two of the more influential members of the board had flipped their positions and pushed for his immediate release with no probation. When I asked later why they’d done it, it was like they didn’t know what I was talking about.”

“I think I understand now why you weren’t surprised when I mentioned Dave might be involved in the delirium attacks,” Diego said. “The riot in the cafeteria and the parole-board hearing have delirium written all over them. Which is crazy, because this stuff you told us about happened months before the earliest known episode in Dallas. I can’t believe no one has ever made the connection.”

“Not from lack of trying on our part,” Clark said, closing the laptop. “We’ve sent copies of our reports and the video of the cafeteria fight to the task force and called them a few times, but I guess they have no interest in running down tips from a bunch of correction officers. Hell, the only person who’s ever showed any interest is that damn irritating reporter from the Dallas Daily Star.”

Diego did a double take at the paper’s name. No way could Clark possibly be talking about that one particular pain in the ass. A lot of reporters were irritating.

“You talking about Ernest Hobbs?” Trey asked.

“Yeah.” Clark looked at them in surprise. “You know him?”

“You could say that,” Diego muttered.

“Hobbs showed up here a couple weeks after Cowell got out, sniffing for a story about the guy’s early release,” Clark continued. “While I normally wouldn’t talk to any reporter, Hobbs was different. He seemed to actually care about what we had to say and the work we do here. I showed him the same video I showed you. He asked to see any other footage we might have on Cowell. It wasn’t like he could take anything with him, so I turned him over to one of our support staff. Hobbs spent days in the archive room watching security footage from all over the prison, getting insight about Cowell’s day-to-day life here.”

“He must have found something interesting among all that video footage, because he hauled ass out of here like his tail was on fire,” Beasley said. “Not long after that, all the insanity in Dallas started and Hobbs was writing stories about delirium.”

Diego shared a look with Trey and Hale before turning back to Clark. “Can we see the same video footage Hobbs looked at? Something tells me Hobbs found the piece of the puzzle that makes sense of all of this.”

* * *

Eight hours later, he, Trey, and Hale were pulling into the parking lot of the SWAT compound. They’d spent all afternoon and into the evening watching miles of video footage from the prison’s security cameras, but as boring as the exercise had been, they’d actually picked up a few valuable nuggets of information.

First off, everything had changed for Dave after his cellmate had been killed. One day, the man had been a literal punching bag. The next, he was running the cell block with no fewer than two heavily muscled inmates protecting him at all times.

Then there was the missing security footage. It had taken a while to notice it, but after digging for a bit, they’d realized the video all around the prison’s laundry area from the day Bremen had been killed was gone. Shocking to no one at all, the staff support person who’d helped Hobbs with his story had quit.

“So, let me get this straight,” Trey said as Diego parked the SUV and cut the engine. “We think Bremen created a drug that not only makes people do crazy crap like robbing a bank, but it also leaves them susceptible to certain suggestions from people like Dave. And that Dave killed Bremen to get the drug, used it to help get released from prison with no probation, and is now using it to make people steal for him. And if that isn’t far enough out there, we’re going to also tell Gage that Hobbs has been aware of this information for some time and has