Prologue:

The fire extinguisher spent, I lowered it to my side and looked down at the charred remains of the poor soul crammed into the garbage barrel. There was no saving him, not by a long shot. We stood around the blackened steel drum, inmates from the work details and guards alike, everyone wanting to see who the victim was.
 
Propped up by the confines of the barrel, his arms were high in the air like he’d surrendered, a post-mortem rendition of the wave at some baseball game from Hell.

Everyone had raced into the dining hall to see the fire, but once the flames were doused, their hoots of excitement quickly changed to cries of shock. Now, except for some whispered prayers and curses, everyone just stared.    

Along with the arms, one black boot stuck up out of the barrel. I had no idea where his other leg was, but assumed it was in there with him. He'd been dropped ass first into the over-sized barrel before being lit on fire. Picturing his struggles, I shivered at the thought of how it felt to be trapped and roasted alive.

Several inches below the rim, the thinning smoke revealed his blackened head. It was thrust back, looking up to heaven with the eyes squeezed shut and the mouth gaping wide in a silent scream. A stark contrast against the charcoal surroundings, I saw the smoky gray white of his teeth and bright pink roof of his mouth.

That was when I recognized him. It was Martin, the same bastard shit-bum of an officer I'd traded blows with in front of everyone that very morning at roll call.

I couldn’t look anymore. Shaking off the grisly sight, I turned away to see the crowd that had gathered. All the work details assigned to the yard were there, six officers, including me, and over a dozen inmates.

I realized then that one or more of them had committed this murder, but what really bothered me was that out of everyone here, because of what happened this morning, I was the most likely suspect.

Just my luck, getting into a scuffle with another officer who just happens to get murdered by end of shift.

I wondered how I always managed to get myself into such deep shit. And, knowing this was going to be the deepest shit ever, I longed for the normal, knee-high variety.

I really couldn’t believe this was happening. The day had started out just as mildly crappy as any other.


Chapter 1: Roll Call