Ch.118Complicated! (3)

#118

“…Mr. Dexter?”

“Hmm?”

“Mr. Dexter, you need to wake up now.”

Having dozed off with his eyes closed, Dexter carefully sat up and checked his wristwatch.

“Oh my, I slept for 30 minutes. Are you alright?”

It’s difficult to keep a grown man’s head on your lap without moving an inch.

Since Judy had a frail constitution, Dexter was concerned that she might have been enduring discomfort because of him.

“I’m fine. I was more worried about you being uncomfortable.”

Judy was so absorbed in taking care of Dexter that she didn’t even notice her own pain, still smiling brightly.

Nevertheless, perhaps feeling the effects of staying still for 30 minutes, Judy was gently massaging her thigh with her small hand.

“Is your thigh numb?”

“What? Oh. Just a little…”

“That won’t do.”

Seeing this, Dexter unhesitatingly began massaging Judy’s thigh.

“At times like this, you need to work it out properly to prevent problems.”

“…Ah, this is… a bit…!”

Massage, massage.

If Dexter had been rubbing her thigh with a lecherous expression, she would have forcibly removed his hand and told him to stop. But Dexter was massaging her with a genuinely concerned and enthusiastic expression.

“Um, isn’t this a bit inappropriate…?”

Seeing Judy speak while covering her face with her palms, Dexter chuckled and replied matter-of-factly.

“If you want to be treated well, you have to treat others well, don’t you?”

“…Mr. Dexter, you even know the Golden Rule?”

“It’s basic.”

After Dexter continued massaging Judy’s thigh for a few more minutes, she began squirming while occasionally glancing at his face.

“I, I think that’s enough now…”

“Alright then.”

Realizing he had massaged quite a bit, Dexter removed his hands. Judy looked at him with apparent embarrassment and said in a small voice:

“Um, I’ll see you later. I have something I need to do first.”

“Oh? Ah, yes. Of course.”

Watching Judy rise from her seat as if flustered, Dexter felt slightly puzzled as he left the chapel.

‘Hmm, was that too much stimulation?’

It was the kind of touch that Jessica would have loved, but it might have been a bit much for Judy.

Dexter decided to approach more slowly next time.

When Dexter reached Medium Security Facility Block 2 and swiped his card to enter, a strange scene was unfolding before him.

‘What’s going on here?’

In front of Dexter, a group of inmates and several correctional officers were facing off, staring at each other.

It was clearly an unusual situation.

However, the atmosphere wasn’t as hostile as one might expect, and representatives from both sides were exchanging words.

“There’s no evidence that she stole it.”

“The evidence is what’s smeared on her mouth, what else!”

“That could have come from somewhere else.”

Even after hearing their conversation, Dexter couldn’t make sense of the situation.

He stepped between the inmates and officers, looking back and forth between them.

“What on earth is going on here? I should declare an emergency…”

As Dexter reached for the radio on his shoulder, one of the officers hastily stopped him.

“No, no! It’s not like that. It’s this inmate’s problem!”

At the front of the inmates the officer pointed to was Emily.

It seemed that whenever Emily was involved in an incident, things tended to escalate more than expected. Dexter rubbed his temple slightly and asked:

“…Has Bell caused some trouble?”

As Dexter looked at Emily with those words, she shook her head with her usual expressionless face.

Whether Emily had actually done something wrong or not, this was the first time Dexter had seen inmates and officers divided into opposing sides like this. He turned to the officers first.

“Look, if she caused a problem, you could just detain her using your authority as officers. Why are you all standing around like this?”

“There’s no evidence, no evidence!”

“What did she do that you have no evidence for?”

“That inmate definitely stole my donut!”

Hearing the chubby officer’s complaint, Dexter rubbed his temple vigorously.

“So, Bell stole a donut, but there’s no evidence, so the inmates have banded together to protest against accusing someone without evidence, and the officers have grouped together claiming there is evidence?”

“Exactly, you got it right away!”

Dexter slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again, pondering for a moment.

‘Is this really a dispute happening in a prison among adults in 2015?’

Dexter put his hands on his hips, lowered his head, then looked up again.

“Are you all elementary school children? Seriously? Disperse immediately. You’re all adults—what are you fighting about?”

Dexter’s face was a mixture of bewilderment and disbelief.

The two divided groups began to murmur after seeing Dexter’s expression.

“See, I told you Officer Hughes wouldn’t buy this reason.”

“But that was a specially ordered donut.”

‘Still going on about that?’

Dexter scratched his head vigorously and addressed the chubby officer.

“I’ll buy you a replacement, so let’s drop this. Even as officers, you need to have some trust in the inmates.”

‘I can understand inmates behaving this way, but aren’t you supposed to be adults?’

He found it incredibly absurd that they were opposing each other for such a childish reason.

With Dexter’s face clearly saying “why aren’t you leaving yet,” the officers and inmates dispersed, grumbling.

The conversation among the inmates was equally ridiculous.

“Wow, fuck. It was really about a donut?”

“What did you think it was about?”

“I thought it was a regular fight, so I just joined in.”

“That’s why you end up in solitary so often, idiot.”

As the other inmates and officers dispersed, Dexter pointed at Emily and said:

He thought it would be better to ask Emily, the accused thief and someone he was much closer with, rather than the unfamiliar chubby officer.

“Bell, come down to the basement.”

“Yes.”

Seeing Dexter call for Emily, other officers and inmates shook their heads.

“He used to hunt down Blueberg like a rat, and now he’s after Bell the same way.”

“Usually he smiles at all the inmates, but when it comes to this, he’s really sharp as a knife.”

“Even Jessica can’t handle that C.O., how does he do it?”

“Just look at all those muscles. He must have been in the military or something. Ugh, no matter how handsome he is, I don’t want to get close to him.”

Dexter heard their whispered conversations and smiled silently as he headed to the basement of the detention facility.

When they reached the basement, Emily calmly remarked to Dexter:

“This is how you used to call Jessica too, right?”

“You know it well. If I don’t call you like this, people will think we’re dating.”

“That seems fine.”

The two arrived at the boiler room, and Dexter leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, casually starting the conversation.

“So, what exactly happened?”

Emily, also leaning against the wall like Dexter, answered without hesitation.

“It wasn’t anything major. In the staff area, that fat officer was showing off a donut box to another officer. He said it was a special limited edition and he paid $5 per donut.”

‘Fat officer, ah.’

The fat officer Dexter remembered was one of those who really loved donuts.

He would monopolize and clear out the donuts provided as snacks for the officers, to the point that even Dan, who rarely got angry, had complained about it.

“But what’s so special about these donuts that they cost $5 each? The cheap ones aren’t even $2. Anyway, then what?”

Dexter looked at Emily suspiciously, surprised by her detailed explanation.

“I was curious about what made these donuts special, so I opened the box. There were several chocolate-covered donuts and milk cream donuts, so I took two that looked delicious and ate them.”

Emily’s brazen confession of her crime.

Dexter couldn’t understand.

More precisely, he couldn’t understand how she stole the donuts rather than why.

“…A donut box from the staff area? But there are CCTVs there, and officers are always present? And you ate them?”

“Well… if you know the CCTV blind spots and how to make people let their guard down, it’s quite possible.”

Emily added several explanations about the theft process, but to Dexter, they all sounded the same.

It was like saying, “When taking candy from a child, it’s much simpler and better to use force rather than words.”

Giving up on understanding, Dexter shook his head and pointed out Emily’s mistake.

“You may be a thief by nature, but you shouldn’t be stealing in prison too. And in the end, you were suspected, weren’t you? Why were you suspected?”

“I was the only inmate wandering near the staff area.”

Emily was about to continue with the rest of the story but started hesitating as if something was embarrassing.

“What? What is it?”

Naturally confused by her behavior, Dexter asked, and Emily carefully answered.

“And there were cream marks around my mouth.”

“Whose mouth?”

“My mouth.”

Realizing he’d been scratching his head a lot today, Dexter rubbed his temple again and said:

“…Don’t people tell you that you make surprisingly careless mistakes?”

“Grandma Bonnie said the same thing. That I’m good at everything except for making ridiculous mistakes.”

Exasperated, Dexter glanced at the stairs leading up to the ground floor and beckoned to Emily with his finger.

“Should I go that way?”

As Emily slowly approached Dexter, he pulled her into his arms.

“Because of this—ah.”

Without asking about Emily’s apparent objection, Dexter placed one hand on the nape of her neck and kissed her.

‘It tastes sweet.’

Probably from the donut cream still lingering around her mouth.

Emily opened her eyes about 2mm wider than usual, indicating slight surprise, but she didn’t reject Dexter and accepted him.

The distance from Medium Security Facility Block 2 to the prison entrance is less than 100 yards (about 100 meters).

If they just walked those 100 yards, their actions would be legally unproblematic, and they could enjoy themselves freely without worrying about appearances.

But their relationship was that of an inmate and a correctional officer, making their actions taboo within the prison walls.

The sense of guilt from breaking this taboo and the tension of not getting caught raised their body temperatures and made their breathing rough.

But today, they couldn’t go further than this.

Despite being the one who initiated the kiss, Dexter gently pushed Emily’s shoulders away and said with an apologetic expression:

“Next time.”

Emily, who had her eyes closed, slowly opened them and spoke in her usual manner.

“I hate you.”

“I wasn’t prepared today.”

“I thought as much.”

Emily wiped her lips with her thumb and said:

“So, did you call me here just to kiss me?”

“The kiss is one thing. The other is to be more careful not to get caught next time.”

“Not to tell me to stop stealing?”

“As if I could stop you from stealing anyway?”

Dexter shrugged in response to Emily’s question.

“You’re probably one of America’s best thieves, how could I stop you?”

“Mr. Dexter, you sometimes know how to say flattering things.”

With her unchanging expressionless face, Emily gently stroked Dexter’s cheek and asked:

“What should I say about how I was scolded?”

“Hmm, what do you want to say?”

“How about that you unbuckled your belt and hit me with it?”

“The moment you say that, I’d be fired as an officer. Just say I verbally reprimanded you. Not too harshly, though.”

Dexter was concerned that what Emily might consider a minor comment could sound like serious verbal abuse to others, so he added:

“Don’t say I used any racially discriminatory language.”

“I’m not a child.”

“I decided to treat you like one the moment you stole those donuts.”

“How could you.”

Seeing her lips curl up ever so slightly despite her expressionless face, Dexter patted Emily’s head once and headed for the stairs leading to the ground floor.

“Let’s go. If we stay any longer, people will get suspicious.”

“Understood.”

As soon as Dexter reached the ground floor, he wore a stern expression with furrowed brows, while Emily remained expressionless.

“Bell, return to your place.”

“Yes.”

Emily walked ahead of Dexter with her hands behind her back, then clenched and unclenched her hands as a subtle gesture of farewell.

“Huh.”

Dexter let out a small laugh at Emily’s unexpected behavior.

Though her expression appeared cold, her actions were surprisingly cute.