Read Online SURVIVORS: a gripping thriller full of suspense (Titan Trilogy Book 2) by T. J. Brearton - Free Book Online Page B

thought it was time to start bargaining and spent most of the session asking to be moved to a private cell, or to be granted other special privileges, like more time in the yard, or extra trips to the commissary. The more normal the visit, the better.
    Bedford Hills was a max facility – the only maximum security prison for women in the state. Amy Fisher had been through Bedford. She notoriously gunned down Joey Buttafuoco, the man she’d begun an affair with as a sixteen year-old student. Fisher was out and starring in porn movies, while husband-killers Pamela Smart and Barbara Kogan were still in house. As was Marybeth Tinning, who’d killed several of her children. Perhaps the most infamous of them all was Stacey Castor, dubbed The Black Widow by the media. Castor was found guilty of poisoning her husband with antifreeze. She was also convicted of the attempted murder of her daughter and spent most of her time in De-Seg.
    Most of the women in Bedford had kids. Roughly seventy percent of women currently serving time in a U.S. facility had school-age children. And some of them, like Marybeth Tinning, were doing time for ending their children’s lives. The legal disposition of those cases varied enormously, but it was estimated that five percent of female inmates had committed filicide.
    Olivia Jane, however, neither had children nor had murdered any children.
    Still, Olivia Jane introduced young women into a life of prostitution. And many of those girls were forced to, or chose to, abort pregnancies. Of course, none of that had ever been proven. Jane was doing twenty years for the murder of the escort, Rebecca Heilshorn, not for shepherding young women into the sex trade. She had served two already, and had been a model prisoner, and would have the chance for parole in another four years.
    Jennifer didn’t think that Olivia Jane should get out of prison. Moreover, she didn’t think that making introductions for the girls to enter the escort business was the extent of Jane’s machinations. A woman entering the commercial sex trade willingly was one thing, but it became sexual trafficking when coercion was present. Some, after being forced to abort a pregnancy, wanted out, and couldn’t get out. Others had their children in secret, but were found out. Jennifer believed Rebecca Heilshorn had given birth to children, and she’d been struggling to get free.
    An enforcer named Reginald Forrester had prevented her from leaving. The question was, why?
    One explanation was that someone powerful, someone with money, wanted her to stay. Powerful clients fetishized certain girls and paid top dollar for their continued “service.” But Jennifer had always thought that the truth ran deeper, that other agendas were possible.
    Maybe Rebecca had seen something. Maybe she’d known something that had gotten her killed.
    Maybe it had something to do with money.
    Rebecca’s father, Alexander Heilshorn, had also been drawn into the sordid mess. Heilshorn appeared to be a concerned father who, perhaps overzealously, had tried to assist in the investigation. Heilshorn had wealth and influence – he was a respected doctor who had patented medical technologies and amassed a small fortune. He was also a contributor to several political campaigns.
    Plus he had connections to bankers, brokers, hedge fund managers, and government officeholders galore.
    Jennifer set her coffee down on the small ledge in front of her. Olivia Jane was smart – the woman had a master’s degree in psychology. She’d also lived a double life for many years, and right under the nose of the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department, the Utica Police Department, and half a dozen others, for whom she’d worked as a grief counselor. Mostly pro bono. Jennifer had researched Ms. Jane thoroughly. She was an outstanding advocate for her clients. She honored patient confidentiality even post-mortem. And in the end, that had been her way to keep her alternate life completely