Then he crossed to the window and looked outside. He was on the fifth or sixth floor, he guessed. The grounds around the building were starting to turn green with the first touch of early spring. There were still a few patches of snow here and there, in the shadows cast by the other buildings.
There were a dozen buildings, all big and square and new-looking. Ten floors high, each of them, although there were a couple of smaller buildings farther out. One of them had a tall smokestack. The buildings were arranged around a big, open lawn that had cement paths through it. A few young trees lined the walkways. They were just beginning to bud.
“No fences,” Danny said to himself.
None of the windows he could see had bars. Everyone seemed to enter or leave the buildings freely. No guards and no locks on the doors? Out past the farthest building was an area of trees. Danny knew from his trip in here, this morning, that beyond the woods was the highway that led back to the city.
Back to Laurie.
Danny smiled. What were the words the judge had used? In… in-de-ter-minate sentence. The lawyer had said that it meant he was going to stay in jail for as long as they wanted him to. A year, ten years, fifty years…
“I’ll be out of here tonight!” He laughed.
A knock on the door made Danny jump. Somebody-heard me!
Another knock, louder this time. “Hey, you in there?” a man’s voice called.
“Y… yeah.”
The door popped open. “I’m supposed to talk with you and get you squared away. My name’s Joe Tenny.”
Joe was at least forty, Danny saw. He was stocky, tough-looking, but smiling. His face was broad; his dark hair combed straight back. He was a head taller than Danny and three times wider. The jacket of his suit looked tight across the middle. His tie was loosened, and his shirt collar unbuttoned.
A cop, Danny thought. Or maybe a guard. But why ain’t he wearing a uniform?
Joe Tenny stuck out a heavy right hand. Danny didn’t move.
“Listen, kid,” Tenny said, “we’re going to be stuck together for a long time. We might as well be friends.”
“I got my own friends,” said Danny. “On the outside.”
Tenny’s eyebrows went up while the corners of his mouth went down. His face seemed to say. Who are you trying to kid, wise guy?
Aloud, he said, “Okay, suit yourself. You can have it any way you like, hard or easy.” He reached for one of the chairs and pulled it over near the bed.
“How long am I going to be here?”
“That depends on you. A couple of years, at least.” Joe turned the chair around backwards and sat on it as if it were a saddle, leaning his stubby arms on the chair’s back.
Danny swung at the pile of clothes and things on the bed, knocking most of them onto the floor. Then he plopped down on the mattress. The springs squeaked in complaint.
Joe looked hard at him, then let a smile crack his face. “I know just what’s going through your mind. You’re thinking that two years here in the Center is going to kill you, so you’re going to crash out the first chance you get. Well, forget it! The Center is escape-proof.”
In spite of himself, Danny laughed.
“I know, I know…” Tenny grinned back at him. “The Center looks more like a college campus than a jail. In fact, that’s what most of the kids call it—the campus. But believe me, Alcatraz was easy compared to this place. We don’t have many guards or fences, but we’ve got TV cameras, and laser alarms, and SPECS.”
“Who’s Specks?” Danny asked.
Joe called out, “SPECS, say hello.”
The TV screen on the wall lit up. A flat, calm voice said, “GOOD MORNING DR. TENNY. GOOD MORNING MR, ROMANO. WELCOME TO THE JUVENILE HEALTH CENTER.”
Danny felt totally confused. Somebody was talking through the TV set? The screen, though, showed the words he was hearing, spelled put a line at a time. But they moved too fast for Danny to really read them. And Specks, whoever he was, called Joe Tenny a doctor.