Williams is impressed with you. Quite taken with you, as a matter of fact. He hears
your tale of woe, and it’s quite natural of him to want to… cheer you up, let’s say.
Quite natural. He’s a young man, not terribly bright. Not surprising he didn’t realize what a state it would put you into. Now what I suggest is -‘
‘Don’t you think I thought of that?’ Andy asked. ‘But I’d never told Tommy
about the man working down at the marina. I never told anyone that–it never even
crossed my mind!
But Tommy’s description of his cellmate and that man… they’re identical!’
‘Well now, you may be indulging in a little selective perception there,’ Norton
said with a chuckle. Phrases like that, selective perception, are required learning for people in the penalogy and corrections business, and they use them all they can.
“That’s not it at all. Sir.’
“That’s your slant on it,’ Norton said, ‘but mine differs. And let’s remember
that I have only your word that there was such a man working at the Falmouth
Country Club back then.’
‘No, sir,’ Andy broke in again. ‘No, that isn’t true. Because-‘
‘Anyway,’ Norton overrode him, expansive and loud, ‘let’s just look at it from
the other end of the telescope, shall we? Suppose -just suppose, now–that there really was a fellow named Elwood Blotch.’
‘Blatch,’ Andy said tightly.
‘Blatch, by all means. And let’s say he was Thomas Williams’s cellmate in
Rhode Island.
The chances are excellent that he has been released by now. Excellent. Why,
we don’t even know how much time he might have done there before he ended up
with Williams, do we? Only that he was doing a six-to-twelve.’
‘No. We don’t know how much time he’d done. But Tommy said he was a bad
actor, a cut-up. I think there’s a fair chance that he may still be in. Even if he’s been
released, the prison will have a record of his last known address, the names of his relatives -‘
‘And both would almost certainly be dead ends.’
Andy was silent for a moment, and then he burst out: ‘Well, it’s a chance, isn’t
it?’
‘Yes, of course it is. So just for a moment, Dufresne, let’s assume that Blatch
exists and that he is still safely ensconced in the Rhode Island State Penitentiary. Now what is he going to say if we bring this kettle of fish to him in a bucket? Is he going to fall down on his knees, roll his eyes, and say “I did it! I did it! By all means add a life term onto my burglary charge!”?’
‘How can you be so obtuse?’ Andy said, so low that Chester could barely hear.
But he heard the warden just fine.
‘What? What did you call me?’
‘Obtuse?’ Andy cried. ‘Is it deliberate?’
‘Dufresne, you’ve taken five minutes of my time–no, seven–and I have a very
busy schedule today. So I believe we’ll just declare this little meeting closed and -‘
‘The country club will have all the old time-cards, don’t you realize that?’
Andy shouted.
They’ll have tax-forms and W-2s and unemployment compensation forms, all
with his name on them! There will be employees there now that were there then,
maybe Briggs himself! It’s been fifteen years, not forever! They’ll remember him!
They will remember Blatch! If I’ve got Tommy to testify to what Blatch told him, and
Briggs to testify that Blatch was there, actually working at the country club, I can get a new trial! I can -‘
‘Guard! Guardl Take this man away!’
‘What’s the matter with you?’ Andy said, and Chester told me he was very
nearly screaming by then. ‘It’s my life, my chance to get out, don’t you see that? And you won’t make a single long-distance call to at least verify Tommy’s story? Listen,
I’ll pay for the call! I’ll pay for -‘
Then there was a sound of thrashing as the guards grabbed him and started to
drag him out ‘Solitary,’ Warden Norton said dryly. He was probably–wearing his
thirty-year pin as he said it ‘Bread and water.’
And so they dragged Andy away, totally out of control now, still screaming at