Chapter 109: Chapter 109 Undercurrents
Two days after Andy signed the power of attorney, something happened outside. A thief named Aimo voluntarily surrendered to the police station, confessing to killing a man and a woman in a villa on a certain street seven years ago.
Why did Aimo surrender?
Because he didn't want to live in such a hellish life anymore.
He was threatened.
Either endure this life or surrender and take responsibility. Aimo had been in prison three times before, so he was not unfamiliar with prison life.
Although prison meant losing freedom, life could still be somewhat normal eating, sleeping, sunbathing as long as you didn't provoke the guards and the prison bosses, life wasn't too bad.
But here, enduring hunger every day, being whipped every two days, and salt being rubbed into the wounds, those people were not human at all, they enjoyed torturing them.
When Aimo heard Big Ivan say he had to endure this life, he broke down. He would rather spend his whole life in prison than live like this.
He feared he wouldn't be able to endure it for long before they beat him to death.
Evil begets evil. Aimo was a murderer, but in his heart, Big Ivan and those people were demons, and he feared them from the bottom of his heart.
After the police questioned him, they found out that this case had been sentenced seven years ago. The court had convicted the husband of that woman, a banker, of the murder.
The matter was reported to the police chief, who was also very cautious.
"I know about that case from back then. The banker never admitted to killing his wife, but I didn't expect that the real murderer would surrender seven years later."
"Report it to the court, they should know about this."
The case was reported to the state court. When the current Chief Justice of the state court learned about it, he immediately ordered the case files to be retrieved.
They found that the confession of the thief matched the facts of the case, which occurred seven years ago.
Especially in some areas where there were unclear explanations at the time, after reading the thief's confession, they found the answers.
"The judge who presided over this case back then was Hobbes, who has retired. There were some controversies in this case during the trial. The banker never admitted to killing his wife. He has been writing letters to the court every month for so many years without interruption. According to the normal procedure, since someone made a mistake, someone should help him correct it.
The responsibility has already been pushed onto the retired Judge Hobbes."
And the next day, a lawyer named Bob submitted a petition to the state legislature and presented Andy's power of attorney.
"I will defend Mr. Andy."
In a few days, the media also learned about this. The case of Andy killing his wife was once sensational, and now it turned out to be a wrongful conviction, with the murderer surrendering himself. The newspapers began to report extensively, and for a while, everyone knew about it.
Shawshank Prison.
Warden Norton looked at the newspaper in his hand, his expression becoming increasingly grim. The newspaper reported that a thief had surrendered to the police station, confessing to killing the two people from back then, which meant that Andy's case might be overturned.
He had previously thought that Andy couldn't possibly overturn his case unless there was overwhelmingly sufficient evidence.
Never did he imagine that a confessing thief would appear.
At this moment, Warden Norton even suspected that the thief was arranged to take the blame deliberately. Framing and taking the blame for someone wasn't unheard of, and he knew quite a bit about it.
Thinking about the lawyer who came to see Andy a couple of days ago.
Things couldn't be that coincidental.
Someone must be helping Andy.
He didn't care whether Andy was innocent or not, what concerned him was that Andy knew too many of his secrets.
Helping him evade taxes, falsifying records, and laundering money.
Once these things were exposed, Warden Norton would be finished.
Forget about keeping his position as warden, he might even end up in prison. Maybe Andy wouldn't speak out, but he didn't want to leave his fate in someone else's hands.
Putting the newspaper down on the table, a cold light flashed in Warden Norton's eyes behind his glasses.
Captain Haley received a rapid summons from the Warden. "Warden, you wanted to see me?"
"Haley, did Andy also do false accounting and tax evasion for you?" Warden Norton asked.
"Ah, yes," replied Haley.
He knew he couldn't deceive Warden Norton about this.
"Take a look at this newspaper, there's news that might interest you." Warden Norton threw the newspaper to Haley.
Haley took it and, after reading, his eyes widened.
"Someone confessed to killing Andy's wife. Does this mean Andy's case will be retried?" Haley was astonished.
"Yes, retried. After being acquitted, he'll be released. But he knows too much about us. If it leaks out, think about the consequences." Warden Norton looked at Haley with a dark gaze.
Haley's expression kept changing.
If his tax evasion were exposed, he would definitely lose his job now, and the tax bureau might prosecute him, ranging from paying tax penalties to even imprisonment.
"Warden, what do we do now?" Haley asked.
A cold gleam flashed in Warden Norton's eyes. "Making sure he keeps his mouth shut once and for all."
"You mean... kill him?" Haley asked.
"Do you have a better way?" Warden Norton sneered at Haley.
Haley gritted his teeth. "Fine, I'll find someone to do it."
Warden Norton nodded. "Now that Andy's case has been exposed, someone is definitely watching him. If you directly act, you might be implicated. It's better to think of a reliable way to make the inmates handle it. Afterwards, claim it was revenge. There are plenty of serious offenders here, they'll never leave anyway, killing one more person won't matter.
Give them some benefits, promise them a better life in prison. Someone will do it."
"I understand, warden." Haley nodded.