In Chap­ter 214 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” War­den Riley nav­i­gates the com­plex dynam­ics of prison life, where var­i­ous fac­tions oper­ate with­in their own hier­ar­chies. While he holds the title of the high­est author­i­ty, he under­stands that true con­trol is an illu­sion, as cap­tains, guards, and inmates each wield their influ­ence.

When Black­jack sub­mits his report regard­ing an alter­ca­tion, War­den Riley real­izes it was not Joseph Macauley who ignit­ed the con­flict. How­ev­er, the report reveals that Joseph played a cru­cial role in resolv­ing it. Con­se­quent­ly, Riley decides to trans­fer Mick Han­ni­gan, the larg­er man involved, after his recov­ery from the infir­mary, indi­cat­ing the shift­ing alliances in the prison. The young inmate, known as White, faces a first offense, result­ing in a month of soli­tary con­fine­ment before return­ing to gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion, where the Brand will mete out harsh­er pun­ish­ment than Riley could. In a sub­tle act of con­trol, Riley takes away Joseph’s access to death row and the prison library, a deci­sion that seems pre­med­i­tat­ed on his part.

As the chap­ter pro­gress­es, Patch, a char­ac­ter involved in han­dling books, receives a sack of returns from Black­jack which were retrieved from lif­ers’ cells. Upon return­ing to the library, Patch feels an unex­pect­ed pres­ence as he sorts the books. He dis­cov­ers a beat­en copy of Janie Crawford’s sto­ry that once belonged to inmate Mar­ty Tooms, with­in which lies an enve­lope care­ful­ly hid­den. The enve­lope cap­tures Patch’s atten­tion, fea­tur­ing Toom­s’s ele­gant cur­sive hand­writ­ing. The let­ter inside con­tains a name that res­onates deeply with Patch, evok­ing mem­o­ries and a con­nec­tion he had not antic­i­pat­ed.

This chap­ter delves into themes of author­i­ty, manip­u­la­tion, and the unex­pect­ed ties that bind the char­ac­ters with­in the con­fines of the prison, high­light­ing the intri­cate rela­tion­ships and the unspo­ken his­to­ries that linger beneath the sur­face. The dis­cov­ery of the let­ter cre­ates a poignant moment for Patch, hint­ing at deep­er nar­ra­tives wait­ing to unfold.