by Jay Sharman
Tony looked at John and said, ‘No, we did not see anybody else.’
John said, ’Nobody wants to upset the Greens, so we all stay away from them.’
Jackson looked at them both, he could not imagine that they were capable of killing Angelo. ‘OK, you both can go now. I will be in touch later.
Jackson next summoned Greg, Robin and David into his office. They were all looking a bit nervous and apprehensive. Before Jackson could say a word, Greg stood up to shout ‘What kind of security do you have in the prison? Angelo was tall and athletic, if he could be killed by prisoners, then what chance of survival have others got?’
Jackson took his seat and pleaded with others to do the same. He looked at Greg’s facial expressions and said, ‘I understand how you are feeling; this is the second hanging in a period of a few weeks. We need everybody’s help and cooperation to solve this mystery. When did you see Angelo last?’
David replied, ‘Angelo was with us only ten minutes before he went for his shower.’
Jackson asked while looking at all of them, ‘Did any one of you go with him to the shower room?’
Robin answered, ‘No, we did not. For some reason Angelo liked to take the shower in the fourth floor, so he went there by himself.’
‘Do you suspect anybody?’
Greg was conscious of his involvement with Hussain’s murder and saw an opportunity to clear his name. ‘Maybe Hussain’s friends might have planned Angelo’s murder to take revenge for his death.’
Robin looked at Greg and said, ‘For some reasons, many prisoners suspected that Angelo had a hand in killing Hussain, especially when Hussain complained about Angelo’s attempt to strangle him.’
Jackson was quick to ask, ‘Do you think Angelo had killed Hussain?’
Greg whispered, ‘I can't answer that. The only two people who can disclose that information are fucking dead.’
Jackson intervened, ‘Hey guys, mind your language. Do any of you have any hands in Angelo’s death?’
Greg shouted, ‘No boss, how can you even fucking think of asking us that, we were his friends. We always supported each other, and we protect each other from other inmates.’
Jackson heard a knock on the door and another officer brought four cups of tea for them, which they all took in their hands to drink. Jackson carried on asking, ‘Even if Angelo was your good mate, there can always be rivalry among yourself.’
David replied, ‘No Gov, we fucking had no involvement in his death.’
Jackson took a sip of tea and said, ‘Mind your language. Do you think that Angelo could have hanged himself? Was he suffering from depression or any other problems?’
David replied, ‘Angelo was a very strong person and he did not share his worries and problems with us.’
Greg suggested, ‘Mr Jackson, we are not police detectives so that we can't help to solve the murder enquiry. Again, we could not go inside Angelo’s mind to know that what exactly his motives were. Of course, we can't exclude the possibility of a suicide.’
Jackson looked at his watch as he had a meeting with a CID officer in ten minutes time. He concluded by saying, ‘Let us leave the forensic side to the police and their team. I am sure that they have their own ways of finding the truth. However, I appreciate your time to meet me. If you get any information, then don't hesitate to come and see me.’
Chapter 17
Julian and Nicki had been going to the arts class for three weeks now. In the class room there were eight big tables and had ten to twelve chairs lying around in the room. The cupboards in the room had many books for students relating to arts and drawings. One cupboard had different colours for oil, water and pastel. The more experienced students used oil paintings whereas the beginners preferred water colours. Near the sink were empty pots and brushes which students used to paint their pictures. The teacher also used computers to draw graphs for the painting to give it a professional look and also to make it easy for the students.
Mike had been an arts teacher for ten years and he had his own particular style for teaching his students. Most of the time, he would just talk with the students instead of teaching or giving any tips about painting and drawing. No wonder many students left his class, as soon as they joined him. However, that did not bother Mike, as he did not change his teaching style. Few good artists stayed in his class for his sense of humour, as they were better artists than Mike. But since Nicki had joined the arts class, Mike’s attention had been fully focused on her. He had already given her drawing tips and kept on asking about her past. He often commented that you look more like a woman than a man.
Nicki felt relieved as she did not have to answer any of Mike’s questions because of her pretended dumbness. Mike was known more for his silly remarks than his teaching, but students did not mind that.
Nicki was busy drawing a landscape with her pencil when Mike sat down next to her and commented, ‘Nick, your drawing is good, but your shading needs some improvement, let me show you how to improve that skill.’ Mike held Nicki’s two fingers and started to draw with the pencil.
Julian’s blood was boiling as he observed Mike staring at Nicki’s face rather than the drawing. He wanted to punch Mike but restrained himself as he did not want to get into trouble. Nicki was blushing and feeling uncomfortable, as she could not get Mike’s hands off hers. Finally, Julian intervened. ‘Mike, do you want to hold my hand and show how to improve my drawings?’
Mike withdrew his hand from Nicki, but still laughed, ‘Your hands are not soft as that of Nick.’
Mike said, ‘You are supposed to be a teacher and not making a pass at your students, especially when Nick can’t even speak.’
Another student said, ‘Mike, if you were teaching in an outside college, you would had been suspended by now.’
Mike realised that he had crossed the limits and apologized, ‘Sorry, I don’t mean to give that impression. I only try to entertain you and teach you good painting skills.’
The student replied, ‘Why don’t you hold my hand. My hands are rough and yours are softer maybe, you will like to hold a proper man’s hands.’
Mike grinned and said, ‘Go away. Don’t make fun of me.’
Nicki pointed to Julian about her need for urination. Julian asked Mike, ‘Can Nick go to the toilet.’
Mike looked at Nicki and said with a toothy grin, ‘I did not stop him. He can go anytime he likes.’
Julian stood up from his chair and said while looking towards Nicki ‘I will go with him to assist him to speak there. People make fun of him otherwise.’
Another prisoner said, ‘Are you his fucking body guard that you need to be with him all the time. For fuck’s sake, how will he cope without you.’
Julian looked at the young prisoner but decided not to respond to him and left the room along with Nicki.
Both Julian and Nicki stood outside the toilet, as somebody was inside. Nicki whispered, ‘Did you see that stupid Mike, how he was harassing me. I cannot imagine that how can you tolerate that?’
Julian said, ‘Shush, do not say a word in case somebody hears you.’
Nicki muttered in Julian’s ears ‘How can I go inside a men’s toilet? I feel bizarre to do so.’
Julian looked around and said, ‘Do not worry, they both are same. I know that there is no lock inside. I will stand outside the door, just in case somebody wanted to go inside the toilet.’
Nicki looked into Julian’s eyes and said, ‘Look at what you have do to endure for me.’
Julian replied, ‘We are both in this together, so we need to cover each other.’
‘For how long we can stay like this?’
A man had come outside, smiled at Nicki and said, ‘Come on, pretty boy, you can go now. Can I come with you again?’
Nicki just went inside the toilet without looking at the man. Two days later, Nicki got a card through her door which said, ‘I love you and miss you.’
Nicki laughed. Julian snatched the card from her hand and
looked at the pink coloured card with a picture of red rose inside. He shouted, ‘Who the hell has sent you this card? The number of your lovers are increasing by the day. I bet that it is Mike who is doing all this. I must report him to the manger.’
Nicki was enjoying the attention, but restrained Julian’s temper by putting her arms around his neck. She said, ‘What is the point of reporting Mike? We don’t know yet, who has sent this? Also, if the education department started to investigate, they will ask us lots of questions and chances are that they might find my true identity.’
Julian implanted a small kiss on her cheeks and said, ‘Yes, you are right. I do get jealous when other people start harassing you.’
‘Oh, I did not know that you can get jealous. You must love me a lot to feel like that.’ Nicki moved away from Julian to sit on the bed.
Julian smirked and said, ‘I feel sometimes that this is all a dream. Only few months ago I was working as a GP earning good money and had a good reputation and now everything is ruined. I am not sure, if ever again I will be able to regain my past glory.’
Nicki said, ‘Have a faith in God. He will rectify everything for you. Also, my love will give you all the strength and hope that you need. At least we have one consolation that we are together day and night. For love one has to do many sacrifices.’
Chapter 18
Mike Jackson had been busy helping police with their enquiries about Angelo’s death, they still had not solved the mysterious death of Hussain. No DNA was found in his room to implicate anybody. Even if they had found any evidence, that did not mean that particular person had killed Hussain. Everton still remained a prime suspect, but he reiterated that he was downstairs at the time of his death to get his lunch and medications. The timing of Hussain’s death was not accurately given by the coroner.
The prison had suspected Angelo’s hand in his death, but they were not certain whether Angelo strangled him on his own or somebody else had assisted him. The coroner’s report was inconclusive which stated that Hussain’s death was due to asphyxia caused either by outside force or due to self-inflicted strangulation.
The death of Angelo further confirmed fears that this was the result of an inter gang rivalry. Hussain’s friends with similar ideology and religion may have taken revenge by eliminating Angelo from the scene. The shower room was the perfect place for four or five guys to go there and kill Angelo without being caught by anyone.
The police were surprised that a man of Angelo’s strength and height did not show any signs of a struggle. There were no bruise marks or tearing of his clothes. The bruises on the neck corresponded with that of a strangulation.
The police did also think of the possibility of a suicide. But they raised the question of his motive for that as why would he do that? Angelo was perfectly healthy, with no sign of depression and was talking to his friends only few minutes before his death.
The media was taking lots of interest in those two deaths so close to each other in that prison, and it received a wide coverage on TV and newspapers. There were calls for the resignation of the main governor who was held responsible for the recent killings.
That morning, the prisoners got ready to go to work and education, it was already past nine am but the doors were still locked, and that puzzled the prisoners as no apparent reason was given for that decision.
The governor had ordered a complete check-up of the security in the prison that morning. Every single room in the prison was searched. The prison officers went in pairs to each room. Some of the prisoners were sleeping and caught unawares by that sudden search. Others had changed their clothes to get ready to go to work. The prison gave no prior warning that there was going to be a thorough search of their rooms, otherwise, the prisoners would have hidden their items or thrown them out of the windows.
The officers removed the mattress and beddings from the bed and checked them thoroughly by looking for any hidden items inside them. The pillow covers were removed and underneath the beds, the boxes and bags were searched by removing all the items inside them. The books covers were removed to look for any drugs. In addition, all the items in the cupboard were removed one by one. The small mirrors on the walls were taken off to look for any drugs hidden behind them, and toilets were searched to look for any hidden mobile phones. The pipes were disconnected to look for any drugs, weapons, and mobile phones.
More notorious prisoners were strip searched, their clothes were completely taken off and, in few cases, the officers had to do their anal examination.
The governor was amazed by the discovery of hundreds of undesirable and unwanted items. Five mobile phones were discovered in the back passages, about two dozen knives made of different sharp objects were found in many cells and a large number of drugs were confiscated from many rooms.
The main worry for the governor was that how those items got into prison. The inmates were always searched in the receptionist area, every time they moved in and out of the prison. He wondered if they had been smuggled via other routes? or if any of the prison officers assisted the prisoners to get those items in exchange for money.
Those questions still remained buried in the mind of the governor after finding about sixty mobile phones, dozens of knives, and drugs worth thousands of pounds.
Greg was one of the main suspects and the prison officers only recovered one mobile phone from him but could not find any weapons or drugs in his cell or inside his body.
Greg had used his mobile phone in the past in front of some of the prison officers, but nobody had taken any action against him. Robin and David who shared the same cell were not so fortunate as some drugs were found in their cell, which were hidden behind the pipes that were connected to the toilet.
Normally prisoners were punished for these offences by putting them in solitary cells in the basement, where they were allowed to come out of the cell only for half an hour in a day. In addition, bad comments were written in the history books of the prisoners that affected a prisoner’s release date.
Chapter 19
Julian and Nicki normally slept together during the night time, but during day time, they stayed in their own beds to avoid being caught by prisoner officers. That morning Julian was looking forward to going to his art class but felt frustrated when his room was not opened. Two officers knocked at the door and opened without waiting for Julian and Nicki to reply. They said grinning, ‘Hello chaps, we need to search your cell.’
Julian looked worried and said, ‘We have not done anything wrong. We don’t smoke or take drugs.’
The officer lifted Julian’s small television and said, ‘We have not picked only you but we are doing a routine search of everyone.’
The other officer looked in Julian’s cupboard and under his bed, but nothing was found.
The officer observed Julian by looking at him from top to bottom and said, ‘You look a very decent type of guy, why are you in the prison?’
Julian did not want to disclose all of the information, but he thought that officers should have known about his crime, as it was easily accessible on the computer. Julian replied icily, ‘One of those things which brings you to prison when you least expect it.’
The officer looked at Nicki and then at Julian and said, ‘We also need to strip search you and again that is part of routine procedure that we are doing at the moment. Can you take your trousers and under wears down and raise your hands in the air.’
Julian protested, ‘Do you really need to do that. I feel embarrassed.’
The other prison officer smirked and whispered, ‘You should have thought about the embarrassment when you were committing a crime. Come on hurry up, we do not have whole morning for you. Come on.’
Julian did not want to anger them, so he took his clothes off and one officer told him, ‘Can you bend forward so I can look into your back passage.’
Julian did whatever he was asked to do. The officers then turned towards Nicki, ‘You look very innocent sitting on that bed just l
ike that. Let us search you now. Come out of the bed for us.’
Nicki looked frightened like a small kitten with her hands curled in front of her thighs, with her eyes squeezed and breathing come to a near standstill. Julian noticed that her colour had turned pale and her body was shaking violently.
The second officer shouted, ‘Come on, hurry up. Otherwise we will force you to take your clothes off.’
Julian intervened ‘Officers, Nick is dumb. He can't talk.’
‘He can hear all right?’ said the first officer
Julian moved forward to come between Nicki and the officers and said, ‘At the moment, he has got back pain and doctors have asked him to take bed rest.’
The second officer asked, ‘Mr Dashwood, why are you defending him so much?’
Julian raised his hand and whispered ‘Only because he can't talk. He has got peritonitis of the abdomen which means that any movement can exacerbate his condition.’
Julian was aware that Nicki had menstruation at that moment and the officers could see her tampon pads which they may suspect it as hiding place for drugs.
The first officer said, ‘We still need to examine him, and we will be gentle. Come on Nick. On your feet and take your clothes off.’
Nicki had no choice but to comply with their request. She took off her shirt without touching her vest.
‘Now take your trousers down.’ Ordered the other officer.
Nicki looked at Julian, as if asking for some directions. Nicki slowly started to take her trousers down. Suddenly a drop of blood fell to the floor, which was noticed by the prison officer who asked, ‘Where is this blood coming from?’
Julian then put his foot on the blood and shouted ‘I told you that he is suffering from peritonitis and look what damage you have caused to him. If he gets another drop of blood, he will sue you. I am also a doctor, so I know what I am talking about.’
The officer backed off by taking a step back, raised his both hands and said, ‘Ok, I did not know that you are a doctor. Come on officer, let us go to the next room. Nick, you can put your trousers back on and take some bed rest.’