by Jay Sharman
The officer Lewis said, ‘Quite possible. What if they had to kill him with drugs, then why would somebody try to kill David by strangulation?’
Jackson looked at the empty wall and said, ‘Maybe potassium slowed him down and made him feel unwell, that is what made him go to the shower room, where the killer was waiting for him.’
Lewis who was more experienced than Jackson in these matters said, ‘This is a pure speculation. The other possibility is that the killer is trying to mislead us by putting these two theories in our mind.’
Jackson scratched his head and asked, ‘What do you mean by that?’
Lewis twisted his both hands in front of his lap and said, ‘What I mean is that the killer meant to kill by strangulation, but diverted our attention to the potassium, so we focus our energies on some non-existent clues.’
‘Lewis, how do you explain the indistinct marks on David’s neck, which should be more marked in any strangulation and there were hardly any bruises there.’
‘I have not got any answers for all these possibilities, otherwise, I would have solved the case by now. Anyway, keep an eye on the Greens. The other two could be the next targets or they may kill somebody as well just to take their revenge.’
Jackson smirked, ‘I don't think the Greens are same anymore. I know they must have an idea, as to who is doing these killings, but they are not going to tell us as the gangster’s rules state that they will take their revenge themselves.’
Lewis got up from his chair and said, ‘I better go now. This is late for a Saturday evening, but I will be in touch. Crown Prosecution Services has to decide that what cause of action they need to take. But they can't do anything if we do not have any suspects.’
Chapter 27
Nicki played cards with Julian on Saturday evenings and that was one of the ways that she would pass her time in those confined spaces. Julian was a good in chess and playing the cards and Nicki always felt it challenging to beat Julian, which did not happen very often.
Nicki asked, ‘What is the matter Julian, you do not look very well today.’
Julian took a deep breath and whispered, ‘Oh I just feel tired especially after the listener’s course and David’s death really shook me up.’
Nicki got up to stand next to Julian and said, ‘I have noticed that since yesterday you seem to be lost in yourself and you look a bit off colour.’
Julian looked at his hands. ‘The colour of my hands seems to be fine, but I can't see my own face.’
Nicki touched Julian’s hands but withdrew immediately after feeling an electric current in her hands.
Julian asked, ‘What did you feel just now? ‘
‘I did feel something different, and felt very strange, but I cannot explain it. Maybe you are very tired’ said Nicki while looking at her hands.
‘The human body has electricity run through them so we can feel shocks from each other sometimes. Can we stop playing cards as I want to sleep?’ Julian put the cards inside a box of the cupboard.
Nicki noticed that she was looking at a different Julian that night, who changed into his night clothes and jumped on to the top bunk bed without giving any hug or kiss to Nicki. Normally Julian laid in the bottom bed to spend some time talking to Nicki before going to sleep.
Nicki said, ‘Good night.’ But did not get any reply from Julian, who had already fallen asleep.
On Sunday morning, Julian’s door was opened by a prison officer at 9 AM, so that they could get enough time to take a shower before the Sunday church service. Even Nicki managed to take a shower without any hindrance or problems as the shower rooms were empty. Both Nicki and Julian had to stand up in queues for security clearance, before they were allowed to go into the church. They were both impressed and surprised by the copiousness and cleanliness of the church, which was housed in a modern building, only built five years earlier. There was a space for two hundred to three hundred people. The walls were painted light pink and huge glass windows on either side of the wall made sure of plenty of light entering inside the building.
As Julian entered in the church hall, he was handed over the leaflets for the prayers by the priest. Both Julian and Nicki went to sit on the front row in the left side of the hall, it was nearer to prison choir who were busy adjusting their instruments.
In the right corner at the front, there was a big piano, which was unmanned at the moment. In the central wall, a big cross of Jesus Christ was giving blessings to the gathered congregation. In the middle was a raised dais, which had chairs and tables for both the priests.
Nicki sat down towards the edge of the seat, so that she did not have to share her seat with anybody else. Within ten minutes, hundreds of prisoners came to fill up all the vacant seats. The majority of them were in their grey or maroon tops and bottoms.
Nicki noticed that the carpet’s marron colour was the same as that of prison uniform, and the cushioned chairs. On either side of the congregation, one prison officer took his place to keep control over any erratic behaviour of the prisoners. Nobody had expected any trouble, as they all had come to the house of God for prayers.
Some prisoners had put an application to come to the church weeks in advance, as they had to wait for their turn to come. Some prisoners wanted to come to church to escape from the banged-up prison rooms, others saw an opportunity to meet other prisoners from different wings, as they were separated from each other most of the time.
The time was nearly 10 AM and the noise of the conversation among prisoners was getting louder and louder and suddenly the priest stood up and shouted. ‘Thank you.’ and within a minute, the whole church hall had become quieter, with few whispers heard here and there. The priest ‘Charlie’ shouted again, ‘Good morning, welcome to the Sunday service. I will request you all to stop talking. If anybody still wants to talk, they can go back to their cell otherwise, I will have them removed. You only come to house of God for one hour, if you can't offer prayers now, then there is no way you can do that in your own rooms. Thank you.’
Priest Charlie’s announcement had the desired effect on the audience, which resulted in a pin drop silence.
Priest announced, ‘Let us pray with the first song from the sheet that we have provided to you. Can everybody stand up and I do not want anybody to sit down.’
Nicki chuckled quietly as she liked the abruptness of the priest, which maintained the desired discipline and control in the church hall.
Two of the prisoners also came forward to read the gospel messages printed on the sheet given by the priest. Another priest had come from the outside to read prayers with the prisoners, which was appreciated by everybody around them.
One of the priests played the guitar and a prisoner was on the drums. The lead singer was also a prisoner and his loud vibrant voice proved that he had some professional training in the past. Nicki felt a sense of relief, after suffering from weeks of isolation and confinement in the cell.
Her feet were moving with the rhythm of the music and her mind was filled with joy as she felt near to Jesus Christ. In contrast, Julian’s mind was wavering with various thoughts; especially he was feeling guilty for not being able to save David’s life.
Julian looked at his hands as they were shaking violently. For a moment, he could sense some blood dripping from his hands, so Julian put his hands hurriedly inside his pockets. Julian looked to his left at Nicki, who was singing the prayers with closed eyes. For some strange reasons, Julian felt uncomfortable there and wanted to leave the church.
Priest Charles then made announcement that anybody who wanted to receive blessing and drink holy water, must come to him at the dais and stand in a queue. More than two people were in front of Julian including Nicki. Julian saw Nicki getting her blessings and saw a special glow appear on her face. Julian’s turn was next. He stood with folded arms and protruded his forehead forward towards the priest, who put his hands on top of Julian’s head. Julian’s eyes were open, and they met the priest’s eyes for a second
.
Julian could feel something strange happening to him but when the priest touched Julian’s head, his hands started to shake and within seconds, the priest had fallen to the floor. Everybody rushed to the priest’s aid. Julian wanted to move forward to look at the priest, but then prison officers had cordoned off the area, preventing any prisoners going near to the priest.
Fortunately, the other priest present in church was also a doctor who bent down to look at Charlie, whose eyes were closed, and his face had turned pale, with head turned to one side. Everybody was worried that Charlie may have died. The priest took Charlie’s hand to check his pulse, that was still pulsating, and his breathing was still good, even if it was slightly laboured. The head priest moved everybody away and asked for calm and cooperation.
He then shook Charlie’s chest and to everybody’s relief, Charlie opened his eyes and just said, ‘What happened? Why am I lying on the floor?’
Head priest replied, ‘You must have fainted, as you have been standing for a long period today.’
Charlie took a few sips of water and whispered, ‘I remembered giving blessing to this person and suddenly saw a bizarre glow in his eyes, which was followed by a major shock, as I touched him. It was just like being electrocuted by a high voltage current and that is very strange, as I have never felt like this before.’
The head priest did not hear most of the conversation as he was busy clearing the area for more space and air.
Charlie was assisted to walk into a smaller room inside the church, where he lay down on a small bed. In the meantime, somebody had called for an ambulance to come, but Charlie felt safe in the hands of the head priest, who then asked Charlie, ‘Did you have any chest pains or sweating?’
Charlie touched his chest with his hand and said, ‘No, nothing at all. I am fine and feeling better now. I can go back to the main hall to finish my prayers.’
The head priest held Charli’s hands and bent forward to whisper in his ears, ‘No, you must go to the hospital. You never know as there may be some other causes of your fainting. Let us play safe and let them do a heart tracing and blood tests to make sure that you are fine.’
Charlie decided to say nothing as there was assertiveness in the head priest’s voice.
The head priest then came back to the main hall of the church to make an announcement. ‘Thank you all for showing your calmness. I am glad to announce that priest Charlie has recovered now and out of any danger. But we are still sending him to hospital for some tests. Let us pray for his health.’
A prayer was read out and then the mass was dismissed. Two prisoners surrounded Julian and asked, ‘What happened to Charlie?’
Coin replied politely. ‘Nothing, he just blessed me with his hands and then he just collapsed.’
After the officers left, Nicki looked around the hall and then whispered in Julian’s ears, ‘I think that Charlie probably felt your electric current the same way as I did last night. What is happening to you Julian? Are you under influence of something?’
Julian looked at Nicki and said, ‘I don't know, what has happened to me.’
Julian rushed back to his cell still wondering why Charlie fell to the floor after he touched him.
Julian asked Nicki to touch him again, but she was afraid to come near him. Julian wanted to check his body and then put his hands on the side of his waist. There was nothing. He then touched the metallic parts of the bed but felt no electric shock. He looked at Nicki and gestured with his hands, ‘Come here and touch me. There is nothing wrong with me.’
Nicki moved forward slowly and touched Julian’s hand with her index finder quickly, but nothing happened. Julian then grabbed her hand and said, ‘Why are you so afraid of me, come here and give me a kiss.’
Before Nicki could respond, Julian’s lips were on top of Nicki’s lips. Nicki did feel an electric current, but it was nothing like she had to worry about.
Chapter 28
Robin and Greg had started to keep a very low profile since David’s death, but they still had a huge following and other prisoners were still ready to work for them.
Everybody was curious about the new inmate Chris who had moved into the wing, a week earlier. He was about forty years old, well-built and wore glasses. He got a job as cleaner straightaway, which gave him more freedom and space to move about in the prison. Some prisoners were unhappy with him, because of his arrogant and unbending nature. He spent time in the wings picking fights with the other inmates over trivial issues.
The news of his erratic behaviour reached the Greens, so a meeting was arranged with two other inmates to decide a future course action against Chris. In the meeting, it was also decided that they need to contact his cell mate to find out why Chris was in prison as his professional and educated background gave him a special status by the prison officers.
Next day Chris had a social visit from outside that meant that he had to leave his cell for two hours. The news was flashed to the Greens and his group, who contacted Chris’s cell mate to get hold of his legal papers.
The cell mate was shocked to find out that Chris had been arrested for sexually assaulting his own mother. Robin and Greg were so disgusted by this information that they wanted some action against Chris. They made a common declaration that man is an animal. How could he even think of attacking his own mother?
‘What has this world come to?’ said Robin. ‘We must teach that mother fucker Chris a lesson so that other people do not commit the same crime again. Both me and Greg can't take any part in this attack as we both are under surveillance both by the prison and the police.’
Greg, then whispered, ‘Fucking whoever does this ferocious act, must be shown the door, anyone here is willing to do this.’ Everybody raised their hands in response and that pleased Greg.
Next day on Monday, the rooms were opened at 6.30 pm for association. Chris was still in his room watching television, but his cell mate left the room in a hurry. Five minutes later two big guys entered into Chris’s room and just stood next to him. Chris asked them, ‘Fucking, what do you want and What can I do for you?’
Both guys jumped on Chris and lifted him up and dragged him to the toilet. One of the guys used a razor to cut Chris’s arms and neck and the other guy got hold of some boiling water and poured it onto Chris’s back. Chris cried with pain and agony.
Chris tried to run away, but he was cornered by the two big guys who shouted, ‘you mother fucker, how can you do that? You have no right to live here. We want you out of here, you are a dead piece of meat, you piece of shit’
Chris shouted back as he saw drops of blood falling from his neck to the floor, ‘Mates, I did not do anything, you are mistaken. You have hurt me. Call the doctor’
‘Do not you lie to us.’ said one of the guys as he pushed Chris’s head deeper inside the toilet.
The other guy still kept on cutting Chris with his razor blade. Chris had started to cover his face with his hands as his face had started to bleed profusely.
The big guy then took his knife away from Chris’s neck and whispered, ‘You piece of shit, this is your punishment for the time being. Another word of warning - if you mention this to anyone in prison, then the next time, we will strangle you and chop off your neck from you head, you understand, you fucking disgrace on humanity.’
Both the guys left the room in a rush, as they did not want anybody to see them attacking Chris. They had come prepared with gloves on their hands. They took the blades with them.
Chris was in so much pain that he found it difficult to breath properly, the blood from his neck had splashed across the floor and he could feel blisters appearing on his back due to burns caused by the boiling water. He put hand on to his neck to stop the bleeding from there. He was grateful to god that he was still alive as the knife had narrowly missed the big vessels of the neck.
Chris rang the emergency throttle as he was struggling to stand on his own. The blood was everywhere on the floor and Chris’s back was full
of redness and bruises. Chris took off his shirt and tried to pour as much cold water as possible. Before he could do that, he lost consciousness and fell to the floor.
Chris was rushed by the prison officers to the hospital wing of the prison, where he was attended by a doctor, who put some cream on his wounds. He examined his face, which had many cuts and superficial wounds, but there was no need for any stitching. But his neck had a deeper wound, that needed some attention.
Chris had regained consciousness, but the pain in the back was still unbearable. The doctor gave Chris some stronger pain killers and advised him to take bed rest. Chris was feeling a bit better, and his eyes were getting heavier. He turned to one side to go to sleep, but Jackson was already inside the room to question Chris.
He asked, ‘Hi Chris what happened to you? Can you tell me who has done this attack on you as you must have seen the persons trying to harm you.?’
Chris tried to lie on his back but found it difficult to do so because of the blisters on his back. Jackson had already come to stand near Chris who replied, ‘I did not see anybody, as my back was turned towards them. The attack happened so fast that I had no time to defend myself.’
Jackson bent forward and said, ‘Chris, I am sure that you must have had a glimpse of them, their build, their colour, whether they were white, black or Asian? You must have seen something.’