Double Noose

by Jay Sharman

  Father said, ‘No Greg, you can't put the noose as only Julian has supernatural powers to deal with Cohen.’

  Julian satisfied everybody by putting a noose around Cohen’s neck and tightened the rope as much as he could do. Jackson and Lewis also walked forward to stand around the gallows. There was a pin drop silence in the room as they wanted an end to all those killings in the prison.

  Father kept saying, ‘Let Jesus help you and guide you to your pathway. May God forgive you for your sins and let you start a fresh life.’

  Father gave the signal to Julian to pull the lever and within seconds Cohen dropped down the cellar, and it was followed by a an explosion and then appearance of a bright light that spread across the gallows. Everybody moved forward to look at the space below in the gallows. There was no sign of Cohen. The black cloth that was covering his face had fallen to the floor and noose was hanging in the air oscillating like a pendulum from side to side.

  Jackson asked, ‘Father where is Cohen? Has he escaped?’

  Priest put the cross in his pockets and said, ‘No son, Cohen has been liberated from this world. He has gone to another world and hopefully, he will never come back.’

  Lewis said, ‘I hope that he will never come back again. He was a murderer and responsible for many deaths in this prison.’

  ‘Yes, he has gone forever, you can take my word on that.’ whispered priest

  Julian was standing near the gallows still looking shaken and nervous. Father flashed his cross on Julian’s face that woke him up. Julian rubbed his eyes to open them, he asked, ‘Where am I? What is happening?’

  DC Lewis replied, ‘You are safe here with us in the gallows. Do not you remember about the incidents of the last one hour?’

  Julian was still dazed and looked around to recognise people around him. ‘No, I do not remember anything. All I remember was that I was walking with Nick in the corridor. Where is he.’

  Jackson looked around, ‘I can't find Nick here. He must have gone outside. Officer Smith might know, because it was Nick who alerted him about Cohen.’

  Smith looked puzzled, ‘I was not approached by Nick, but by a female, who looked like Nick and it was her who warned me that Julian was in some kind of a danger.’

  DC Lewis asked, ‘Did she speak to you, as being a dumb, Nick can't speak.’

  Smith replied with appearance of few wrinkles on his forehead, ‘Yes, she spoke perfect English. There is no doubt about it.’

  DC Lewis smiled and said, ‘I am pretty sure that both Nick and Nicki are the same person. The history has repeated by itself. Cohen’s girlfriend Sally acted like a boy many years ago and now Nicki did the same many years later. By pretending to be a man, she has lived with Julian here in prison for a few months without our knowledge. That was very smart as we failed to find her true identity.’

  Jackson asked, ‘But where is she now. She would be in her cell and we must question her?’

  Smith answered, ‘She has be in her room. I will go and get her in your office, Mr Jackson.’

  Julian had fully recovered, and he whispered,’ I need to go as well. I need some rest in my room as I still feel strange in my mind.’

  Jackson said, ‘No Doctor Dashwood. You should go to see a doctor first, just to make sure that you are fine. I know that you are a doctor, but it is still best that you go there. The nurse will take you there.

  Chapter 42

  When officer Smith opened Nick’s door, he found the room empty. He asked his fellow officer, ‘Where can she go in the morning, when every room is still locked up. Officer. Can you check the surrounding shower room to see if she is there or look everywhere to find her.’

  Nicki after alerting the officer Smith had gone to the front gate of the prison and escaped after showing her pass given by the art teacher, Mike. She had already boarded the underground train on her way to freedom. Her hair was wide open, and her lips were shining with glossy lipstick. She smiled at the fellow passengers as she squeezed inside a busy morning train. She heaved a sigh of relief by breathing some air into her lungs.

  Greg and Julian both had recovered from their ordeal and Jackson was pleased that the mystery regarding the death of all the inmates had been solved. He was a content man and he wanted to find the number one governor for the good news. Everybody had left the gallows and all the lights there were switched off and the darkness had engulfed the place, once again.

  Nobody wanted to be the last one to leave the gallows, just in case Cohen came back to grab them. DC Lewis had a quick look around the gallows and accompanied Jackson to the outside of the landing.

  Jackson said, ‘What an eventful day we had so far. I hope that we do not get any more twists today.’

  DC Lewis grinned and said, ‘Yes, I hope the same, but there is more to come. Who is Nicki? Or where is he or she now. I am concerned about the security lapses of this prison. How come nobody found out that Nick was a woman and not a man. He lived among us without ever raising any doubts in our minds.’

  Jackson said, ‘Yes, but before we come to any conclusions, we need to confirm whether he is a woman or a man.’

  Lewis smiled, ‘I am certain that Nicki was Julian’s girlfriend and she fooled you in the prison for a few months and you did not know that she was a woman living among men. That must be shameful for the security of the prison system. Just imagine that if that got to the newspapers, all of you could lose your jobs.’

  Jackson said hurriedly, ‘Look DC Lewis, please do not make any assumptions. Let us go to my room for a quick chat.’

  Officer Smith approached Jackson by tapping on his shoulder from behind and said with increased breathing sounds, ‘Mr Jackson, we cannot find Nick anywhere. We checked everywhere, his room, shower rooms, and each part of the landing, but we can’t find him.’

  Jackson shouted, ‘Mr Smith, do not stand here. Go and find her. He can’t disappear in thin air. Go to reception. Check there, if they had allowed any woman to leave the prison.’

  Lewis followed Jackson to his room where Jackson continued to say, ‘Look, you tell nobody about Nick. You are only speculating that Nicki was actually a woman, but she might have absconded from prison now, so we can't confirm about his sex.’

  Lewis smiled and said, ‘I feel that you might have even helped Nicki to abscond from prison to save embarrassment for you. Am I right, Mr Jackson?’

  Jackson pulled a chair away from the table to sit there and said after taking a deep breath, ‘No, I did not know anything about that. Anyway, what is happening with Julian’s case? What charges have we got against him so far?’

  ‘We can't charge Julian for any murders and he may be a free man soon. As you saw, it was Cohen, who committed all the murders by entering into Julian’s body. He was being used as a scapegoat.’ explained Lewis.

  ‘What about murder of his wife, Gina?’ asked Jackson.

  Lewis sat down on an empty chair and whispered, ‘We have new evidence that Julian or Nicki may not have killed Gina. we need to do more investigations for that.’

  Jackson moved his chair forward and asked curiously, ‘Then who else would have killed her?’

  Lewis replied, ‘We looked at the CCTV pictures of the doctor’s surgery many times, I believe that Gina was already dead before Nicki or Julian entered her room.’

  You mean somebody else came there before them and killed Gina to put the blame on Julian.’

  ‘Yes, that is right.’ said Lewis who proceeded to take a file out from his bag. ‘We saw that a man entered Gina’s room ten minutes before Julian went there. He presented himself as a medical representative, as he was carrying a black bag in his hand. After talking to Mrs Dashwood about certain drugs, he came near Mrs Dashwood to explain the functions of the drugs and in that period injected hyoscine into her arm, which killed her very quickly. So, when Julian and Nicki entered the room Gina was either already dead or about to die. When they saw Gina in a comatose state, they thought that they were responsible for her death. Be
ing a doctor, Julian Dashwood realized that her death was not due to natural causes. In a panic, they both ran out and did not bother to call the ambulance for help.’

  ‘But who is this medical salesman? Have the police arrested him?’ asked Jackson.

  Lewis flicked though pages of his paperwork and pulled out one page, he said, ‘We examined the crime scene many times, Julian and Nicki’s fingerprints were found everywhere, so we could not exclude them from our investigations as both were our number one suspects. Gina Dashwood had informed the police few days earlier that her life was in danger from her husband and his lover. So, naturally we had to arrest them first. Also, we did not see any medical representative leave the room on the CCTV, so he must have disappeared from the room.’

  Jackson thumped the desk with his hand and said, ‘Yes, I get it now. Cohen came there to the surgery and posed as a medical salesman. He injected hyoscine into Dr Dashwood’s arms, the same way he did to his wife many years ago. It means that we cannot keep Julian in this prison any longer. We must free him immediately. What about Nick?’

  Lewis look a deep breath and said,’ We should not had arrested her in first place, and we cannot keep her now in prison. As she has already escaped from prison, she may have broken the law. We will need to talk to her first.’

  Jackson laughed, ‘She is a smart girl. What is point of talking to her now as we have all the answers to everything. Why waste more public money’

  Lewis got up from his chair and said, ‘I need to speak to my seniors and follow a correct procedure. I want to talk to her but not sure what my boss wants.’

  When Julian was released from prison the same day, Nicki was waiting outside with bunch of flowers. Julian hugged her and lifted her in his arms.

  ‘Nicki, I cannot believe that we are free now. But how come you escaped like this, you are amazing. You should had not come here like this. Police are still looking for you’

  Nicki implanted a big kiss on to Julian’s lips and said, ‘Don’t worry about the police now. They cannot catch me. I did not kill Gina. Police can not recognize me now. They don’t have my fingerprints. Come on let us go to a restaurant and drink the best champagne and eat the best food.’

  Both walked to the nearest underground station to head towards Leicester square and found a Chinese restaurant of their choice.

  Both raised their glasses and said, ‘To us and our freedom’ As they finished their meals, Nicki saw DC Lewis enter the restaurant, she said, ‘Excuse me Julian, I need to go to toilet. I do not know why DC Lewis is here. Handle him for me.’

  Lewis said after standing near to Julian’s table, ‘I am sorry to disturb you like this. I need to ask few questions from your girlfriend. Can I just wait for her here’

  Julian asked, ‘I thought that you had cleared us both from your investigations, we are free people now.’

  Lewis said, ‘Can I sit here with you. I am really sorry to come here like this to disturb your evening meal. We checked prison CCTV and Nicki never went through reception to escape. The prison officer at receptionist also confirmed that no woman came there in the morning to leave prison. So, I want to ask her that how did she escape from the prison. We are not going to charge her yet. It is a security lapse.’

  Julian said as he sipped wine from his glass and said, ‘Nicki is a very clever woman and she is also a good actress, so I am not surprised that she escaped like this. Please sit down in the meantime, Mr Lewis.’

  Lewis sat down on the empty chair, ‘How long have you known her, Dr Dashwood’

  Julian looked at the waiter who was standing near the table to take the next order and said, ‘Please come back later. Yes, Mr Lewis, I have known Nicki only for few weeks before my wife died. She come across very pleasant and polite to me all the time. Why has she taken so long to come back from the toilets’

  Lewis looked at his watch, he had been sitting there for the last ten minutes and still there was no sign of Nicki.

  Another ten minutes passed, Julian had finished another glass of wine, he looked at DC Lewis and said, ‘I am worried about Nicki. She still has not come back. I hope that she is ok. Let me go and check her.’

  Lewis laughed and whispered,’ Don’t bother Doctor Dashwood, she will not come back.’

  Julian cleaned his face with a napkin and whispered, ‘why do you say that. She has not committed any crime. She is a free woman.’

  Lewis again laughed,’ Yes, she is a free woman now as Cohen is gone. Did you not you get it, doctor. Cohen is not there anymore. Nicki is nobody else but Sally, who was trying to make Cohen jealous by developing a relationship with you. She played her part quite well’

  The glass slipped from Julian’s hands and exploded on the floor with its splinters everywhere. Julian’s mouth was wide open, his breathing almost stopped, his eyes focussed on Lewis as he said, ‘Oh my God’

  THE END

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