The Palindrome Cult: A gripping, page-turning, crime suspense thriller, its fast pace takes you from London to New York, via Dubai and the Virgin Islands. (Hedge & Cole Book 1)

by Kevin Bradley

  He would often spend the rest of the morning in the prison library. There was a good selection of books and a fresh batch of newspapers each day. He would flick through the Times checking firstly the business pages, then read any other articles related to finance and banking, before finally reviewing the sports pages. It was good to keep up with all the latest results.

  Lunch in the prison was between noon and one o’clock. Hedge tended to sit with the same group of people, mainly from his section of the prison.

  It wasn’t a prison as such, more of a set of buildings, surrounded by a low fence, or metal railings in some places. The inmates were free to move around as much as they wished. They were all on relatively short sentences, mainly for minor offences. No one really considered absconding as an option as they would almost certainly be tracked down eventually by the police. They would then be ‘upgraded’ to a more secure prison and have a longer sentence to go with it. Better to do your time and stick to the rules.

  Afternoons would be spent studying, playing games, or working out in the gym. The television room was open to the inmates after dinner, and that’s where Hedge would spend most of his evening. He was bored a lot of the time, but he kept to his routine as much as he could. The only way he would survive his prison term was to avoid anything out of the ordinary.

  One morning, while sitting eating scrambled eggs at breakfast, he heard a fellow inmate talking about how they were looking for volunteers to work in the prison laundry. There was a small amount of pay that went with the job, but this wasn’t the reason that Hedge was interested in it. He simply wanted to keep himself busy, and out of trouble. So immediately after breakfast, he walked along to the laundry building and made some enquiries.

  The inmate in charge of the laundry was known as Persil. In fact, his real name was Percy, but due to the nature of his work, it had been adjusted slightly.

  ‘I’ll show you round, and then you can decide if you want to join the team,’ said Persil, when Hedge had introduced himself.

  Persil led him into a room full of industrial sized washing machines. Most of them were part way through a wash cycle, and the noise was quite intense.

  ‘Let’s move on,’ said Persil. He could sense that Hedge was uncomfortable with the noise in this room. Most people were.

  ‘This is where we hang the larger items out to dry,’ Persil was saying.

  They had entered a room which was much warmer than the previous one. There were several rows of clothes rails. Hedge noticed that they were mainly full and all kinds of garments, including prisons uniforms, were hanging from the rails. The air in the room was very humid and Hedge found it made his throat sore after a few breaths.

  He looked around the room and noticed three inmates were busy working. They were hanging up newly washed garments. All three of them wore protection over their mouths and noses to keep out the hot, humid air. The method of protection each of them used was a simple handkerchief tied around their heads. They stared at Hedge as he came into the room. One of them lifted an arm and waved over to him.

  Persil had been explaining the drying process, but he suddenly noticed that Hedge wasn’t listening. In fact, his prospective new worker looked terrified.

  ‘Are you alright?’ said Persil.

  Hedge was staring at the other men in the room, with a serious look on his face. His mouth hung open and his breathing had quickened. He looked unsteady on his feet, so Persil had come close to him and grabbed hold of his arm.

  ‘Do you want to sit down for a minute,’ Persil said.

  ‘Yes please. I need some air,’ replied Hedge.

  Persil led him through a side door and out into the courtyard. They sat on a wooden bench. Hedge had his face in his hands, and was breathing slowly. He was shaking slightly and his eyes looked a little distant.

  Persil looked worried. He wasn’t sure what had bought on the sudden change in his colleague.

  ‘I’ll be okay in a minute.’

  He sat quietly for a few minutes. Eventually his breathing returned to normal, and he stood slowly.

  ‘Must be some reaction to the chemicals in the washroom,’ Hedge lied.

  ‘Well I guess you’re not going to be my new assistant then,’ said Persil. He looked disappointed as he had quite liked this young man. He thought they would have got on well together.

  ‘Never mind,’ said Hedge. ‘I appreciate you showing me around though, thanks for that.’

  He shook hands with Persil and walked off. He felt a little guilty having lied to Persil about the reason for his anxiety attack, but he could hardly have told him the truth. He probably wouldn’t have believed him anyway. Surely no one has a morbid fear of handkerchiefs?

  It was an unfortunate incident in the laundry room. Generally however, life at the open prison trundled on without any major upsets. Most days were pretty uneventful, but just occasionally some were not!

  It was a Friday morning, and it seemed like any other day in the life of the prison. Hedge was woken by the morning bell as usual at precisely seven thirty. He pulled himself out of bed, and wearing just his underpants, he headed off for a shower. There were sixteen single prisoner cells on his floor and they all shared a good sized bathroom at the end of the block. He walked along the corridor and stopped to chat briefly with a couple of his fellow inmates.

  He recognised one of the guys. He was a bit of an odd character whose real name was Dave, but everyone called him Red. This was on account of the fact that he walked about every morning in red underpants. He was often accused of not changing his underwear, as he was always wearing red y-fronts. In fact he changed them every day. He had a drawer full of the same coloured underpants.

  It was one evening in the television room when the full story behind this was revealed. One of the channels was showing the film ‘The Graduate’. The basic story in the movie was that a young man had a sexual encounter with a much older woman. Dave had explained that he had a very similar experience when he was younger. The mother of a friend who Dave was staying with had accidentally entered the bedroom where he was getting dressed and he was caught naked, apart from his red underwear. After a short embarrassing conversation, they had ended up having sex, right then and there. Ever since that day Dave only wore red underpants.

  Red said hello to Hedge, told him a rather vulgar joke about a priest and a donkey, and then moved on down the corridor. It was characters like Red that made life in the jail more bearable. Most of the men residing in the prison were generally pleasant people. They were not hardened criminals. Some had been convicted of simply refusing to pay fines for such things as local taxes. Others had been caught embezzling company money, and a few were drink drivers. Hardly the scum of the earth!

  However, there were some inmates who were not especially amiable, and Hedge did his best to avoid these men. It wasn’t always easy to keep out of their way though.

  The worst of these was generally regarded to be a thug called Blake. He was often referred to as Big Blake, which seemed odd to Hedge as he was neither tall nor well built. He had been convicted of several counts of driving a vehicle without insurance, made more serious after he had crashed his car into a police van one Saturday evening. Most people realised however, that Blake was also involved in other kinds of criminal activities. He had a reputation in the prison as fairly nasty, and most of the inmates gave him a wide berth.

  Hedge hadn’t actually met Blake face to face as his cell was on another block. He was therefore a little surprised when he entered the bathroom that morning and saw Blake in front of him. He had a four other guys with him who Hedge assumed were from the same prison wing as Blake. Hedge tried to walk around this group, but they blocked his path. Blake was a balding, ugly man who wore a permanent scowl on his face, made worse because he had crooked, yellowing teeth. He looked to be around forty years old and had a bodily shape that suggested he ate more than his fair share of prison food.

  Blake placed his face directly in front of Hedge’
s. ‘So we have a new boy in town I see. Well fancy pants, I have read a few things in the newspaper about you. Seems you like to take care of young boys?’ He laughed at his own comment and his henchmen chuckled along with him.

  Hedge assumed he was talking about the incident in the cafe, but he said nothing. Blake kept his face close to Hedge’s. It was so near that Hedge could feel his stale breath stinging his nostrils.

  Blake had obviously read the details of Hedge’s heroic deed in the press, as his next comment clearly referred to that.

  ‘It seems you like to suck on plastic tubes? Well I have a tube for you to suck on.’ With that, Blake released the towel he was wearing around his waist and it dropped to the floor.

  Hedge tried to back away, but two of the men with Blake stood directly behind him and he was blocked from moving. He tried to step to one side but the two guys quickly grabbed his arms and held him. Blake was looking him straight in the eyes. His face was unflinching and his expression was deadly serious. Hedge tried to conjure up some confidence, but he felt vulnerable standing there in just his underwear.

  He looked back at Blake and tried to sound convincing. 'Not a chance. You are really not my type, but thanks for the offer.’

  Blake screwed up his face and scowled. A small dribble of spit had appeared at the corner of his mouth and started to run down his chin. He wiped it away without taking his eyes off his victim.

  Hedge tried to remain calm. He looked down at Blake's naked body and then moved his head slowly back up to stare into Blake's eyes once more.

  'By the way, why do they call you Big Blake? That name seems a little inappropriate to me.’

  Hedge allowed a hint of a smile to cross his face but Blake just carried on glaring at him. They held their eyes on each other for a full minute longer. Neither of them flinched. Blake then looked to his left and nodded at the young man next to him, before turning back to face Hedge once more. The young man smiled, he seemed to understand what was expected of him.

  Hedge hadn’t really taken much notice of the guy next to Blake until now, but he was much shorter in height than Blake, significantly younger, and a little too thin. Perhaps it was his food that Blake was eating, he thought. The youngster looked eager to please. As soon as he had seen his master give him the signal, he leaned over, and with one of his hands he took hold of Blake's limp penis. He started to caress it, gently at first but then more vigorously.

  Hedge was immediately stunned, and revolted by this, and so he automatically tried to step backwards, but the men holding his arms held firm. Hedge was just inches away from Blake and he could feel his breath quickening. Blake was trying to keep his face severe as he continued to stare directly at Hedge.

  The young boy had now quickened his massaging strokes and was moving his hand up and down in a fast rhythm. Blake continued to stare ahead of him. He didn’t blink even once, in fact he kept his whole facial expression completely fixed as he carried on looking at Hedge. His breathing quickened a little more as Hedge continued to stare back at him, unable to move away. Blake’s mouth suddenly opened slightly and the yellow stained teeth from the top of his mouth became visible as he bit down on his lower lip. His breathing was faster now as the young man holding Blake squeezed tighter, and increased his rhythm again.

  Then, without warning, Blake let out a short gasp and shut his eyes for a split second. Hedge felt a jet of warm liquid strike him on the top of his thigh and start to run down his leg. He tried not to flinch, but instead continued to look directly at Blake. He felt disgusted by what had just happened but he made sure he didn’t show it. He did not want to look weak in any way in front of these thugs.

  Blake’s face visibly relaxed and his breathing started to return to normal. He continued to look menacingly at Hedge. A few moments later Blake clicked his fingers and he and his men left the bathroom.

  Hedge remained motionless for several seconds and breathed a sigh of relief. Once he had showered, he stood and reflected on the incident and felt that he had won a small victory. Even so, he wasn’t convinced that he had seen the last of Blake.

  Chapter Nine

  Life in the prison continued with the same steady routine, and the next few weeks passed by without too much for Hedge to be concerned about.

  Blake had continued to annoy him, of course, but there were no further incidents like the one that had occurred in the bathroom. However, Blake had made sure that Hedge was aware of his presence. One of Blake’s men had punched Hedge in the stomach for no apparent reason as he walked in the prison courtyard. He had not reacted to that provocation – better to keep a low profile, he thought. On another occasion, Blake had spat in Hedge’s mug of tea during breakfast one morning. These were isolated incidents though, and he didn’t trouble himself over them too much.

  The prison guards at Saltmarsh were generally decent guys and Hedge got on with most of them. One particular officer, known as Joey, was especially friendly towards him. The cells at open prisons were not locked for most of the day, and Joey would often come along to Hedge’s room for a chat. It was on one such talk that Joey revealed that he was in financial difficulties, mainly due to him and his wife having private fertility treatment. They were desperate to have children but they were having trouble conceiving. The doctor’s fees were expensive and so far it had cost him more than thirty thousand pounds. He couldn’t afford that on his prison officer’s salary. He was deep in debt.

  ‘Well if I needed to make some big money fast, I would gamble a few quid on the stock exchange,’ Hedge said jokingly, and laughed. ‘According to the judge at my trial, I am Mr Big when it comes to financial expertise.’

  Joey missed the joke, maybe as a consequence of his desperation.

  ‘Do you think it’s possible to make some quick money then,’ Joey said with a hopeful look in his eye.

  ‘Well it’s possible, but it helps if you know what you are doing,’ Hedge said. He was a little more serious than he had been with his previous comment.

  ‘It’s quite a specialist thing buying stocks and shares, but having said that, occasionally a potential opportunity does arise. Not that I am an expert, but I have made a few successful investments in the past. More recently, I have been following a particular business through articles written about it in the newspapers. It is a company called Royal Canadian Oil, or RCO for short. They have just had a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and their share price has dropped from $3.95 a share to around $2.10 in a matter of days. A couple of months ago they were trading at $4.35 a share, which I believe is closer to the company’s real value. Once the fuss has died down over the spillage, the share price should revert back somewhere close to normal.’

  Joey was listening intently. ‘So you reckon there is money to be made investing in this RCO business then?’

  ‘Possibly, but it’s always risky. Better to leave that kind of thing to the big boys. Luckily Joey you have no money to invest, so it’s not something you need to worry about.’

  They both laughed at that, and Joey left the cell and carried on with his rounds.

  A few days after this conversation, they bumped into each other again in the prison grounds. Joey seemed keen to talk about RCO.

  ‘Have you noticed that the share price has started to rise? $2.22 yesterday and $2.35 today,’ he said. ‘It’s definitely on the way up, just like you said. It looks like it’s returning to its normal value then don’t you think?’

  ‘It certainly appears that way, so it’s a pity we didn’t buy into it,’ said Hedge with a smile.

  Joey looked nervously at Hedge, his mouth was twitching slightly, and then he blurted out, ‘I did buy. I took your advice. I bought fifty thousand pounds worth.’

  ‘But where ....’

  ‘I mortgaged my house. I managed to persuade my wife that all our troubles would be over. I told her I had cast-iron advice on it. She was a bit worried but finally agreed. I said we could double our money in a matter of weeks, as you said.’
/>   ‘What the hell …,’ started Hedge.

  ‘In fact I told some of the other guards, and quite a few have also invested, including the governor. He knows a little about stocks and shares, and he had a good look at it. He agrees with you that it appears to be a solid investment opportunity, so he’s decided to go in with one hundred thousand pounds taken from his own savings.’

  Hedge was horrified. He tried to explain to Joey that he had not in fact given him any such advice. He had merely mentioned it in passing. What on earth were they all thinking? He had to get them to recover their money as quickly as possible. They clearly didn’t realise the risks of such an investment, especially during the current period of high volatility in the financial markets.

  Hedge hardly slept that night. He planned to go and see the governor the next day and try to unravel the whole mess. He would have to advise the prison staff to sell their shares before any serious damage was done. Then he would explain that Joey hadn’t listened to him about the risks of buying shares. Surely they all knew that there were no guarantees with this kind of investment.

  He woke early and went to the prison common room to see if he could catch the business news at seven o’clock. The finance news editor was predicting a busy day in the markets today as quite a lot was going on around the world. Hedge listened to the main headlines as they were read out.

  European employment data was due out and was expected to be positive.

  China growth was up again and Asian markets were improving.

  It was the third item on the news that was of particular interest to him. The United States authorities had decided to impose massive fines on the oil company RCO following its recent pollution of the Gulf of Mexico.

  When the stock exchange opened that day, RCO shares had crashed to around $1.80 a share.

  Chapter Ten

  As the prison staff, including the governor, had bought RCO shares at a price around $2.30 each, they had lost almost a quarter of their money in a matter of two days. Joey would have lost something like twelve thousand pounds from his initial investment. The prison governor would be down a lot more than that.