Hedge tried to find Joey, but he wasn’t on duty that day, and the rest of the prison staff didn’t seem to want to talk to him. He kept a low profile for the rest of the day, waiting for his chance to catch up with Joey the next morning. The RCO share price didn’t move very much in the meantime, it seemed to have settled at its new lower price. All the news regarding the company seemed to be negative, and it was clear that the shareholders were feeling uneasy following the announcement by the US government. The outlook for the company looked bleak.
The day passed all too slowly, but the following morning Hedge noticed that his cell wasn’t unlocked at the normal time. He tried to complain but no one responded to his shouts. It was eventually opened just after nine o’clock – too late for breakfast.
When Hedge went for a walk in the prison grounds later that same day, he was hungry, and nervous. He still hadn’t managed to speak to the governor. He would have to try again before lunch time. As he was walking, he was stopped abruptly by Blake and a couple of his mates near an area where several of the prisoners kept their own small gardens. Blake was holding a digging fork and he leaned on it casually as he spoke to Hedge.
‘Seems you have been upsetting some people around here young man.’
Hedge went to walk past Blake but the two thugs he had bought with him blocked his escape route.
Hedge looked around to see if he could attract the attention of any of the prison staff, but unusually there were none in sight. There was always at least one guard in the grounds, but not today seemingly.
‘It appears that you owe some people I know a lot of money then,’ Blake continued. ‘How do you plan to pay that back, smart arse?’
Hedge stared Blake in the eye and hissed, ‘get out of my way, needledick.’
Blake looked enraged. He lifted the garden fork and brought it down on top of Hedge’s left foot. The fork was made of stainless steel and had four prongs each around twelve inches long. The ends were sharpened to a point so that they could enter the ground easily when digging up shrubs or turning soil. It was one of the central prongs that entered Hedge’s shoe midway between his toes and the bridge of his foot.
Hedge screamed in pain and collapsed on the floor. He felt certain that he had heard the crunch of bone as the fork had pierced his foot. He tried to pull it out but it was stuck firmly in the ground. Blood had started seeping from the top of his shoe. He tried to twist his foot away from the fork but that just made the pain more intolerable. His eyes started to lose focus and he felt lightheaded. He just managed to see his three attackers running off before he blacked out completely.
Hedge awoke a few hours later. He assumed it was late evening as it was dark outside. He looked around and recognised the hospital wing of the prison. He was in a bed with white sheets covering his lower body, and he felt groggy and confused. There were several men standing around his bed, all with stern faces. He recognised Joey and the prison governor, but not the other two guards.
‘What’s going on? What’s happened to me?’ he mumbled.
The governor stared back at him with a serious expression. ‘It looks like you have had a nasty accident out on the prison grounds. The equipment sign out sheet says that you borrowed a garden fork this afternoon, in order to do some digging, I can only presume. We have a witness who said he saw you deliberately thrust the fork into your own shoe.’
‘That’s not true,’ protested Hedge.
‘Perhaps you thought that would be a good way for you to get a little piece and quiet in the hospital wing for a few days, or maybe you were hoping for a transfer to a public recovery unit. An escape attempt even, perhaps? You should be aware that we take these events very seriously.’
‘It wasn’t like that at all, in fact I was ….’
The governor held his hand up firmly to cut him off from further comment.
‘Anyway, the prison doctor has taken a good look at your left foot, and the injury was much worse than we initially thought. He tried his best, but the doctor was unable to save it. He had to amputate your left leg just below the knee.’
Chapter Eleven
Hedge couldn’t believe what he had just heard. He looked down at his left leg but it was covered with the white sheet. He tried to reach down to it, but the pain of moving was too much and he lay back against the pillow.
‘You bastards,’ he screamed.
He was suddenly overcome with horror at the thought of losing part of his leg. His mind was racing and his heart seemed to be beating loudly in his head. ‘What the hell have you done to me?’
The men standing around his bed started laughing.
‘Well you should be careful when you give out financial advice,’ said one of the guards.
Hedge tried to pull himself up but the pain was too much.
‘It was not my advice that you idiots should go out and buy any shares. It was a casual conversation only. I was certainly not suggesting that you invest your own money. Joey, I can’t believe you have been so stupid.’
This kind of language directed at prison guards would not normally be tolerated, but again the men around Hedge’s bed just burst into laughter.
Joey looked down at Hedge and a smile developed on his lips. ‘Well it’s just as well I am stupid as it seems I may have done the right thing after all. While you have been lazing around in bed, the United States government have decided not to impose fines on RCO after all, as they now believe it’s not in the national interest. The share price closed today at $2.95 each and it appears to be continuing to improve. I personally have made almost fifteen thousand pounds and hope for more in the next few days.’
All the men laughed once more and one of the guards slapped Hedge on the shoulder.
‘But my leg…..’
Joey pulled the sheet down to reveal two legs still fully intact. ‘Just our little joke,’ he said. ‘No amputation just a bit of pain for a while. One or two of the guards got a bit carried away when they heard the initial bad news about the company share price. Please accept our apologies for that. We’ll make sure you get all the attention you need to make a full recovery.’
Hedge was still a little groggy and still felt considerable pain in his foot.
‘What about Blake? He’s a madman that guy. I need some sort of protection from him in future.’
‘There’s no need for that,’ said the Governor. ‘He’s been transferred with immediate effect to a more secure prison, where he should have been from the start. He won’t be troubling you anymore. In the meantime you have more important things to think about.’
‘Like what,’ said Hedge. He didn’t mean to snap at the Governor, but he was still reeling from the sick prank that had been played on him.
‘Like your upcoming sentence review meeting,’ said Joey. ‘The Governor has put you forward to the Review Board. They meet in exactly two weeks from now. With your record of good behaviour you should stand an excellent chance of obtaining an early release.’
So it was that fourteen days later Hedge found himself standing in front of the Review Board. The panel was made up of two elderly gentlemen and a middle aged woman. Most of the meeting was spent with the members of the Board reviewing documents that had been submitted by the Governor. There was lots of nodding and whispering.
After a while Hedge was asked by the woman if he felt he had learnt a lesson from his time in prison. He nodded and said that he had. As he stood in front of the three people who now controlled his immediate future, he could still feel the throb in his foot. There was however no mention of the incident with Blake and the garden fork. The Governor had advised him just to focus on the positive points of his stay at Saltmarsh. Well he would, wouldn’t he, thought Hedge. Apart from continuing to keep his prison out of the spotlight, the Governor had also made a significant amount of money. He had finally sold his shares in RCO at a large premium, which meant he had made a profit of around sixty five thousand pounds from his initial investment of one hundred thousand. He had
good reason to be pleased with Hedge.
The three Board members continued to whisper and debate until finally the verdict was read out by one of the elderly men.
‘We are recommending that due to exceptional good behaviour, you be released from Saltmarsh with immediate effect. We hope never to see you standing before us again. Goodbye.’
Chapter Twelve
Since his release from Saltmarsh, Hedge had returned home and tried to figure out what he was going to do about his future. He had lost his job, of course, as a result of his sentence. That hadn’t stopped him going back to his previous workplace on a few occasions to look up old friends. Several of them had joined him for lunch at the Cafe Roma occasionally, where they talked about old times, and also about the future.
He concluded that it was finally time to move on, and so he decided to pay one last visit to his favourite cafe. It was a particularly bright day in early spring, and Hedge was sitting alone. He had ordered a pot of tea, and had just finished a slice of freshly baked apple pie. It was a strange feeling knowing that he would probably never come here again.
He was considering going back to college or university and seeing if he could retrain. Maybe a Psychology course might be interesting. He had met some unusual men in prison, and he realised that there were many people out there who needed help to manage their lives.
He was looking around the cafe as he was thinking. His thought pattern was interrupted by the person sitting at a table over near the door. As he glanced over in that direction again, he quickly understood why his attention had been so easily distracted.
She was gorgeous, and Hedge was struggling to take his eyes off her. Her face had a light tan, like someone who had been on a long Mediterranean holiday. She had jet black hair which hung just below her shoulders. From where he was sitting he couldn’t see the colour of her eyes, but her face looked perfectly smooth. He estimated she was in her mid-twenties, but guessing the age of women was not one of his strong points.
In fact women generally were not a good subject for him, as he was well aware. His relationship with Louise was the last time he had really talked to a female properly. Although he was fast approaching thirty, he had previously had very few proper girlfriends. His most serious relationship was with a trainee nurse called Sally. She was a lovely girl, he recalled, with a lively personality, and she had worked at a leading London hospital. Although she had initially confessed to falling in love with him, in the end she accused him of being boring and unromantic, and had moved on to date a Junior Doctor from the same hospital. Good luck to them, he thought.
He was still staring at the young woman. She was sitting alone, drinking from a small cup and reading a magazine. He carried on glaring at her, but then looked away quickly when she cast her eyes in his direction. He continued to pan around the room, but he couldn’t help himself and his stare was drawn back to where she sat. She was now looking directly at him and so he quickly glanced down towards the empty plate in front of him. He felt a little uneasy. He toyed nervously with his knife and fork, moving them together on his plate and making sure they were both pointing in the direction he was facing. Somehow that very simple act felt very comforting.
If he had more confidence he would have smiled at her, or even gone over and spoken directly to her. But he didn’t have that kind of self-assurance, so he pretended to continue to busy himself by drinking the remains of his tea.
As he put his cup down he noticed that the girl had stood up from her seat and was walking over towards him. Probably coming over to the counter to pay her bill, he thought to himself. The next thing he became aware of was that she had sat down at his table, in the chair next to him.
‘I don’t like to see a good looking man like you eating alone, is it alright if I sit here,’ she said.
‘Of course,’ he replied ‘no problem.’
In fact, he thought to himself, it was a problem, as he now realised that up close she was much more attractive than she had been from further away. Her eyes were bright green and almost dazzling. Her smile was radiant and she looked at him in a way that made him feel a little dizzy. He felt very nervous and a bit choked up. He could sense himself sweating lightly under his shirt, and he couldn’t hold his cup steady in his hand. He felt like he did when he met a girl on a date for the first time. It was a waste of time trying to continue drinking, as his hands were trembling so much, so he turned his attention to the girl. He tried to shake off the inadequate feelings and attempted to show a little confidence.
‘Hi, my name is Hedge. I haven’t seen you in here before.’
‘That’s no surprise,’ she said, ‘I’m on holiday in London for a few days with a friend and we’ve only just arrived.’
Hedge immediately realised that she was probably from overseas, as her accent seemed to suggest to him someone from the eastern Mediterranean area, maybe Turkey or Greece perhaps. He started to over-think – something he often did when he was nervous. Surely saying that someone was from Turkey or Greece would sound very rude to a person from one of those countries. These two places are miles apart in terms of culture and language. It was probably the same as someone from Turkey saying a person was either English or French. Anyway Hedge had to stop this train of thought as the girl was talking again.
‘My name is Monica and I was going to ask you if you know anyone who offers guided tours of the Central London area.’
He started to think, was this a genuine request or had she taken a fancy to him? Was this part of a game she was playing to get him interested in her?
He couldn’t make up his mind. He leant over the table and moved the salt pot a little closer to the pepper container. It was in the wrong position as it was – there was too much space between them!
‘I’ll ask around for you and let you know. Do you have a phone number and I’ll drop you a message later.’
Monica replied a little abruptly. ‘No, I don’t have a contact number as my cell phone doesn’t do roaming. Why don’t you call by later today and let me know. I have to go now. Come round at about four o’clock this afternoon and ask for me. It’s the Royal Hotel just at the end of Green Lane. It’s just round the corner from here. See you later.’
With that, she got up and walked off. He followed her with his eyes until she had left the cafe and then he watched her head off in the direction of Oxford Street. He was slightly dazed by the brief conversation, but not at all sure what he should do next. He knew a few good local guides, but was that really what she was after? He couldn’t decide. Would he then be confident enough to go along to her hotel later in the day? He couldn’t decide that either. He pondered it while he paid his bill, laid a small tip on the table and left the cafe.
The rest of the afternoon went quickly. He did a bit of shopping and had a haircut at a local barber shop. At exactly four o’clock he found himself walking into the entrance of the Royal Hotel. The place seemed a little run down to him, particularly as this was a relatively smart area of London, but the man on reception was pleasant enough and directed him up to a first floor room when he mentioned Monica’s name. It seems she had given him advance warning that a young man would be calling for her at around this time.
He reached the first floor, and walked along a short hallway until he found the room number he was given. He knocked on the door, although he still had no idea how he was going to play this. Would he suggest he acts as a guide to Monica and her friend, or should he pass on some names of tour companies that he knew of?
Before he had decided, the room door opened and Monica stood in front of him. She was wearing a short black skirt and a plain black t-shirt. Her eyes sparkled, as they had done when he had first met her earlier that day. Her lips were a deep, glossy red and her complexion looked smooth and soft. Overall, thought Hedge, she looked sensational. Something stirred in the pit of his stomach, and he felt his breathing start to quicken.
He wasn’t certain, but he sensed something amazing was about to happen.
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Chapter Thirteen
Monica smiled at Hedge seductively as she opened the door. ‘I’m so glad you came along.’
She then leaned forward and hooked her arm around his neck and kissed him square on the lips. He was surprised by this and didn’t know how to react, even though his mouth opened as if to say something. Monica took him by the hand and pulled him into the room. Before he knew it, they were locked in another embrace. Her lips were soft against his and her breath was hot. She didn’t say anything as she pushed him onto a large bed on one side of the room. He tried to take his jacket off but she sat on top of him and prevented him from moving. She kissed him again, roughly this time, and pushed his hands above his head. She started kissing his neck and shoulders, and had then ripped open his shirt and was running her tongue down his chest. Next, she pulled her skirt up a little more so that she could comfortably straddle his chest. She sat astride him, with her legs spread apart, and she continued to press her lips to his, while gently caressing his shoulders and chest.
Eventually she pulled her mouth away from his, and reaching forward she plucked something metallic and shiny from under the large white pillow. It was a set of steel handcuffs. With amazing speed she clamped one of his hands in the cuffs, pushed the chain round the central bar on the headboard of the bed, and clamped the other hand. He could not now move his hands. Hedge was unsure whether he thought this was intensely arousing or seriously worrying. He tried to pull on the handcuffs but the chain just clattered against the headboard frame and his hands remained stuck.
‘Don’t worry,’ Monica said, ‘I won’t hurt you, just lay back and enjoy the ride.’
She laughed at her comment, and then stood up on the bed and removed her underwear. She kept the little skirt on, but pulled the T-shirt off over her head.
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) Page 5