Double Noose

by Jay Sharman

  Chapter 12

  After reaching at Heathrow airport, Julian Dashwood and Nichola White were taken straight to a prison in London accompanied by two police officers. they were strip searched at the receptionist, but none of the prison officers examined Nicki’s genitals. she was taken in as a male prisoner. Both had requested for a same room together and they were lucky to get it.

  After reaching in their cell, Julian felt suffocated by the small size of the room that boasted of a bunker bed for two people. It had a small table and chair with a small television in one corner. A small cupboard was meant to be shared by two inmates to put their clothes and other items. Julian felt nausea when he saw a dirty toilet in the one corner of the room. He felt that he had to face a new life in prison, and he needed to adjust in prison as soon as possible.

  After putting their plastic bags on the floor, both lied in their beds. Nicki took the bottom bed and Julian climbed to the top. He asked Nicki that why did she want to act as a male, as police will eventually find out the truth.

  Nicki replied. ‘Maybe, they will find out the truth, but that will go against the police for their misjudgement. If I come inside prison as a male prisoner, then I can easily abscond from the prison by dressing as a female and nobody will be looking for a female prisoner in this male prison. It is so simple.’

  Julian laughed and said, ‘Nicki, I mean Nicholas, you have a criminal mind. I am sure that you will be found innocent by the court anyway, so what was the point of running away, if you had not committed a crime.’

  Nicki tossed in her bed and extended her face outside the bed to look at Coilin, ‘No, I am not a criminal. I just like thrills and some action in life. Let us see, how we spend our time in the prison. Our first hurdle is to survive and get used to prison life.’ Julian moved sideways in his top bunker bed and said, ‘So you did all this to have some fun and dragged me with you as well. I have ruined my life, my career, my reputation and my wife is dead, I do not have any future.’

  Nicholas laughed and said,’ You have me. I will always be there for you.’

  Julian said, while lying on his back in his bed, ‘It seems that you have done these activities before. Why did you want me to get involved with you?’

  Nickie laughed, ‘No comments. As we told the police. Do not ask me too many questions, just enjoy this life as much as you can. I am feeling sleep now. Good night, darling.’

  Chapter 13

  Julian’s thoughts were broken by the opening of doors by a prison officer. After staying in prison for one week, he was getting used to prion life. Nicki had settled well and managed to stay as a male prisoner without getting detected by anyone.

  After being assaulted by Angelo on the telephone booth, Hussain made a complaint to the landing officer about his problems with Angelo about four days earlier but was still waiting for a response from the officer. Asif was released early, so Hussain had a new cell mate called Everton. Hussain took the bottom bed as he found it difficult to climb up on the top bed.

  Hussain did not like Everton smoking every half an hour but did not want to upset him, as Everton had been a regular in the prison in the past and it was Everton’s tenth time in the prison, so he gave a long lecture to Hussain about the prisoners expectations from each other. Everton asked Hussain, ‘Have you any chocolates, as my tongue is feeling tasteless.’

  Hussain gave the remaining chocolate to Everton. Everton asked, ‘Where is the remote control for the television?’

  Hussain said, while looking at the television, ‘There is no remote control in the room. I just have to get up from my bed to change channels or switch it off or on’

  Everton smirked ‘Leave it to me. I will get one this evening. Do you need any jeans, Hussain?’

  Hussain said, ‘Yes Everton, I do need one, the prison officers did not allow me to bring many clothes with me inside and kept them at the reception area. How will you get a jean for me?’

  Everton smiled, and turned his head towards Hussain and said, ‘Leave that to me but it will cost you a packet of cigarettes.’

  Hussain knew that in prison, you get nothing for free, he whispered, ‘I do not smoke. So how can I give you cigarettes?’

  Everton laughed and said, ‘Look asshole, you can order that in your canteen, or you can exchange that with somebody else. Anyway, I am also going to look for a remote control.’

  Everton went for a walk on the landing, where most of the prison doors were open. Some prisoners were standing by the railings just looking downstairs, others were talking to each others, few had wet towels in their hands after finishing their showers, and remaining prisoners were inside their cells, watching televisions. He saw that the prisoner in the last room had just left the room to go to make a phone call from the telephone booth situated in the middle of the landing, and minutes later, his cell mate also left the room to take a shower situated in the other corner of the landing.

  Everton could not believe his luck. He entered the open room in a flash and started to search the cupboard but did not find any items of his choice. Then he lifted the pillow of the bottom bed and he found a remote control, which he quickly hid in his pocket.

  Once back in his room, he warned Hussain. ‘Do not tell anyone that I got a remote control. Just say that you had it for last many days and your last cell mate Asif gave it to you prior to his departure.’

  Hussain did not say anything as he wanted to enjoy the merits of the remote control himself. He took it away from Everton to change the channels from the comfort of his chair.

  Soon inmates were called for lunch and Everton went downstairs in the servery area with a plate in his hand to collect his food. Hussain stayed behind in the cell, as he wanted to finish his prayers to Allah. Everton had left the door half open, but Hussain did not bother to close it.

  Hussain was bending forwards and backwards on the small carpet on the floor and suddenly he saw two shadows approaching him from behind. Before he could look upwards, an arm had gone around his neck to strangle him. Hussain tried to get rid of a firm grip on his neck, but then the second person held back his second arm and both of his legs. Hussain found it difficult to breath and he could feel his tongue obstructing his breathing and the colour of his lips started to turn blue. He could feel darkness coming in front of his eyes, his breathing became shallower and then stopped. He tried his best to free from the clutches of bigger men, but he was no match for them and he gave up the struggle to live and soon both his breathing and heart beats stopped for ever.

  His dead body was lifted up by the two prisoners and a cord was put around his neck to give an impression of a suicide. They tied the cord on to the windowsill and left the room in a rush.

  Angelo and Greg went in different directions from Hussain’s room, but nobody spotted them, as all the inmates had gone downstairs to get their lunch. They had their plates full of foods with them and both Greg and Angelo went downstairs with empty blue plastic plates in their hands. Only Greg was stopped by a prison officer for going down the stairs in the wrong direction.

  Greg just laughed at the officer and said while rubbing his biceps with the other hand, ‘My big body can't be bothered to take a different stair, otherwise I will collapse right here, officer.’

  The officer laughed back and said, ‘Why don't you trim your body a bit that will make life easier for everybody here.’

  Five minutes later, Everton came back to his room, but the room was locked, so he asked one of the landing officers to open the door for him. When he went inside the cell, the plate almost dropped out of his hands as he saw Hussain lying on the floor and not showing any signs of any movements. He bent forward and screamed, ‘Hussain, wake up and get up’ but there was no response from him. Everton shouted after coming out of his cell, ‘Help, help, Hussain is not breathing. Hurry up.’

  He rushed out of the room and within minutes, five prison officers had gathered around Husain’s dead body. One said, ‘He is not breathing. He may be dead.’


  Other said, ‘He may be unconscious. Let us call the ambulance, maybe they can resuscitate him.’

  Nurse also arrived there within five minutes, she put her stethoscope on Hussain’s chest, but could not hear any heart sounds or see a sign of any breathing. She closed his open eyes with her fingers, as there was no constriction of his pupils in response to any light thrown by her torch.

  Everton was called into the senior prison officer’s room, who asked him, ‘When did you see him last alive?’

  Everton stood motionless and then whispered. ‘I saw him about fifteen minutes ago, before I went downstairs for lunch and he was perfectly fine then and was busy offering his prayers’

  The officer bent forward to ask, ‘Why did you take so long to collect your lunch? Normally, it only takes five minutes to do so.’

  Everton scratched his head and said, ‘I went to see the nurse as well to collect some medicines for my headache.’

  The officer looked into his eyes and asked, ‘Where did you find Hussain, in the bed or on the floor when you entered the room?’

  Everton took a deep breath and said, ‘He was on the floor. That is why I shouted so loudly after I stormed out of the room.’

  ‘When you left the room, was the door of the room open or closed?’ asked the prison officer.

  Everton paused for a minute. He was not sure himself, whether Hussain had taken his own life, or somebody else had murdered him.

  He replied, ‘Yes, the door was half closed when I went for lunch.’

  The officer asked while resting his chin on his hands, ‘Why did you close the door when Hussain was still inside the room?’

  ‘I don't know.’ replied Everton. He was convinced that somebody had murdered Hussain, but he did not want to get involved by making any suggestions to the prison officer who again asked, ‘Did Hussain mention that he had any recent arguments or any problems with anybody else in the last few days.’

  Everton tucked both his hands insides the front of the trousers and tapped his feet couple of times, before replying, ‘Not that I am aware of. I only moved there three days ago. I don't know too much about his personal life. He was a very reserved person and confined to himself most of the time.’

  The officer said, ‘Can you stand straight and take your hands out of your trousers. Are you aware that Hussain had made a complaint against another prisoner a few weeks back?’

  Everton removed his hands out of his trousers and smirked, ‘Gov, He never mentioned anything to me about any complaint.’

  ‘Hussain made a complaint against one inmate a few weeks ago. Did he feel threatened by anybody?’

  Everton felt intimidated by these questions, he raised both hands in the mid-air and said, ‘Gov, Again, he never mentioned anything to me. Gov, I know nothing. We hardly talked to each other. Can I go now, Gov.’

  The prison officer put his back against the chair and asked, ‘Just answer my questions. Did you find him hanging near the window or lying on the floor?’

  Everton wanted to put his hands inside the trousers but instead took a big yawn and replied, ‘On the floor, Gov. I thought that he was just lying on the floor doing either some exercises or a prayer.’

  Prison officer looked into Everton’s eyes and asked, ‘How do we know Everton that you did not strangle him and then left the room for lunch?’

  Everton moved his hands sideways in a circle and shouted ‘I was arrested for theft outside but fucking hell, I am not a murderer. I have fucking no reason to kill him. I left the door open, when I left the room. Gov, I went to see the nurse to take some paracetamol for headache. You can ask the nurse how I behaved with her.’

  The officer stood up from his chair and said, ‘I am not suggesting that you killed him. That is the matter to be sorted out by the police and the forensic team. You are his cell mate, so you will be asked many questions by the police as well. Ok, you can go now but you can't go back to your cell until the police have done their investigations and given the clearance. It is a crime scene now.’

  Chapter 14

  Greg and Angelo had gone back to their cells after strangling Hussain, both David and Robin were aware of their plans but still kept a low profile and stayed away from each other. The prison’s senior officer knocked on Angelo’s room and instructed him to follow to his office, where he asked him, ‘Angelo, are you aware that Hussain was found dead in his cell?’

  Angelo felt some drops of sweat on his face, which he wiped with his hands and said, ‘Yes boss, I have heard about the tragedy. It is sad that we lost him’

  The officer smiled and asked, ‘Angelo, where were you during lunch time at 12 noon?’

  Angelo looked at the ceiling to reply, ‘Boss, I was in my room with David and waiting to go down for lunch.’

  The officer asked, ‘Was your room open or closed at that time?’

  Angelo smirked, ‘My door was locked boss and it was opened up at five minutes past twelve by a landing officer for us to go to lunch. Why are you asking these fucking questions. I did nothing to Hussain’

  The officer bent forward to look into Angelo’s eyes and said, ‘Hussain had lodged a complaint against you for an assault only two weeks ago, you have every reason to silence him and this information has been passed on to the police for further investigations.’

  Angelo laughed and said, ‘Boss, Hussain was found hanged in his cell so why am I being asked these questions?’

  ‘Angelo, there is a possibility that somebody strangled him with his elbow and then tried to portray a murder to look like a suicide by putting a rope around his neck either before or after his death. The only person who can confirm that is Hussain himself, but he is not with us anymore sadly. If he had killed himself, we would had found some kind of suicide note that he may had written. But there is no suicide note found in his cell. Angelo, how do you know that he had a rope around his neck?’

  Suddenly the colour of Angelo’s face turned pale and he muttered, while looking at the floor, ‘Boss, I heard that from somebody. Is not that how you hang yourself in the prison?’

  ‘No, most prisoners use their bed sheets to make it strong enough to act as a rope. But in Hussain’s case, a proper rope was used. Where did you get this rope from, Angelo?’

  Angelo struck his fist with force on the desk and even the prison officer trembled with fear. Angelo shouted, ‘Boss, are you fucking suggesting that I killed Hussain? In that case, I don't need to answer any more questions. I did not kill Hussain. Boss, you can go ahead and prove that.’

  Prison officer looked at the fire in Angelo’s eyes and did not want to face his wrath. He said, ‘Angelo, you may go back to your cell now.’

  Angelo did not talk to the officer during his walk back to his room, as he was still fuming with rage.

  Chapter 15

  Julian was woken by a landing officer the next day, who asked him about his future plans and if Julian wanted to join any education classes. For few moments, Julian felt like telling the officer, if you give me a chance, I could educate the officers here with the kind of knowledge that I possess but then thought that after wearing prisoner’s clothes, nobody could tell that he was a GP outside. He looked like any other prisoner there so he should not expect any special treatment but instead behave like any other prisoners.

  The officer asked if he and his cell mate Nick White would like to join any learning classes in prison to help them pass their time constructively. Julian looked at Nick, who was still lying in the bed. Nick nodded her head and drew few figures in the air with her empty hands.

  Julian understood her instructions and told the officer, ‘He cannot talk but he wants to join the arts classes’

  The officer wrote something in his notebook and looked at Julian,’ How about you, young man?’

  Julian looked at Nicki and said, ‘Can I join computer classes or something to do with that’

  The officer said ’You look quite educated, and probably need no education but I will see if there are some spa
ces in that class, otherwise I will also put you in Arts class as well. At least you can spend some time properly instead of staying in your room all the time.’

  Julian nodded his head with a smirk and was happy that the prison officer put his name for some classes, whereas he put Nicki’s name for the art’s class.

  After the officer had gone away, Nicki asked, ‘Why do you want to join education classes. You are highly educated anyway?’

  Julian stood near the window and put some water in the kettle for his coffee, and whispered, ‘I just want to make most of the facilities here and also it gives me a chance to leave the cell, where I can feel suffocated at times.’

  Nicki sat in her bed and said, ‘What about me? I can't even join any classes as I am supposed to be dumb and I have to pretend to be a male rather than a female prisoner.’

  Julian looked at Nicki’s red cheeks and pink lips and smiled, ‘That is why I have put your name in the art class with me. You don't need to talk to anybody. Just draw your paintings without any interruptions from anyone and nobody will know about your true identity. Do you want a cup of coffee as well’

  Nicki stood up and stretched her arms to take a big yawn, she muttered,

  ‘Yes please. Well I will see what happens in the class room. I will be living here in constant fear, worrying all the time what happens if somebody finds out about me. My main concern is to take shower. I have not taken one for the last few days. I am so scared of going into a shower room. I can't take my clothes off in front of everybody. I have even started using men’s briefs, in case anybody suspects my sex after looking at my knickers.’