Double Noose

by Jay Sharman

  Jackson’s eyes flickered as he asked, ‘Who were these guys?’

  James remembered about the warning given by Greens. He whispered, ‘I did not see them. They had their faces covered with towels and the light of my room was switched off by them.’

  Jackson sympathized with James, he put his hand on his shoulder and said, ‘James, we will protect you, if you tell us the truth.’

  James took a deep breath and said, ‘No Gov, I don’t know about them as I did not see their faces and they were not the Greens. Can I see the nurse please? I can’t tolerate this pain anymore.’

  Jackson realised that James was not going to give any more information, so he did not want to waste more time. James was still in lots of pain and his blister was getting bigger now.

  Five minutes later the nurse came to the cell to look at James’s burns on his back.

  She said, ‘James, you are very lucky that you have only limited numbers of blisters as all your back has turned red.’

  She asked him to take off his shirt and examined his back with a glove in her hand. She said, ‘your back has become very red. It seems like that you put cold water on your back after the incident which prevented more damage. Let me take you to the treatment room, where I can apply an antiseptic cream there to prevent further damage.’

  After she applied the cream on his back, James questioned, ‘Are you not going to put any dressings on my back?’

  The nurse muttered as she washed her hands in the sink, ‘After burns it is best to leave the area exposed to give it a better chance to heal.’

  James had a sigh of relief that no major damage was done on his back. But he was still worried about the action that might be taken against him because of the presence of mobile phone in his possession. He just had to wait for prison to decide what action if any they were going to take against him, and he could do nothing in the meantime.

  Chapter 21

  Julian and Nicki were resting in their cell and watching television together. Nicki was hooked on to both ‘EastEnders’ and ‘Coronation Street’, and Julian had also started to like them. He had realised that after few weeks in prison, he got used to the lifestyle there and that made him feel as if he had been living there for many years. He had forgotten that he was a doctor outside with a respectable job.

  During the day time Julian kept his mind busy with education classes and workshops and in the evening time, he spent time in reading that included novels and some history books.

  The night time was more difficult for Julian to pass, especially, when Julian would think about his life as a GP outside with its privileges and responsibilities. He realized that the freedom and status enjoyed by him as a doctor was unparallel as compared with many other jobs. He felt that he still did not know much about Nicki. His wife had died under mysterious circumstances. Julian was not sure if Nicki had any hand in her death. Was she protecting herself or him or both? Julian still had many questions to answer. At the same time, Nicki had put her life at a higher risk by pretending to be a male and living with him among other hard-core prisoners.

  Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and the prison officer delivered four letters, one of them was a card for Nicki, from an anonymous person and it read ‘Missing you’. Nicki’s face blushed as she showed the card to Julian.

  He laughed, ‘Somebody is seriously interested in you. You have problems here.’

  Nicki said amicably, ‘I am sure that the card has been sent by that creepy teacher, Mike. Everybody knows that he is a gay. But he is supposed to keep teacher and student relationships as strictly professional, even in prison.’

  Julian grinned and said while looking at the card, ‘Besides, Mike there are many other men, who fancy you. You have such a pretty face. Even I have started to fancy you as a boy.’

  Nicki slapped Julian on his hand and said, ‘Stop it. This is not funny.’ She put his arms around Julian’s neck and whispered in his ears, ‘I already belong to you.’

  Next day Nicki went to her arts class and sat next to Julian. Mike was sitting in the centre of the table, marking the register for the students. Every time Mike raised his head, he looked at Nicki, but she avoided his glances by turning her face to one side.

  During tea break, Julian deliberately left the room to see what Mike would say or do to Nicki when she was alone. The majority of students had left the class room as well for a tea break, so Mike was left alone in the room with her.

  Mike waddled towards Nicki and sat down next to her and asked, ‘Did you sleep well last night as you look very tired’

  In response, Nicki simply nodded her head.

  Mike then held Nicki’s hands and said, ‘You have got such pretty hands. Did you read my card? I am going crazy for you.’

  Nicki nodded, without saying any word.

  Inexplicably, Mike put his arms around Nicki’s neck and tied to kiss her lips. Before he could be successful, Nicki slapped across Mike’s face, pushed him away and ran out of the room looking for Julian. He was standing in a corner chatting to Tony and John, whom he had met in the landing earlier in the week.

  Tony was complaining about his maltreatment at the hands of Angelo few weeks ago. Tony said, 'I can’t sympathise with Angelo’s death.' He was a terror and deserved to get punishment like that.’

  Julian whispered in Tony’s ears, ‘You should not talk like this about the Greens to everybody, otherwise people will think that you killed Angelo and Greens will come after you.’

  ‘Julian you are alright. You look like a well-educated and a professional person, would you tolerate anybody’s bad behaviour?’

  Tony grinned. ‘Julian looks so fragile, that he would not even raise his voice high. I can’t imagine him hitting anybody.’

  John interrupted and said, ‘Look behind you, see who is coming here. My favourite boy Nick. He does not talk to anybody.’

  Tony asked Julian curiously, ‘Julian he is your cell mate. Do you ever talk to each other?’

  Julian decided not to answer their question and walked away from them to meet Nicki halfway in the corridor.

  Julian had suspected Mike might try to harass Nicki, so he asked her smilingly, ‘What happened there inside the class room?’

  Nicki looked at both John and Tony, she started to do some hand movements and then whispered, ‘That bastard tried to kiss me. I am going to report him to the authorities.’

  Julian put his hand on Nicki’s shoulders and whispered, ‘Don’t be silly. By reporting Mike to governor, you will come more in limelight and that could put your position in jeopardy.’

  Nicki moved one step closer to Julian and muttered, ‘He can’t get away with this. How dare he touch me like this?’

  Julian still felt the whole episode amusing and said with a toothy grin, ‘Mike didn’t know that you are a girl. Now you can use Mike in the future. He knows that he will lose his job, if he is reported. But if you do not report him, then you can use him to help your escape from the prison.’

  Nicki whispered again. ‘I did not think of that. You are a clever man.’

  Julian felt a tap on his shoulder and when he turned back, he saw Mike standing there. Mike asked Julian. ‘Can I have a quiet word with you in the class room?’

  Once they reached in the room, Mike burst into tears and pleaded. ‘Help me Julian. I don’t know what happened to me, I tried to hold Nicki in my arms. I am really sorry for that. Please request Nicki not to report that incident to anybody in prison, otherwise, my life will be spoiled forever. I promise that I will not do that mistake again.’

  Mike shouted, ‘You should be ashamed of your stupid actions. As a teacher, you need to act as a role model and not act like a spoiled child and a sex manic’

  Mike folded his hands and muttered, ‘I know that. I can only apologise for my actions. I will do anything for Nick in the future. I can give him a glorious reference for any future court hearings and will try to help him in his case in any way that he needs me to do.’


  Mike said, ‘I can’t promise you anything, but I will have a word with Nick to see what he has to say. Make sure that you don’t repeat this mistake.’

  Nick had also joined them in the class as she did not want to stay outside in the corridor on her own for too long.

  Mike went to her with both his hands folded in front of his chest and tears rolling down from his eyes. He said,

  ‘I am sorry Nicki for my appalling behaviour.’

  Nick just smiled back and nodded her head as now other students had started to enter the class room for the next session.

  Chapter 22

  Mike Jackson looked very agitated that afternoon. His investigation into the murder of Angelo had led him nowhere. The media pressure was building on both him and the police force. The in-charge governor of the prison was under pressure to resign from his post. Prime minister was jeered by the opposition party for the poor security in the prisons and a demand for more prisons to be built was increased along with employment of more prison officers.

  Mike Jackson felt that everybody was intimidating him, but cleverly he had tried to put the responsibility for solving murder cases in prison on to the police and forensic scientists. The assault on James was not reported to the higher authority and the discovery of gun by James in the workshop was erased from the computer records.

  Jackson had held meetings with the repair company whom he blamed for present fiasco. The company was asked to tighten their security and make sure that each lamp underwent metallic detectors test before it was sent to prison’s workshop for the repair. The manager of the concerned shop had agreed to be more security conscious and promised to check the background of each employees in future before employing them. The business felt that they had no choice but to improve the security of their establishment, otherwise, they would lose their contract with the prison from where they made a huge profit due to low wages of ten pounds per week, that they had to pay to the prisoners for their work.

  The Greens felt that they were under threat from two fronts, one from the prison officers and other from the prisoners. They were not sure who posed them a bigger threat.

  Julian felt that his muscles were getting too flabby because of lack of exercise and the immobility caused by staying in the cell most of the time to give Nicki a company and keep her mind occupied but that afternoon, Julian decided to go to the prison gym. He joined a group of other prisoners, who were heading there.

  David was the leader of that group, as he was instructing and allocating different areas of the gym to different prisoners, based on their ca[abilities and body build. The gym was quite spacious and well equipped and had almost all the machines that one could hope for in a modern gym. Some inmates rushed to get the machines of their choice but David shouted, ‘Everybody come off the machines and must do first some warm up exercises for five minutes.’

  Julian joined the group on the floor, where he lay down next to John and Tony on a blue coloured mat. Julian was pleased with his stamina during stretch exercises, as he had not gone to a gym for very a long time. After finishing them, Julian started first on the running machine and stayed there for ten minutes. He saw some big boys lifting very heavy weights that made their biceps bulge to the size of their thighs.

  David was no exception and he worked together with other guys in the gym but carried extra clout for being a member of the Greens. Some of the prisoners there were just doing abdominal exercises by lying on the floor and doubling themselves up.

  Julian felt tired very quickly, so he took some rest to watch the MTV played on the big screen of the gym’s television screen on the wall. He drank few sips of water and used his towel to wipe off his sweat from his forehead and the chest. Julian then joined John and Tony to build up his biceps by lifting some weights and then pushed his arms to both sides to expand his chest.

  The whole gym was very noisy, and Julian found that difficult to tolerate in the beginning. He decided to go to the toilet and spend time in the changing room just to have a bit of a peaceful atmosphere.

  The gym instructor shouted at the prisoners after fifteen minutes. ‘You have only ten minutes left. Take your shower now and stop your work outs.’

  Few inmates went to the changing room to undress themselves and then took their shower.

  One of them came back running and screaming. ‘David has hanged himself. Come here quick, he needs help.’

  Everybody rushed into the shower room where David was found hanging by the shower, with a small sheet of bed linen around his neck. The gym instructor lifted David’s feet up and other guys took off the rope from David’s neck. David’s face had turned blue, his tongue was protruding outside and both eyes were wide open.

  After taking him down, the gym instructor put his hand on David’s mouth, but could not feel any breathing.

  Two prisoners put David on the floor and the instructor gave quick mouth to mouth breathing and another inmate gave cardiac resuscitation by pressing his both hands on David’s chest. The gym instructor shouted, ‘Can somebody call the doctor, hurry up.’

  Julian realised that something had gone terribly wrong in the shower room, so he rushed to the scene.

  Julian shouted, ‘Can everybody move away from David. He needs more space for breathing. I am a doctor. Let me check him properly.’

  Julian bent over David’s body and held his wrists in his hand to feel for the pulse but could not hear anything.

  Julian then shouted, ‘Can I have a torch?’ Gym instructor pulled one from his pocket and handed over to Julian, who opened David’s eyes and shone the light there but there was no reaction from the pupils.

  Julian tried to listen to his heartbeats but again they were absent. Julian closed David’s both eyes and announced, ‘I am afraid David is dead.’

  One of the big boys standing there started to cry. ‘That is impossible, David was doing the exercise with me only few minutes ago. He was happy, chatty and talking about his future plans. There is no way that he would kill himself. He enjoyed life and will never bend in front of anyone.’

  Officer Jackson arrived on the scene very quickly after he received a telephone call from the gym instructor about David’s hanging. Jackson had a sense of authority about him as he paced towards the shower room shouting, ‘Everybody should be off their machines and gather around the office and nobody should leave until they are given permission to do so.’

  Jackson saw that there were about eight to ten people still surrounding David’s body. Two had bent forward looking at David’s throat, and a prisoner was trying to feel his pulse. Another one was looking at the rope still attached to his neck, but the knot had been loosened.

  The gym instructor had a glass of water in his hand, which he had used to sprinkle David’s face to see if there was any reaction there. Jackson was not impressed by seeing so many people surrounding David and shouted again, ‘Everybody move away. Nobody should touch anything or move anything away from here. I want to question each one of you.’

  Jackson then turned to Gym instructor to ask, ‘Ron what happened here? Did anybody see David tying knot around his neck?’

  Ron replied without making any eye contact with Jackson, ‘Nobody saw anything suspicious here. Everybody was using their machines. In fact, few minutes earlier David was with the big boys doing extensive exercises and in no way, he looked depressed or sad.’

  ‘Who found him hanging first?’ asked Officer Jackson.

  Ron looked around and identified the person. ‘Yes, it was Everton, first who saw David.’

  Jackson’s eyes flickered, ‘Everton? Is he not the same person who shared Hussain’s room, at the time he was found hanged?’

  Everybody looked around to look at Everton’s posture, his both hands were folded in front of his body and eyes focussed to the floor.

  Jackson shouted, ‘So it was you, who killed David? It is amazing that you were found on the scene on both the occasions.’

  Two big boys whose tears were rolling dow
n their eyes suddenly after David’s death, ran towards Everton to catch hold of his neck and shouted from top of their voices. ‘You murderer, how could you kill David, we will kill you now.’

  The big boys grip was getting stronger around Everton’s neck when Jackson pushed them away from Everton. ‘Do not be silly. You do not want to have murder on your hands, too. Let the law take its own course. Everybody move away. Quick’

  Everton who felt a gush of air going into his lungs said slowly with a husky voice. ‘I did not kill David. When I went to the shower room, I found him hanged and I ran out from there to call for help.’

  Ron came to Everton’s defence and said, ‘Boss, I saw Everton go towards the shower room and he came back running within two minutes. That does not give enough time for anybody to kill anyone and David was stronger than Everton, so I feel that there is no way that Everton could had killed him.’

  Jackson nodded in agreement. ‘Yes, I agree with that. Let us not assume anything. However, Everton will be one of the suspects, but to find a killer is the job of the police and not ours.’

  Everton had put his both hands around his neck to relieve the pain caused by the strong grip of the big boys.

  He whispered, ‘Boss, If I had killed David, I would not had come outside running and shouting, but would had stayed quiet and then mingle with the rest of the crowd without raising any suspicions. Moreover, David was much stronger than me and there is no way, I could put a rope around his neck and kill him.’

  Jackson shouted again, ‘Guys, let us stop arguing among ourselves. I want everybody to clear the scene and move into the main gym area. The police should be here any minute. Can one of you get a bed sheet so that we can cover David’s body?’

  After coming back to the main gym area Jackson noted that John and Tony were standing in one corner. He went straight to them to ask ‘You both had argument with Angelo and were present at the time of his death. So where were you when David died?’