Double Noose

by Jay Sharman

  Nicki gave a kiss to Julian and left for the arts class. Julian also followed her to the class room, but did not say much to Mike. Julian’s face became redder, when he saw Mike touching Nicki’s hand. Julian thought that how will he cope with Nicki sleeping in Mike’s flat that night.

  Just before 4.15 PM, Nicki went to the bathroom to change her clothes. She managed to put lipstick on her lips and cheeks. Nicki looked more like a woman than a man now. Mike came to the bathroom to check Nicki and he was astonished to see the transformation in Nicki’s appearance.

  Mike said, ‘You look beautiful, I can't wait for the night. Anyway everything is in order. This is your pass, which you need to show at the gate. The majority of the time, the security guards do not even look at a teacher’s face, so you can slip through the gate without any problems.’

  Nicki followed Mike to the gate, but there was a long queue there. Mike asked the security man, ‘Why there is a delay today?’

  The guard replied, ‘We have been instructed to double check everybody thoroughly, as some inmates may be planning to escape from the prison.’

  Mike looked at Nicki, who was already perspiring, with drops of sweat on her face. He hinted to her to go back to the prison as this was not a good time to escape.

  Nicki turned back and entered the toilet where she rubbed all of her lipstick and put her hair back in the ponytail. As she was walking back two prison officers looked at her with suspicion, but she avoided looking back at them and rushed back to her room where Julian had just arrived from art class.

  He asked, ‘What happened, Nicki? Why did you not go?’

  Nicki looked into a mirror and used a wet towel to clean her face. She replied, ‘The security was very tight today, so we cancelled our plans. I went to the last exit point of the prison to see how the system works but I have kept the security pass with me so now I can escape anytime I like and without Mike’s help.’

  ‘You are clever Nicki, what about Mike, I think that you will still need his help’

  Nicki washed her face in the sink to remove any signs of lipstick on her lips and said, ‘I am not going to see him again and I am going to cancel my class with him from tomorrow, as I was not comfortable going back to his house tonight. In a way, I am glad that I stayed back in the prison today.’

  ‘You are cleverer than I thought. You must hide your security pass somewhere, otherwise you could be charged for trying to escape from the prison.’

  Nicki put the prison pass under her pillow and said, ‘I am worried that Mike might report me to the authority to cause problems for me, if I did not accept his moves in the class room’

  Coin sat down on the chair and said, ‘Mike can't report you, as he is the main culprit and he knows that you may also tell the authorities about his involvement in your planned escape.’

  Nicki looked in the mirror again to check if she had any lipstick marks left on her lips. Julian suddenly got up to hold Nicki from behind and whispered, ‘Leave your lipstick there. I will use my lips to remove it.’ He turned Nicki around towards him and started to kiss her passionately.

  Chapter 41

  Mike Jackson phoned DC Lewis the next day and asked, ‘Have you got any information about the drug used for Mrs Dashwood’s murder?’

  Jackson took a deep breath, cleared his throat with a gentle cough and said, ‘Yes, I have just got news from the Crown Prosecution Services. You were right, the drug used was hyoscine, same one which was used by Dr Cohen to kill his wife, Cora Turner. How does that help our investigation?’

  Jackson replied back, ‘That means that Cohen is responsible for the deaths of both the women. Hyoscine is not easily available these days and in fact, stronger and more effective drugs can be used for killing somebody. Maybe, Dr Cohen has no knowledge of the modern drugs and that is why, he used the same old drug, hyoscine.’

  Lewis said softly, ‘That is all very well but if Cohen is the main culprit, then how do we stop him? We can't even arrest or prosecute him?’

  ‘You need to get help of the priest in the prison chaplain.’

  Jackson used his fingers to stroke his hair and said, ‘My other worry is about Greg, I am certain that he is Cohen’s next victim and we need to protect him. I have authorised immediate transfer of Greg to another prison as we all suspect that Cohen could strike anytime.’

  Greg had been confined in a basement landing of a protective wing of the prison called ‘Block’ where prisoners who had adjudications against them for breaking prison rules were kept for a harsher punishment. However, Greg did not have any such restrictions as he had been given his own television, unlike other prisoners and he was also allowed to come out of his room more frequently. The prison authorities explained the situation to Greg, who was happy to challenge Cohen face to face as he did not believe in a ghost, unlike other people around him. Jackson disagreed with his request and wanted Greg to be confined in the Block wing of the prison. Julian had not seen Greg for few days, he was also worried that Cohen might harm him next anytime.

  Greg had a knock on his door and prison officer informed him that he needed to be transferred to another prison. Greg shouted back, ‘I do not want to go anywhere else. All my friends have died here, and I want to stay here. If I have to die, I will die here as well.’

  Prison officer tried to convince him, ‘You will have more freedom in the new prison. Here you are caged, and we do not know that for how long you will have to stay like this.’

  Greg pushed the prison officer back by the full force of his hands and shouted from the top of his voice. ‘I do not want to go. I have told you so many times so leave me alone and go away.’ He came inside his room and shut the door with a loud bang.

  Half an hour later, ten big sized prison officers came to Greg’s room and one got hold of Greg’s big bulging upper arms and whispered, ‘Greg, you need to come with us. If you do it quietly without any resistance, then it will be good for all of us. Otherwise, we will have to drag you to the van. The choice is yours.’

  Five men came forward and lifted Greg from the floor. Greg tried to push his hands and legs everywhere and started to shout louder and louder, ‘Leave me alone. I do not want to go. I want to stay here where I lost all my friends.’

  Despite Greg’s reluctance, all the officers lifted him up with their hands and put him on a trolley and strapped him with a strong tape.

  Greg after being dragged for a while stood up on his feet and started to walk slowly with prison officers on his either side. He had established a reputation of an invincible person among his fellow inmates and he did not want to be seen to be humiliated like that.

  Greg pleaded to the prison officer, ‘Look, I will go with you but I need to take my legal papers and other items with me. Can you please give me fifteen minutes to get ready my bag properly?’

  The officers looked at each other and nodded. ‘Yes, that is fine. You can put your stuff in the bag. Two officers will stay with you in the room supervising your packing.’

  Half an hour later Greg started to walk towards the reception area carrying a large plastic bag containing all his clothes and important personal items. He was given a thorough body search in the reception and all his items in the bag were properly checked.

  Some of the prison officers shook hands with him, as Greg was well known to them. One of them said, ‘Goodbye Greg, behave yourself in the new prison, otherwise they will punish you.’

  The other officers joined in and said, ‘You will not find a better prison than this one. Everybody was so lenient to you here.’

  Greg smiled and said, ‘I have not misbehaved with anybody here. I have good memories of this place but bad ones too especially after I lost my friends here.’

  ‘We are so sorry about your friends’ loss. I hope that you recover from that.’ said another officer

  Greg was put in a smaller van that had its own small cubicles. Greg felt a bit suffocated after being enclosed inside the van. He started to bang on the door which ma
de the whole of the van shake. The other prisoners also joined him in thumping the van. One prisoner started to shout, ‘Come on gov, let us go. Put some music on, it is so boring inside here.’

  Slowly the van started to move and left the prison after going through the security check at the exit door. Every time, the prisoners saw a pretty woman, they thumped the van to get attention. Nobody could see the prisoners as they were protected by dark stained glass. The journey seemed quite longer as prisoners could not see the road signs properly.

  Greg did not like it as his mind was fixed on his friends that he lost in the last prison. He was worried about a different atmosphere of the new prison, where he had to start all over again. After the loss of his friends, he was not keen on victimising anybody. He felt that he was a changed man; he had already decided that once he was released from the prison, he will become a reformed person.

  Greg had realised that robbery and drug dealing did not pay in the long run. He had decided to work hard and earn money like other people do. He had always dreamed of having children, but he used to go out with different women every week and none of them claimed that he had made them pregnant.

  Greg’s thoughts were not affected by the bumps in the road as the van inched towards the new prison. He thought that his son should have a good education unlike himself. His parents did not care if he attended school or not, the whole housing estate was involved with drugs dealing so it was easy for Greg to get sucked into the system. Because of his height and build, Greg found that he commanded more respect. He became a natural leader of the gang by the time he was eighteen.

  In the beginning Greg only dealt with minor crimes, but that changed with the passage of time. After being sent to prison few times Greg became quite accustomed to the legal prison system. He was in a position to control prisoners, when he was outside and able to control outside world, when inside the prison. Now for the first time, his system had crumbled, and he had to run for the safety of his life.

  Suddenly the van came to a halt and he had arrived at the Brixton prison. He was familiar with Brixton prison as he had spent various sentences there. After waiting for twenty minutes, Greg finally disembarked from the van to proceed toward the reception area. When Greg was called to the reception area, the officers realized that his name had not been forwarded by his previous prison. The Brixton prison was full and that meant that Greg had to go back to his previous prison. Although the reception team suggested that Greg could wait for few hours to see if any prisoners were being transferred to a different prison, but after repeated pleas from Greg the prison officers took him back to his previous prison. When he reached back in the evening Greg expected to get the same room but he was told that his room as already given to somebody else. Instead he was taken to ‘A’ wing where prisoners were kept for induction for two to three 3 days and then allocated a room in a different wing. Greg did not mind that as he hoped to be transferred to a better wing from there.

  Nicki was really feeling fed up by staying in the prison for such a long time. Julian suggested that she should think of escaping from the prison as soon as possible without seeking any help from Mike, as she had in her possession the required documents for the exit door of the prison.

  Nicki then said, ‘I just want to know what our solicitor is doing for our case.’

  Julian looked dejected and said, ‘Crown Prosecution Services has still not sent a report of any evidence against us.’

  ‘They can't send any evidence because they have not got anything. Julian you did not kill your wife and I did not kill her. That means that there must be a third person to do that.’

  ‘We have told that to the police many times, but they do not seem to take any notice of that.’

  ‘Julian, the police think that we are guilty and that is why we ran away to South Africa. Maybe we should have stayed back in England.’

  ‘Maybe, but that would have still arrested us. They still think that you are my male friend and they are still looking for female lover. That is you.’

  Nicki smiled and said, ‘How silly of the police that they could not check if I was a male or a female.’

  ‘Nicki, credit goes to you for pulling off such an outstanding act.’

  ‘Anyway I am fed up of staying here in the prison. I am going to flee and by going outside I can prove my innocence in the case.’

  While they were talking, their door was opened by a prison officer, who said, ‘Gentlemen, you need to come with me.’

  ‘Where do you want to take us? I had to go to the chapel for a lesson on biblical studies.’

  ‘We need to check your urine for checking presence of any drugs in your body.’

  Julian shouted, ‘We do not take any drugs, so why do you need to do our test.’

  ‘That is routine check. Everybody says that they do not take drugs, but their urine shows presence of drugs in their body.’

  Instead of doing more arguments both Julian and Nicki got ready to go with the officer. The officer did not smile at all but was just walking few steps ahead of both of them. After passing through wings they reached ‘A’ wing which made Julian to ask the officer a question, ‘Why are we going to ‘A’ wing?’

  ‘No, you are going to ‘R’ wing but to go there, we need to pass through ‘A’ wing.’ The officer said without looking at them

  Before Julian could react, the prison officer had disappeared. Although that was late morning time the whole wing was quiet as all the inmates were banged up. Only Nicki and Julian were left in the landing. Suddenly they felt a cold breeze passing by them. Nicki clung to Julian as if she was going to be blown away. The door to the gallows opened slowly with a cracking sound. A white figure appeared on the door, who gave the signal of moving towards him. Nicki asked with eyes wide open, ‘What is happening Julian? Who is this person?’

  Cohen smiled and said, ‘Do not be afraid Sally, come near to me.’

  ‘Who are you? What do you want from me?’ Shouted Nicki.

  ‘Just come here. Can't you recognise me? This is Cohen, your lover.’

  Nicki wanted to hide her face in Julian’s chest, but Julian kept on walking towards Cohen. Nicki shouted, ‘Why are you walking towards the ghost? Let us run away before he harms us.’

  Julian still kept on walking. ‘I can't stop my steps. Something is pushing me towards him.’

  Julian started to go inside the dark room where there was an old bulb giving a very dim light. Nicki and Julian both walked through the entrance door and then heard the door behind them shut with a loud noise.

  Nicki was trembling with fear and still holding Julian tight. Julian felt that the whole weight of Nicki’s body had fallen on top of him, but he still managed to move forwards slowly. Nicki against shouted, ‘Who are you? What do you want?’

  ‘Sally, can't you remember me. I am Cohen your lover. We were arrested on the waters of Canada and brought back to England for trial and execution.’

  ‘Look Cohen or whatever your name is. I can't remember anything. You keep forgetting that I am alive, and you are dead. I am born again with a different name and identity. How do you know that I am the same person who was your lover in the last birth?’

  ‘I know that it is you. You have got the same mole below the right ear as you had in the last birth and your face is similar as well. Let me show you Sally’s photograph.’

  Cohen moved forward to show photograph to Nicki. Both Julian and Nicki were surprised to see striking resemblance between Sally and Nicki.

  Nicki looked at Cohen closely – she felt a cold air sweeping toward her and she could not see feet of Cohen as there was a gap between the ground and his legs.

  Slowly Nicki was recovering from the initial shock. Julian too had felt that his energy was coming back to his body. He held Nicki tight in his arms and shouted, ‘Cohen, what do you want from Nicki. Do not forget that she belongs to me now. You need to get the facts right you are dead, and Nicki is alive.’

  Cohen started to move
towards the centre of the room, where gallows was situated, it was covered with a brown cloth, but there were no ropes present to hang anybody.

  Slowly, Cohen’s fingers started to point towards both Julian and Nicki, and they kept on walking towards Cohen, as if they were attracted towards a magnet. Cohen stopped near the gallows and said without looking towards Nicki, ‘I may be dead, but I still have feelings for you. I know that I can't have you, if you are alive that is why you need to die as well so we can be one again.’

  Nicki started to shout even louder, ‘You can't touch me. If you love me in, then you must let me go.’

  Julian came in front of Nicki, thus shielding her body from Cohen. Cohen smiled but his white eyes still were expressionless as before, ‘I was hanged for murder of my wife, you were equal partners in crime, but you were spared death and set free.’

  Julian replied, ‘The court found Sally ‘Not guilty’ so you should have been happy that her life was spared.’

  ‘No, I was not happy. I wanted a union with Sally even after our deaths. She stopped all the contacts with me after her acquittal by the court.’

  Julian said, ‘She probably was not allowed to see you.’

  ‘No, she just did not want to know me, I remembered Sally till the very last breath in my body. I was allowed to keep Sally’s picture in my pocket at the time of hanging. I prayed to God that I shall be allowed to have a union with Sally after my death. That is why I am still looking for you.’

  Nicki wanted to run away to the exit door, but she found that she was powerless and instead she found that her steps were taking her towards the gallows. She screamed, ‘I do not want you. Look, I don't remember anything from the last birth. I do not even believe in reincarnation. You have got the wrong person.’

  ‘No Sally, you are the same person. Look at the picture; she had a mole below her left ear same as you have.’

  Cohen showed an old photograph of Sally to both Julian and Nicki. Nicki touched her left ear and felt a mole there. Even Julian was surprised by the presence of similar mole in both Sally and Nicki. Nicki said, ‘Oh My God, Cohen could be right, I might be Sally in last birth.’