The Prison Read online

  “Me?” Amanda paused. “No. Of course not.”

  “Good, 'cause that would be some serious bad luck to see the Blake kid on your very first night. Now go on, go wash yourself. Lights out in less than ten. Seriously, things really linger around this place. I don't want some bad stink floating around the room.”

  Turning and making her way out of the cell, Amanda told herself that the whole story was rubbish, that there was no way a single part of it could possibly be true. Still, she couldn't help glancing over her shoulder, just to make sure that there was no sign of the little girl.

  ***

  “There,” Doctor Bell whispered as she slid the needle into Chris's neck and depressed the plunger. “That's more than enough to see you through the night. Don't want it wearing off before I can get started in the morning, do we? Don't worry, though, I'll be through to get started nice and early.”

  As the needle came out, Chris let out another faint moan.

  “I wonder what you'd sound like if I wasn't stopping the screams,” Doctor Bell continued, setting the syringe down and then picking up a piece of white cloth, which she proceeded to lay carefully over her patient's face. After just a second or two, blood began to seep through the fabric, forming a kind of crimson shroud.

  Taking a step back, Doctor Bell allowed herself a brief smile as another moan could just about be heard.

  “You'll be okay in here,” she continued. “This is my secondary exam room, and no-one knows about it. Anyway, the governor isn't going to be looking for you, not now. Frankly, as long as you're out of the way and you don't present any kind of risk to his precious knighthood, he doesn't give a damn about you. As of tonight, you're all mine. We get to do some wonderful work together, which is going to be very useful. I've been waiting for someone like you to come along, and I most certainly don't intend to waste you.”

  Heading to the door, she stopped for a moment and looked back at Chris, whose face had now leaked a substantial amount of blood through the white fabric. After switching off the light, the doctor stepped out of the room and pushed the door shut, leaving Chris to let out occasional, faint moans as she lay in the dark.

  Part Three

  Today

  “Yeah,” Robin said, holding the muddy gray bone up to the light, “that's human alright. I reckon you've got yourself part of a pelvis.”

  Amanda stared in shock. She and a couple of dozen other inmates had been spending the morning out in the garden area beyond the yard, clearing the soil and removing any large rocks or other items that might get in the way of the planting process, but no-one had said anything about the possibility of human body parts turning up.

  “Chuck it,” Robin continued, throwing the piece of bone into Amanda's plastic sack. “Shame, but there you go.”

  “Shouldn't I tell someone?” Amanda asked, glancing at the bored-looking guard who was playing with his phone over by the wall.

  “Tell 'em what? That you found a bit of hundred-year-old pelvis? Who cares? He'll just toss it in the garbage.”

  “It belongs to someone!”

  “Belonged. And besides, it's not exactly a shock, is it?” Smiling, she reached down and pulled up a rock before dropping it into her own sack. “It's just another bit of crap that came up to the surface, like, plate tectonics or whatever the hell it's called. What else do you expect with all those bodies down there?”

  “All what bodies down where?” Amanda asked, as she got back to work.

  “Right under us now.”

  “They... They used to bury people out here?”

  “What do you think happened back in the day when some old hag died in prison? A state funeral with all the trimmings and a loving family at the graveside?” She grinned. “Hell, no. They tossed 'em in the garden and forgot about them.”

  “I don't see any gravestones.”

  “Of course not. Stones cost money, plus they'd be a little creepy.”

  “So there are human bodies rotting underground?” Amanda asked, looking down at her feet. “Under this particular piece of ground that we're supposed to turn into a vegetable patch?”

  “Gonna be some nice juicy carrots,” Robin pointed out, “what with all those nutrients. I guess it's the circle of life, though, isn't it? People die, other people eat, and so on.”

  Unable to quite process the idea that there were bodies somewhere beneath the ground, Amanda carried on working in silence for a few minutes, although she couldn't shake the constant worry that every small rock or pebble she picked up might be another piece of bone.

  “Weir!” a voice called out suddenly. “Get over here!”

  Turning, Amanda saw that the guard was gesturing for her to join him.

  “Not another visitor,” she whispered under her breath. “Please, not another visitor.”

  “No-one ever visits me,” Robin muttered. “You should count yourself lucky.”

  “Why can't he just leave me alone?” she asked, trying not to panic. “I thought he'd finally got the message!”

  “Weir!” the guard yelled. “Here! Now!”

  “Typical,” Robin said with a sigh, “so you're getting out of the hard work, are you? The rest of us have to break our backs out here all morning and you get to be nice and warm inside. The world just doesn't seem fair sometimes.” Reaching down, she pulled up another small white object, which she held up for Amanda to see. “You know what? I reckon that's a fingertip!”

  ***

  “Relax,” Andrew said as he led Amanda along the corridor, “you don't have a visitor.”

  Stopping at a set of double-doors, he turned to her.

  “Would it really be so bad if someone did come to see you, though? You can't cut yourself off from your old life completely. You're still the same person you were on the outside.”

  “I just don't want anyone fussing,” she replied, looking up at the sign over the doors:

  LABORATORY.

  “You're talking about your husband, aren't you?” Andrew said after a moment. “The guy loves you, Amanda, and he clearly -”

  “He's deluded,” she replied, interrupting him. “He can't face the truth.”

  “That's no reason to give up. You need to at least talk to him.”

  “I guess,” she said quietly, “just... not yet. I need to think.”

  “We're going to start some intensive therapy sessions soon,” Andrew continued, “but until then, I figured it would be good for you to feel like you're being useful. And I don't mean picking up rocks in the garden. Granted, the vegetable patch program is a very noble endeavor, but I wanted to get you involved with something that you might find more useful, so I pulled a few strings and got you a job here in the medical unit.”

  “I don't have any medical training,” she pointed out.

  “You don't need any,” he continued, opening the doors and leading her into a large, well-lit room with a set of empty beds over by the far wall. “Hardstone is still way under its full capacity, so as you can imagine, the medical unit isn't exactly over-stretched. In fact...” He paused as he looked around the empty room. “I don't even know where the doctor is right now. She should be here and -”

  Hearing a noise nearby, he turned just in time to see a middle-aged woman coming through a door at the far end.

  “Doctor Bell,” he called out. “I've brought you a little helper.”

  “I told you I don't need anyone,” Doctor Bell replied as she crossed the room and shook his hand before turning to Amanda with a barely-disguised frown. “Have you ever worked in this kind of environment before?”

  Amanda shook her head.

  “Do you have any experience at all that might be relevant?”

  “I don't think so.”

  The doctor turned to Andrew. “Listen -”

  “I've already cleared it with the governor,” Andrew replied, having clearly anticipated her protest.

  “You have?” she replied. “I must remember to thank him some time. You're both so... thoughtful.
..”

  “You'll have to ignore the doctor's somewhat abrasive bedside manner,” Andrew continued, heading back to the doors before turning to Amanda. “She's got a heart of gold underneath, so just keep persevering and make sure she gives you proper jobs to do. I've got a feeling this is going to be good for both of you.”

  With that, he headed back out into the corridor, leaving Amanda and Doctor Bell standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.

  “Don't touch anything,” Doctor Bell said finally.

  “I won't.”

  “And...” She sighed. “As you can probably tell, I don't exactly feel the need to have an assistant poking around the place, so your primary job is going to be very simple: stay out from under my feet. Without any patients to deal with at the moment, I'm mainly focusing on getting the facility up to scratch and conducting a few studies on the side. I like working alone, without too many annoying questions, but I suppose I can find a few things for you to do, like...” Glancing over at a nearby workbench, she seemed lost in thought for a moment before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small security pass. “What are you in here for?”

  “I... Do I have to say it?”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “I... I had two children. They died.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-two.”

  “So they were babies?”

  Amanda nodded.

  “Young mother, then. Sweet. How did they die?”

  “They bled to death.”

  “Spontaneously?”

  “No, I...” She paused. “They... I'm just a very bad person. I'm evil.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Doctor Bell muttered after a moment, slipping the security pass into the breast pocket of Amanda's shirt. “Don't get excited about the pass, it only allows you access to the stairwell and the storage facility at the bottom of that stairwell, all the way down in the basement, understood? Don't get any ideas, because it's useless on any external doors but I will know if you try it. This part of the facility is run to slightly looser rules than the rest, but don't take advantage of that fact. It's simply that I can't be bothered monitoring your every movement. Anyway, I want you to go down to the basement and find the boxes marked 'Slides' in the storage area. There should be two. Bring them up here.”

  “Okay,” Amanda replied.

  “And take your time. The faster you come back up, the faster I'll have to think of something else for you to do.”

  ***

  “Slides,” Amanda muttered as she made her way down the stairwell. Reaching the bottom, she took the security pass out of her pocket and ran it against a sensor on the wall, and sure enough the door immediately unlocked.

  Glancing over at a nearby wall, she spotted another sensor, next to a door that led out into the yard. The thought of going out there, however, made her shudder. Trying to escape from Hardstone was the last thing on her mind.

  Stepping into the next room, she found herself in a dark, cramped space lined with shelves. There were boxes and crates everywhere, and it was clear that she was in some kind of medical storage area. Taking a look at one of the nearest boxes, she opened the top and looked inside, only to find packs and packs of plastic gloves, and the next box contained exactly the same. Making her way along the aisle, she finally stopped as she spotted two cardboard boxes on a high shelf, with the word 'Slides' scribbled on their sides.

  “Great,” she muttered, grabbing a rickety old chair and climbing up.

  Reaching up, she struggled for a moment before managing to slide the first box off. Finding it to be much heavier than she'd expected, she quickly placed it on the floor. Just as she was about to turn and grab the other box, however, she noticed a small white object resting in an inch-wide crack that ran across the concrete floor. Picking the object out, she held it up to the light and realized that it appeared to be another piece of human bone.

  Five years ago

  “What the hell are you doing?” he shouted, grabbing Robin's arm and pulling her away from the counter before slamming a plate down in front of her. “This is the fifth order that's been sent back since your shift started!”

  “It's a burger,” she replied. “That's what the ticket said!”

  “It's supposed to be a chicken burger,” Mike continued, opening the lid of the bin and tipping the burger into the trash. “You're never the most reliable cook, Robin, but this is the first time you've been so totally incompetent. Do I need to send you home?”

  “No! I'll... I'll redo it.”

  “And the loss is coming out of your pay-packet,” he told her. “All the losses today are coming out of your pocket, understand?”

  “Fine,” she muttered, turning back to the counter.

  “One more mistake, and you're out of here,” he continued. “This is getting ridiculous. Don't you think I can just go out into the street and easily find someone to replace you? This isn't a high-end fucking restaurant, Robin, it's a glorified burger bar. All you do is -”

  “I know what to do!” she hissed, tossing a chicken burger onto the grill. “Don't fucking patronize me!”

  “What did you say?” he shouted, pushing her back against the wall. “Did you just fucking swear at me?”

  “I...” Pausing, she realized she'd gone too far. “I'm sorry. I'll get right on things, okay? No more mistakes.”

  “Whatever,” he replied, taking a step back. “If I have to come in here one more time to fix your screw-ups, you're gone, do you understand? And good luck getting another job if I fire you, 'cause with your attitude, Robin, you're never gonna fit in anywhere.”

  With that, he headed back through to the main part of the restaurant, leaving Robin watching the back of his head as he started talking to one of the waitresses.

  “Fuck you,” she whispered, struggling to stay calm. “Fuck you and fuck your fucking restaurant.”

  Today

  “Christine Bradford,” Governor Windsor said carefully, as if he'd never heard the name before in his life. Leaning back in his chair, he frowned, as if to give the impression that he was giving the matter some serious thought. “Christine Bradford. No, I'm afraid that name doesn't ring any bells.”

  “It's just,” explained the other man earnestly, “I was specifically told that she was sent here, to Hardstone.”

  “You were?”

  “It's right here in black and white,” he continued, holding up one of the documents he'd been clutching ever since he entered the office a few minutes ago. “The movements of all prisoners get recorded by the prisons service, and I was able to get hold of the relevant details. Christine Bradford, sentenced to three years at Hardstone Women's Prison and transported here on -”

  “Yes, I can see the document,” the governor replied, “it's just that I've already checked our files for you twice, and there's absolutely no record of a Christine Bradford among our inmates.”

  “She has to be here,” the man said, still holding up the document. “She can't have just disappeared.”

  “Of course not.”

  “I went to the magistrates' court,” he continued, as he started to look through the rest of his papers, “and they told me she'd been sent to the crown court, and from there I was able to find out where she'd been sent after her case was heard. I mean, there's no doubt about it. She was brought to Hardstone.”

  “So your piece of paper would seem to suggest.”

  “So now I need to know where she is.”

  “Might I ask,” the governor continued, “why you are so interested in this Christine Bradford girl?”

  “I'm her father,” the man replied. “My name is David Bradford.”

  “Her...” At this, the governor paused, fully aware that a concerned father would be rather difficult to fob off. “I see,” he continued, narrowing his eyes a little, “and you're searching the nation's prison system in a desperate attempt to locate your daughter?”

  “No, I've already located her,” David replied. “She's here
, in your prison. Check your system again.”

  “But as I said -”

  “Fine, then where is she? Because I have proof that she was delivered here to Hardstone just over a week ago. She definitely arrived, so if she's not here now, you must know where she was sent and why. She must have been moved on to some other location.”

  “This is a very awkward situation,” the governor replied. “Clearly there has been a mistake somewhere along the line regarding the paperwork and -”

  “We're talking about my daughter,” David said firmly. “An actual human being.”

  “When was the last time you saw her?”

  “It's...” He paused. “It's been a while. Things were awkward, we lost touch when she got into trouble and then when she ran away from home, it was impossible to keep track of her. She came back occasionally when she needed money or help, but she never stuck around for long. Her mother, my wife, disowned her completely, but I can't do that. Christine's my daughter and I have to see her. Do you have children, Governor Windsor?”

  “I do not.”

  “But surely you can understand that I can't just walk away. I've spent six months trying to find her, and I finally tracked her down to this place, only to come in here today and have you tell me that she's never set foot in Hardstone. Now, I can go back to the courts service and ask them to double-check, but I don't see that there's any room for error. They're going to tell me the same thing again, so...” His voice trailed off for a moment as he watched the governor's awkward expression. “I'm going to ask you again. Where the hell is my daughter?”

  ***

  “Have you disposed of the body already?” the governor asked as he followed Doctor Bell across the examination room. “If it's still here, we can tell him something happened to her and there was just a bit of a foul-up with the paperwork.”