Evidence 7
Happy New Year Alex
It was a special night. A special night just about everywhere else in London, at least. Across the entire country, if not the entire world, parties were either ending, in full swing or about to get going. It depended on the time zone. Very shortly it would be England's turn to party for it was now 11:45pm, December 31st 1981. New Year's Eve.
"You still awake luv?" a voice enquired from within the dark cell.
Lights out had been some time ago and the only light now entering the cell was a small smattering of moonlight from the small barred window. Everything else was in darkness.
The voice was Jill's. The prison authorities had reorganised the cells in the last few days and reshuffled some of the inmates around to other cells. To Alex's relief she had been allocated Jill as her new cell mate.
"Yeah, still awake", Alex replied.
Alex lay on her bottom bunk, the meagre cover pulled tightly over her in an attempt to try and keep warm in the cold December night.
The bunk was uncomfortable to say the very least and Alex had realised how much she, in hindsight, appreciated her own warm bed back in her flat.
She shifted over onto her side to try and find a comfortable spot but the harsh metal bunk could always be felt under the less than adequate bedding.
Satisfied that she was as comfortable as she was going to get, Alex held something up to the incoming moonlight. She had been unable to sleep tonight, her mind racing, and this item was the reason why. It was a folded piece of paper headed with the logo of her solicitor.
"You're reading that letter again aren't you?" Jill took a guess from where she lay on the top bunk.
"Mmmm Hmmm", Alex confirmed.
Her eyes scanned the print once again, taking in the details she already knew from having read and re-read the letter so many times since its arrival that morning.
"Look on the bright side", Jill spoke up again in the darkness, "You've got something to focus on now, and then hopefully that's it and you're outta here."
The letter from Jarvis solicitors had arrived that very morning bringing the news to Alex that her trial would be beginning in two weeks time.
"It would have been nice of him to come and tell me in person", Alex sighed. "It's not really how I wanted to find out".
"Yeah well", Jill also sighed. "Them lot, out there, have more important things to think of this time of year, buying presents, choosing the turkey, going to parties. We just get forgotten about."
Alex lowered the letter to the floor and let go of it. Reading the letter was letting the night chill in, and she was cold enough as it was. Once again, she readjusted the cover around herself - tonight was very cold indeed.
Alex cast her mind back over the last few days as she lay there. Christmas in prison had been difficult. It was Alex's first Christmas since arriving in this era and she would dearly have loved to have spent it with her good friends and colleagues. Instead a lot of the day had been spent locked up, more so than usual as several prison officers had 'mysteriously' called in sick on Christmas day and the prison had been left short staffed. The inmates had been allowed out in small groups for a basic Christmas dinner at least but after that it had been lock up once again. Alex had spent a lot of the day wondering what sort of a Christmas day CID were having. Were they living it up in Luigi's without her? Would they be sparing a thought for her? Or would there be some Christmas day drugs bust to pull them away from their turkey and beer? That, she had supposed, would be just typical.
Whatever they had done, Alex was reassured that she hadn't been forgotten about. The arrival of a Christmas card had seen to that. The card had contained a Christmas gift in the form of a small amount of cash for Alex to use in the prison to buy basic necessities and comforts. Prison rules allowed only a small amount of money to be sent in but Alex certainly appreciated it. The card had tried to sound upbeat and encouraging but Alex knew the senders were merely doing their best to raise her spirits.
"Missin' you loads, luv Shaz"
"Hope you're back soon - Chris" (Poof!)
"Not forgotten. We're thinking of you - Ray"
"A bottle of Bolly is on ice for your return - Gene".
Alex was reasonably sure that it was Ray's handwriting that had written "Poof!" over Chris's name. In addition to the card and cash was a small handwritten note, written separately so a certain person's own 'troops' wouldn't have read it.
"Bolls.
You know me, I'm no letter writer.
I'd have you outta there in time for Christmas if I could, but the best I can do for now is bung you a few quid and hope it helps in some way.
I know it's not much in the way of a prezzie - sorry.
Keep it safe and mind no one gets their grubby paws on it.
See you in the New Year - back in the station, yapping in my ear!
I'm going to stop writing now as I'm sounding like a twat.
Take care of yourself Bolls,
The Gene-Genie"
And now it was New Year's Eve, just minutes from midnight. As London partied, Alex thought of her impending trial. It had come around very quickly. In Alex's own experience it usually took a lot longer for a case to come to trial, but that was 2008. Perhaps things worked differently in the legal system of 1981. She could only hope that things would go her way and the jury would see just how circumstantial the evidence against her was.
Alex felt a pang of dread within her as she thought of the so called 'evidence' against her.
'Why, oh why, did I mark off the days on that damn calendar?!' she thought, 'it wouldn't have affected anything, had it been left blank'.
Alex mentally cursed her own actions. Actions that now seemed to point to her being a disturbed and obsessed individual who had gone on to kill almost and entire family. Pinning all those newspaper clippings to the wall, marking off the days in a countdown to the bombing, her constant mentions of the Prices at work and even worse, her habit of regularly going to see Caroline. Alex knew how it looked. She could very easily appear to have an obsession with the Prices. Everything from calling round in a highly emotional state to say goodbye, when she thought she was dying, to asking Caroline to meet her for lunch so she could ask a very flimsy question about whether it was necessary to do a risk assessment when using an informant. Now, in hindsight, it all looked like she had been making any excuse to meet with Caroline.
Alex closed her eyes and remembered back to her final meeting with Caroline in the interview room at the station, the night before the bombing. She let out a slow depressed breath as she recalled Caroline's words, words which the prosecution case now seemed to echo...
"If you were physically sick I'd send you to a doctor"
"You think I'm mad?"
"Not mad just...confused. Obsessed even. I think you need help, Alex".
That pretty much said it all. If even Caroline had come to believe it, then however would a jury perceive her? Her only hope was that the defence could convince the jury that, persuasive as the evidence may seem, there was no rock solid proof. That was a hope Alex felt she had to cling to. Another thing Alex had come to realise was that she was going to have to lie in court. She had never once told a lie in court before, it was against all that she stood for, yet she couldn't possibly admit her real reasons for being so interested in the Prices. Claiming to be from the year 2008 was completely out of the question and would almost certainly prove the prosecution's case that she was, indeed, mad.
Alex's attention was taken away from thoughts of her trial, by the sound of large bangs from the outside world. Small flickers of bright light began to shine momentarily into the cell.
"Midnight", Jill's sleepy voice observed from above where Alex lay.
The crackles and bangs from fireworks emanating from various parties in the area, escalated as the country celebrated.
"Happy new year Alex", Jill chirped.
The bunk made a creak and Alex felt a slight movement. She guessed that Jill had sat up in an attempt to try and see what poor view she might get of the fireworks. Alex remained where she was.
"Happy new year", she whispered from where she lay on her side.
She took hold of her pillow and buried her head beneath it in an attempt to block out the noise of the fireworks
"1982", Alex muttered almost silently, "...make or break".
End Chapter 7.
Thanks again to spelling DCI - Heidi and real life solicitor Skywise for advice legal issues :)
(Author note - As with previous chapters I sometimes have problems with formatting when I upload fics to this website. Sometimes it loses gaps and bunches stuff all together, despite having been beta'd. If this happens with this chapter, please take that into account as I don't yet know what causes this website to do this during the upload).
