SCENE EIGHT

Scene Four

"Go, Helen, go. Let's get out of here," Nikki called out to Helen from the back seat, Margaret sitting next to her.

Helen slid the car into gear and revved off down the road, one eye on the mirror. All three of them had that desperate urge to put space between themselves and the house they had just left. The car shot away down the road, jerking the three of them in their seats.

"I'm sorry about my driving. Margaret," Helen called out as the car tore round the corner and was out of sight from the house.

"After enduring hours of my niece's loathsome company, not to say her 'Bobby'", Margaret replied warmly, slipping briefly into a parody of Bodybag,"I'm only too grateful in being whisked away as quickly as possible."

The other two women laughed at their friend's droll humour and her razor sharp talent for observation. An atmosphere of light hearted hilarity swept over the three of them as Helen sped them onwards. This was after all, how freedom tasted.

******

In the following weeks, Helen and Nikki continued to evolve their lifestyle that had started from the moment of Nikki's release. Both of them were working and it meant that they made sure that they made the most of their precious leisure hours. At the center of it was their social life at 'Chix' but every so often, they visited Margaret and their suddenly blossoming friendship gained depth and colour. All the same, Nikki had the feeling that there was something that the older woman was holding back, no matter how brightly conversational she was.

"So how do you track down a high court judge?" Nikki mused to herself at the dining room table as she fiddled with the biro in her hands." After all, you don't get to meet them down the local pub."

"You've got me there, Nik," answered Trisha grinning at her old friend's unique sense of humour."That's way outside my experience- at least out of choice."

"What about asking at the Old Bailey?" contributed Helen from the other side of the table. Seeing her partner flinch in horror, Helen carried on rapidly talking.

"I know you, Nikki. You've got this superstitious streak in you…….."

"I have not,"the taller woman started to protest furiously.

"Let me rephrase it. You're as rational and down to earth as anyone I'm met but you have this fear that, once you bring the Old Bailey back into your life, something dreadful will happen to you that'll get you put away. I can understand that as I feel a bit the same. There's no logical reason for you and I to think that way but since when sometimes are these deep-seated emotions rational? At the same time, you know that you don't have to worry about the place any more. You're an ordinary member of the public with the perfect right to get proper customer service the same as anyone else."

"Helen's right, you know," added Trisha. "You can't be arrested in asking to talk to a judge. The worst that can possibly happen is that they aren't able to help you. You've nothing to lose."

The combined weight of arguments finally connected. Nikki shut up and breathed in and out, the tension gradually leaving her body. She knew that Helen had put her finger on her fears and that the other two women had the sense to wait for her to assimilate these points of view.

"All right," she said at last, smiling gratefully at the other two. "It seems the obvious place to start. I've got sod all out of the rest of my researches."

"That's more like it. Another coffee?" offered Helen brightly.

*********

This is it, muttered Nikki to herself. I might have known that, by opening my big mouth on the topic, that I had therefore nominated myself to scout out the ground to locate John Deed. The image in her mind of Helen's winning smile as she persuaded her to undertake this expedition reminded her yet again that she is a total softie at heart no matter how tough she could appear on the surface. So be it, she laughed to herself, the worst that could happen was that a security guy would sling her out.

Finally, she ceased pacing back and forth along the forbidding edifice that towered over her and she headed for the general entrance. She hadn't prepared for the emotional reality of being in new territory and going through a new experience. The last time she'd entered the building was through an anonymous back entrance a policeman either side of her after a police wagon had taken her through into the courtyard for that hatefully unjust sentence to be read out to her. Her most recent court appearance was at the Court of Appeals in the Strand where she had been taken into the dock with Fenner one side of her and Di Barker. On that occasion, she had no control over her movements but on the other hand, she had been certainly and surely taken to appear before three judges set up on high in their thrones with only Marian Chambers, Claire walker and Sally Anne Howe to speak up for her.

When she found her bearings, she was mightily relieved that there were no particular restrictions. With a curious sense of detachment, she revelled in the way that she could wander round the building. What she was highly conscious of was that there did not be a sympathetic soul whom she could safely approach. She was hypersensitive to every nuance of every court official and none of them felt right to approach. Her eyes flitted in every direction as she fiddled nervously with the button of her best suit jacket.

John Deed's personal assistant, Rita Cooper, better known as Coope, was a comfortably middle waged woman whose duties took her into court from time to time when she wasn't busy with her duties in the judge's chamber, including discreetly arranging with her contacts in the listings offices suitable cases for John Deed to dispense justice. Another of her self-imposed duties was to keep a wary eye on the assorted attractive women who came to his chambers for other than professional reasons. It necessitated keeping up with his complex love life and she freely dispensed clear 'non advice' that 'it was not for her to say' as to the judge's choice when her faintly disapproving gaze made her point of view obvious. It was in this mood that a tall attractive woman with distinctively cropped hair approached her and Coope employed her natural courtesy to greet her. Coope's impression was that she was a relative stranger to these parts.

"Excuse me," Nikki finally asked the one woman whom she felt was approachable." I'm ever so sorry to trouble you but I wondered if it would be possible to talk to a judge here, John Deed."

"Is this reason business or personal?" she counter questioned in a voice that wasn't unsympathetic. Coope decided to get to the bottom of the matter, feeling guarded sympathy for this woman's plight

"A bit of both really," Nikki said in flustered tones. Coope mentally raised her

eyebrows as something told her that this wasn't some distressed ex girlfriend of the judge's but was more complex

"Do you want to talk in a private room?" she offered. Nikki's grateful smile of sheer relief was obvious to her and Coope warmed to this woman, guided by instinct alone.

"I'd be incredibly grateful," Nikki said effusively, being granted her first temporary opening of the machinery of justice. She followed Coope into an anteroom and took a seat. She launched into a preamble without any fancy preliminaries, as was her habit.

"I'm Nikki Wade and I was recently granted my freedom at the Court of Appeal after being sentenced for life for taking out the policeman who was on the point of raping my then girlfriend so I'm not wanting to behave in an irregular fashion in asking John to intervene in an impending court case. John was very kind when Helen, my present partner got talking to him over a drink at a conference on 'Crime and Punishment.' He very kindly intervened in ensuring that the Home Secretary granted me leave to appeal the sentence………."

Coope's mouth opened in astonishment and her sympathies came flooding to the surface, surface, now that she knew everything. She put two and two together very rapidly. First, she recalled the court case straightaway and then she vividly remembered the judge recently talking about Helen Stewart in very admiring respectful tones. This very presentable woman also made an immediately favourable impression on her. Her alert mind needed to clear up one or two questions first.

"Did your partner make it clear to the judge that she had a personal interest in your case?"

Nikki was growing more and more confident as this woman was clearly one of the good ones, very kind and sympathetic. She felt all the more secure because she was speaking the plain and unvarnished truth.

"Helen made her sexuality and her interest in me perfectly clear. She had the feeling that he was attracted to her but he was as good as his word and helped out for disinterested reasons. We want to see him and thank him personally because, well, it's the least we can do."

As Coope's best friend in the army had been raped and had never got over it, she immediately resolved to bend over backward to help this woman. True, it wasn't normal procedure but since when had the judge set her an example in being a Jobsworth? What was sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander.

"I'd be delighted to help, Nikki," she said. "Let me phone him up and make quite sure. I'm the judge's personal assistant and I know for a fact that he has plenty of spare time."

Nikki felt secure in letting this formidably perceptive woman sort things out. It made her feel good that there were organizations that didn't work in the incompetent and corrupt fashion that Larkhall Prison was notorious for with honourable exceptions. Coope's face brightened as she put the phone down.

"You follow me and I'll escort you to his chambers," she said exuding confidence.

"I'm not putting you out, am I? I won't get you into trouble," Nikki enquired with a touching sense of consideration.

"Leave it to me, Nikki," Coope said, smiling broadly in a way that made Nikki warm to her. In turn, Coope was touched by Nikki's thoughtfulness. The dark-haired woman saw the very understanding and sympathetic woman behind the smart suit and recognized another quiet rebel behind her smooth ways.

***********

Nikki was ushered through a grand court, with that strange silence of an empty theatre, up the steps past the judge's throne and into a corridor with pictures of past judges and into the comfortably appointed chamber, complete with an antique three-piece suit. In the corner, the judge's robes were draped on a coat rack. John Deed sat behind his desk, dressed in a smart black suit and called out to her in pleasant tones.

"Nikki, I'm delighted to see you again. As you might know, Coope has explained the purpose of your visit. Do you want a drink?"

At this moment, Nikki's mind temporarily froze. She had been so psyched up with getting through the barriers to reach John that her mind was temporarily blank. Finally, she stammered out a request for a glass of wine while John and Coope both felt affectionate sympathy for this remarkable woman who genuinely couldn't see that they admired her fortitude in struggling through to the landmark appeal judgment. Finally, Nikki's mind cleared and she started to chatter away in the same way as anyone else she had ever known that she could relate to. The atmosphere felt right and that was all that mattered.