"Trust me girls, he isn't wriggling it out of it this time, not if he wants to keep all of his bits..."
Zoe leant against the door, she could hear the woman inside the locked cell shouting out of the window to the women below.
She watched as Henry discussed something with the prison guard and the police officer began radioing through orders to the various other teams throughout the prison.
She turned her attention back to the locked door, a thin dribble of blood was making its way from the rag at the peep hole down the chipped paint towards the door handle.
"Hello?"
She shouted, the women below were pounding rhythmically with their fists on any available surface, an inaudible chant had started.
"Hello?"
She shouted again, louder this time and she heard the soft thump of something.
"What is this? A relay?"
The voice was alarmingly close on the other side of the door, if it hadn't been between them their would only have been inches between their faces.
"I need you to tell me why you're doing this..."
She pressed a hand against the paint as she spoke.
There was a pause.
"Haven't you got anything better to do?"
The woman asked through the door.
"No...this is what I do, this is why I'm here."
Zoe spoke quickly, aware of Henry and the guard planning something together.
"Yeah well, that's your sad life isn't it. Don't go dumping it on me."
The anger in the prisoners voice snapped though the metal door, her voice cold but full of wrath.
"I will be sad if you can't even come up with a good reason for this? Just tell me why you're doing this?"
Zoe asked, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, deliberately avoiding Henry's eye as he glanced over to her.
"Why don't you ask Porter what the reason is? She knows!"
She snapped, Zoe could hear her breath through the metal.
"Well I can't...can I? Unless you let me in."
Zoe shouted back, Henry moved over, reaching out to her.
"Fire team are on their way."
He murmured, Zoe shook his hand from her arm, her face turning from his.
"What so you can let them all in, get me down the block? Rule 47, subsection 16..."
Zoe heard another voice from inside the cell for the first time, the breathy hoarse whisper of another woman.
"If you let me in, all I will do is help whoever is injured. No one else will come in...I promise."
She lowered her voice but Henry heard anyway.
"Zoe..."
His voice was low, his hand reaching for her again, but he paused as the rag was pulled from the peep hole, they watched as the clouded blue eye reappeared.
"I just want to understand why you're doing this...what do you want?"
Zoe spoke, despite Henry's firm grip on her forearm.
"Yeah? What I want, is for him to sign a true confession saying he's a rapist, right?"
The words were spoken with an oddly cool calm, the eye still watching them, flicking briefly to Henry.
"And that's why I slashed him. To get him off me."
She moved away from the door as she spoke, Zoe saw her face again, there were tears in her eyes, of anger, of sadness, hysteria? She couldn't tell.
"She knows. I told her what he's like but she didn't believe me."
The woman gestured to whoever was in the corner of her cell.
"Well, if you're not going to let me in then at let me tell you what to do so that you can help to keep him alive. If what you're saying is true, and it was self defence then you'll do that...to help your case."
Zoe saw the resolve of the woman behind the door waver, felt Henry's grip tighten even further.
"Zoe..."
He spoke again, but still she refused to acknowledge him.
"I want you to give him your bed sheet so that he can press it against his wounds to stop the bleeding. The woman too if she is injured."
Zoe continued, watching as the prisoner retreated further, a look of panic flustering her usually calm expression.
"That would prove to us that you weren't intending to kill him..."
She paused.
"Would you do that?"
She asked, watching the woman pace to and fro from the bed as if contemplating her next move. Eventually she stopped, reached down and took hold of the bedding from the bed, tossing one sheet to one corner, another to the other.
"Done it..."
The woman looked back at them through the peep hole, exhaustion now seeming to over come her, Zoe took her chance.
"Now, if you just let me in, I can treat them and that will be the end of it."
She tried but the woman smirked at her, shaking her head softly.
"Ok...well will you at least give them something to wrap around their shoulders...they need something to keep them warm."
Henry let go of her as she spoke, apparently being summoned away by the police officer.
"Make him a coffee while I'm at it shall I?"
The woman snarled, taking hold of the duvet and throwing it in the general direction of one of the victims.
"Now you tell them I want him to sign a confession."
She moved with ease, jumping up onto the bed and down onto the hard cold floor below, Zoe saw as she did her pyjamas were blood stained and her feet bare.
"So that's your condition for letting them out is it?"
Zoe asked, backing away from the door slightly, remembering the words from earlier, don't place your face near the peep hole...
"No...I've got to have more than that..."
Zoe watched the woman begin to panic slightly, glancing back over her shoulder she could see Henry nodding in agreement to whatever was being arranged.
"I've got to have compensation or something. Being woken up with him on top of me..."
She raised her hand to gesture to the prison officer somewhere out of sight, but as she did Zoe caught sight of the shard of glass she held in her hand, shining and wet with blood.
"Just tell me what it is that you want..."
Zoe lowered her voice, sensing she didn't have much time.
"What..."
The woman looked at her, a smile beginning to surface.
"You mean I can have whatever I want?"
She asked.
"If I can get it for you..."
Zoe looked at her, her brown eyes levelling with the sharp blue eyes before her.
"Phone cards. $100 worth of phone cards...and whatever I want from the kitchen. And some paper...and a pen so he can sign his confession."
Zoe nodded as she spoke, glancing behind her.
"We've made a note of your requests...now I just need you to clear the door so that we can pass them through to you."
She winced inwardly as she lied, knowing full well it wouldn't be believed.
"My name's Shell, not Stupid..."
The woman almost laughed, rolling her eyes, mascara smudged below them.
"Ok, Shell..."
"No, listen..."
Shell cut her off.
"I'll send a swinger down and you can send it up to me through the window."
She decided, already she was pulling the under sheet off of her bed and ripping it into a long thin piece of fabric to lower down from the window.
"Ok, but let's just get this absolutely clear. If we get the things you've asked for to you then you agree to let me in there to see to the casualties, and if needs be, get them to hospital where they can be treated?"
Zoe spoke slowly as if addressing a child, Shell watched her intently.
"Yeah...I'll think about it..."
She glanced towards the window behind her, tugging a knot into the end of the swinger.
"No, you have to make a clear promise."
Zoe bit her lip, she could feel it beginning to tremble, could feel Henry beginning to make his way back over to her.
The noise from below seemed to quieten only a tiny bit, she could hear the unmistakeable sound of more armed officers entering the wing.
"Ok..."
Shell finally gave her word, swinging the piece of fabric to and fro.
"So we've got a deal then, yes?"
Zoe asked again, just to make sure.
Shell held up her hands, widening her eyes.
"Yes!"
She hissed.
"Ok, now I'm going to step away from the door and give the list to someone who can deal with it. I'll let you know when to drop the swinger down."
Zoe watched as Shell nodded again, she was chewing on her lip, glancing from corner to corner of the room.
Zoe stepped away from the door as Henry neared her.
"She's agreed to let me in if we give her. What she wants. I've given her the power, I think I can get her to trust me..."
Henry glanced over his shoulder, the women were being hauled one by one from the stairs, armed police forcing their way up, the gate to their landing opened and the police, holding a long metal battering ram stepped onto the landing.
"What are they doing?"
She asked, watching as they stopped to talk to the guard briefly.
The police were dressed in thick black uniforms, their black helmets gleamed, shields masking their faces as they moved toward the door.
"Zoe, she's a convict...you can't reason with her."
Henry took hold of Zoe's arm once again, pulling her back away from the door, his fingernails scratching the top layer of her skin.
"Just let me talk to her before..."
Henry cut her off again, pushing her further from the door with his full body weight so that she stumbled on the metal grate flooring.
The police officers moved to position themselves in front of the door.
"What if she's in front of it!?"
Zoe shouted, her voice muffled by the retching and vomiting of bodies below.
Before she could move the battering ram was heaved back and sent with a violent jolt into the door, it juddered on it's hinges, sending puffs of grey dust into the air.
They heaved it against the door a second time, the smack of metal hurting their ears, the dust making them cough. The door fell inwards on it's hinges, resting against the book case that Shell had pushed against it. Hair rollers and books fluttered to the. The armed police moved in before Zoe had time to realise what was happening.
She heard Shell scream, the guttural hoarse scream of terror as the riot shields forced her against the wall, crushing her into the cold brick, holding her tight, squashed like a swatted fly, blood gradually blooming against the shield from her mouth.
Zoe turned away, as Henry moved in, finding her body suddenly numb, unmoving.
She could hear him speaking, hear him shouting her name. She saw them lift the body of a man, he was alive, but barely, and then the limp lifeless body of a woman, she caught sight of her as she passed, the curled dark hair, soft coffee coloured skin.
"Bette..."
She whispered.
More very soon, I am still battling with my 3 year old! Reviews to keep me going very welcome! xxx
