Part Seventy One
Karen's appointment with Jo was for eleven o'clock on the Monday morning following her phone call. Once the officers meeting was out of the way, Karen went back to her office and tried to do some work. But the figures kept swimming out of focus on the screen in front of her. She lit one cigarette after another, and only just resisted drinking endless cups of coffee. She was nervous enough without the caffeine making her jittery as well. Both Sylvia and Di seemed to appear at her door with a never-ending stream of inconsequential problems that morning and Karen couldn't help snapping at both of them. At almost ten, she gave in and phoned Yvonne.
"Are you okay?" Asked Yvonne on realising it was Karen.
"No. I'm snapping at everyone, smoking too much and not doing anything useful, and that's before I even go there. I promised myself I wouldn't do this, but please would you come with me?"
"Of course I will," Replied Yvonne.
"The thing is, Jo's going to want every little insignificant detail, and I'm not sure how ready I am for you to hear most of that. When I told you about this, you got only what I thought you needed to know."
"Listen," Said Yvonne gently, attempting to calm Karen down. "I know there's things about all this that I don't know, and only you can decide if and when you want to fill me in. But if all you want today is for me to come with you and wait outside, then that's fine. Okay?"
"Yeah, okay. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You'd probably have a very quiet but a very boring life," Said Yvonne matter-of-factly, which made Karen laugh.
After talking to Yvonne, Karen knew there was one thing she had to do before leaving to see Jo. Walking down to the wing, she knocked on the partially open door of Denny's cell and was relieved to see that she was alone. Denny appeared pleased to see her.
"I thought you might like to know," Said Karen, coming in and pushing the door too, "That I'm off to see my barrister."
"Yeah? That's great. You're gonna nail him, Miss."
"Don't get your hopes up too high," Warned Karen, "It's not always as simple as it sounds. What are you doing?" She asked, looking at what Denny was reading.
"I borrowed this off Tina," Replied Denny, holding up the education department's prospectus of the courses they had on offer at Larkhall. "only, I don't really understand most of it."
"Would you like me to go through it with you some time this week?"
"Would you, Miss?"
"Of course."
"Cheers, and good luck for today. They've got to listen to you, innit."
"Let's hope so," Said Karen as she left Denny's cell. Quickly putting her head round the door of the officers' room, Karen saw Jim and Sylvia taking a break.
"I've got an appointment so I won't be around for a while."
"Anywhere nice?" Asked Fenner, for once sounding genuinely interested.
"The dentist," Replied Karen off the top of her head. As she was closing the door, she heard Sylvia say,
"Let's hope she gets her jaw wired up. That'd give us all a bit of peace." Leaning back in to the room, Karen replied,
"You never know your luck, Sylvia," Which was followed by a hearty laugh from Fenner and the hint of a blush from Sylvia at being caught in slagging off her boss.
Walking out of the gate lodge a short time later, Karen was relieved to see Yvonne waiting for her, not in the red Ferrari, but in a beautiful silver-gray jag that Karen had seen in Yvonne's drive. At Karen's questioning look, Yvonne said,
"It used to be Charlie's. It hasn't been driven for a while so I thought it would do it good."
"Don't let Fenner see you round here driving this," Said Karen, with a sly grin, "It'd make him as jealous as hell and even more difficult to work with."
"Well, let's hope by doing this that you can finally put him out of action for good," Said Yvonne softly.
"Do you really think I'm doing the right thing?" Asked Karen, needing the reassurance that she usually doled out to others.
"Yes," Said Yvonne emphatically. "If for nothing else than that you won't be able to move on from this until you've done all you possibly can to see that he doesn't do it again."
As they walked in to the reception of the law firm Jo worked for, Karen felt a rising panic in her, a feeling, a warning that she really shouldn't do this. But telling herself this was stupid, she walked purposefully to the desk and informed the receptionist who she was there to see. Having been told to take a seat, they moved to a row of very comfortable-looking armchairs.
"I feel like I'm about to have major surgery," Observed Karen quietly.
"I guess you are in a way," Replied Yvonne, not entirely sure how best to help Karen through this. Then, they were approached by a very pretty redhead who introduced herself as Jo Mills' secretary and asked Karen to follow her. Giving Karen's hand a brief squeeze, Yvonne said,
"Don't worry, I'll be right here." Following this extremely attractive woman upstairs, Karen was led along a corridor to an open door where Jo was waiting for her.
"Come in," She said, holding the door open. Everything about Karen, her posture, her facial expression, gave off rigidity and fear. "Would you like some coffee?" She asked.
"No thank you. I'm nervous enough about this without caffeine."
"That's only natural." Jo had a couple of low armchairs by the window with a coffee table between them, on which she had placed an ashtray. Jo usually tried to avoid sitting at her desk when she had to have this type of meeting with a client. She found that the barrier of a desk often made her clients feel more vulnerable, as if they didn't entirely have her support in what was usually a stressful time.
"I have managed to obtain a copy of your statement to the police," Began Jo once they'd sat down.
"That was quick," Observed Karen.
"An ex-Deputy Assistant Commissioner owed me a favour," Replied Jo, thinking briefly of how Roe Colmore had used both her and John, and that if necessary, this wouldn't be the first time she called in part of the recompense due to both of them.
"And did it make interesting reading?"
"Yes. Now, I know this isn't something you will be in favour of doing, but I need to hear what happened in your own words. If you're serious about taking this further, I need to know everything."
"I know," Said Karen, digging for her cigarettes.
"I purposefully arranged this for my last appointment of the morning to give you as much time as you need."
"How much background do you need on him?"
"As much as you can tell me. It doesn't matter how irrelevant it might seem." Jo reached over to her desk for a tiny cassette recorder. "You have a choice," She said, putting the recorder down on the table between them. "I can either tape this and write it up afterwards, or I can take notes as you talk. Which would you prefer?" Karen privately thought that neither would be the right answer, but agreed to her interview being taped.
"I met Fenner about four years ago. We were at a conference together, some prison officers thing. He was charm personified. He'd been in the job about twelve years and I'd been a prison officer for about eight. I'd mostly worked with men, he with women. He seemed intelligent, experienced at the job, just normal. Anyway, most of us got fairly plastered on the last night of the conference, and me and Jim ended up sleeping together. I was bored with my relationship of five years, and he was bored with his marriage. It was a one night stand, no more no less. I didn't see or hear from him again until I got the job at Larkhall. He was acting wing governor whilst Helen Stewart was on holiday. He seemed pleased to see me. Surprised, but pleased. He tried to take me out for a drink, but not wanting anything to interfere with a working relationship, I said no. Then, Shell Dockley alleged that he'd beaten her up. I saw her straight after it'd happened, so I know he did. He was suspended, but as a result of Simon Stubberfield, the then number one not wanting to thoroughly investigate the matter, Helen Stewart resigned. Somehow, Fenner got at Dockley. I don't know how, but I suspect one of the other officers, Sylvia Hollamby brought in a letter from him, after which, Dockley dropped the charges."
"What explanation did she give?"
"She said she'd made it up because he wouldn't sleep with her. I've never been able to get the entire truth out of her about what happened that day. So, when Helen Stewart resigned, I was made wing governor. Not long after his return, I was certainly glad of his help when an HIV positive inmate came after me with a syringe of her blood." Jo tried not to shudder at this. "Snowball Merriman wasn't the first time I'd been held hostage. A lovely girl by the name of Tessa Spall. Working for the CPS, you may have heard of her." Remembering a particularly nasty case some years back, Jo nodded. "Not long after this, Helen Stewart came back as a prison service professional, overseeing a project for women lifers. All was fairly quiet for quite a long time, at least up until a couple of days before he was stabbed." At Jo's raised eyebrow, Karen explained. "One of the officers had a party in the officers' club, and four of the inmates from G wing were there as waitresses. Shell Dockley was one of them. Two days before this party, I'd ended up sleeping with Jim again. He'd just split up from his wife, and I think I felt sorry for him. The more he drank at this party, the more indiscreet he became. During this party, Shell Dockley told me that her initial allegation of Fenner having assaulted her was true. I can only assume that she either realised or had it pointed out to her that there was more than a professional relationship between Jim and me. I'm not sure why, but I believed her. After the party, she smuggled a broken bottle back to her cell, and when he went to lock her up, she somehow persuaded him in to her cell and stabbed him. I don't know exactly what happened but I wish I did. Seeing him lying there, it really shocked me. She held him hostage and wouldn't let us get to him for a good couple of hours. He almost died. Both me and Helen seemed to be on a power trip that night. She pulled rank because Dockley was a lifer and therefore under her jurisdiction, and I sent the heavies in instead of waiting for Helen's more persuasive tactics because it was my wing and my lover. After that night, Helen conducted an internal investigation in to what had happened, but we couldn't get the truth out of Dockley so we had to conclude that he was totally innocent, and that he wasn't in her cell for any remotely nefarious reason. but she did find out that I was sleeping with him, which is why I tried to put him off, relationships at work and all that. But when it comes to women, he's one of the most persistent men I've ever known. It was too easy to slide back in to a relationship with him, too easy to be seduced by his charm." Finding herself disturbingly thinking of John in the same breath as Fenner, Jo hoped Karen would move off her coincidental comparison of the two men. "Not long after he came back, he assaulted Helen Stewart." Karen handed Jo a copy of Helen's report and watched as she read it. When Jo reached the end, Karen continued. "I didn't know about this at the time, but apart from the date on the report, I'm fairly sure I know when it happened. It was the week before three of the inmates escaped. Helen asked me how things were going with Jim. There was something different about her, something I couldn't put my finger on. Jesus, I was completely under his spell. If he hadn't reeled me in so thoroughly, I would have seen it. Every time she was in the same room as him after that, she seemed to exude a mixture of fear and anger, and I never once questioned it." There was such a corrosive air of sheer self-loathing in Karen's voice that inwardly, Jo winced. "I didn't find out about the assault until she resigned and left a copy of that report on my desk. I don't know why she left, but I'm certain Fenner had something to do with it. He was so happy on the day she left, that he asked me to marry him, and me being the deluded idiot I was, I said yes. But not long after Helen left, me and Jim split up." At Jo's raised eyebrow, Karen said, "You may well ask. I had a lovely little envelope left in my in-tray. It contained a pair of knickers belonging to one of the inmates and a porn mag from his locker. I don't know who put it there, but I think Yvonne instigated it. Someone clearly wanted to tell me just what I was getting in to. Then, Neil Grayling arrived, and demoted me and put Fenner in my place as wing governor. When I began getting closer to Mark Waddle, one of the other officers, Fenner used his position as my boss to try and lecture both of us about relationships at work." At the introduction of Mark's name in to the conversation, Karen's rapid flow of words began to dry up. Sensing they were almost at the heart of the story, Jo simply waited. Karen had to be allowed to tell this in her own way and in her own time. Karen lit another cigarette and Jo became aware that Karen was no longer looking at her.
"It was a week or so after I'd had to deliver a baby for one of the inmates. He'd had a really bad day, had taken more flack from inmates than any of us usually did. I thought he was about to quit the job. When he stormed off the wing, he looked broken. When he was splitting up from his wife, he had a bit of a drink problem, and maybe I thought he was about to go through all that again. He didn't have anyone else to try and pick up the pieces. I went to see him. He was as low as I'd ever seen him." Karen's eyes became fixed on the opposite wall, as if she needed to look at something blank, something that couldn't possibly judge her. "He kept pouring me drinks," She went on, and her voice had taken on the strangled quality that is usually the precursor to tears. "I gave him a hug because he looked so lost. He said I was the best thing that'd ever happened to him and that he cursed himself for losing me. I think I told him I knew he wasn't a quitter, which let's face it, is true. He never has been a quitter, but then maybe that's the problem." Karen was drifting off the subject, but she couldn't help it. Taking a long drag of her cigarette, she willed herself to keep on going. "He started kissing me." Jo got the feeling that every word was being ripped from Karen with as much force and lack of consent as the original act had been. "We were lying on his bed. He began undoing my blouse, and I let him." Karen's eyes were slightly dilated now, as if she could picture the scene taking shape before her. "When he started undoing my skirt, I think I said that I wished I could get him out of my bloody system. He said, why fight it, you know you want me, you can't fake this." Jo could pinpoint the very moment when the tears had risen to Karen's eyes, it was at the utterance of the words, you know you want me. "I said, I don't want this, and he kept insisting that I did. He just wouldn't listen!" Abandoning any hope of keeping up her usual professional facade, Karen allowed the floodgates to open. "I begged him to stop. I told him to let go of me. I kept saying no, but he just held me down and forced me. I couldn't stop him. I just lay there till he fell asleep. Why is it men always do that? All I could think of was what Helen had said to me the last time I saw her. She came to my office to let me know she'd resigned, which is when she left the report on my desk. She said that he'd been playing me since day one and that he was a misogynist bastard. When I questioned this, she said that I was too close and that I couldn't see it. I kept hearing those words as I was getting dressed. She saw straight through him from day one, and I think part of me thought that what he'd done to me was my fault for not listening to her and for not taking her report of sexual assault as far as perhaps I should have done. He woke up just as I was leaving. He tried to stop me getting in to my car and I vaguely remember pushing him in to the hedge and driving off like the devil was after me." Karen seemed to have run out of steam. Jo reached for the box of tissues on her desk and switched off the tape recorder. "I'm sorry," Said Karen, pulling some tissues from the box and wiping her eyes.
"Don't be," Replied Jo softly.
"I usually have more control than this." Jo privately thought that this must be her week for strong women cracking up in her presence. First George, now Karen. She just wondered who would be next. When Karen had calmed down slightly, Jo switched on the tape recorder.
"What made you go to the police?"
"It was Mark. I had to tell him. I was after all supposed to be in a relationship with him. He didn't believe me at first. I've never had anyone look at me the way he did that morning. He said that I expected him to believe me when I didn't believe it myself."
"And did you?"
"I had to," Said Karen, the desperate need to have Jo believe her evident in every word. "Mark wouldn't let it go until I had talked to the police. He implied that I hadn't done so earlier because I wasn't sure whether or not it was rape. After I'd given the police my statement, I had to inform Grayling because of the possible conflict of interest, and you know all about that fiasco."
"Neil Grayling persuaded you to drop the charge because of a fictitious contact at the CPS who supposedly told him they weren't going to take up the case."
"That about sums it up. What I didn't tell either you or the Judge, is that initially, Fenner tried to warn me off taking it further. When I was living with him, he took some pictures of me, pictures that wouldn't have looked out of place in the magazine I was sent from his locker. Using Grayling as his mouthpiece, I was warned that if I did take it further, these pictures would be sent to the press. It was when that threat didn't work that Grayling placed his card of the supposed contact from the CPS."
"Did you try to take this further through area management instead?"
"I was informed that area management wouldn't touch it if the CPS had refused too. Grayling said that they couldn't pre-empt the law."
"And it wasn't long after this that Ritchie Atkins arrived on the scene to further complicate things." Karen laughed mirthlessly.
"A bit of a shambles, isn't it."
"I've seen worse," Replied Jo, switching off the tape recorder and putting it back on her desk, feeling that she'd obtained all the useful information she was going to get out of Karen today.
"How do you feel?" Asked Jo after a moment's silence.
"I don't know," Replied Karen in a hollow voice.
"There are a number of gaps that do need filling in," Went on Jo, "But not today. I need to get my head round all this, and you need to recover slightly before I start playing devil's advocate. Do you object if I use another barrister as a sounding board?"
"No, not at all."
Downstairs in the lobby, Yvonne was reading the paper. Having briefly checked on the stock market to make sure her ever so legal investments were safe for the time being, she turned to the racing pages. Having once owned her own betting shop, she liked to show an interest now and then. But her thoughts kept straying to Karen. Yvonne found that she didn't have the first idea about how to help Karen through this. She knew that it was the right thing to do, Fenner should have been behind his own set of bars years ago. But was pursuing a case that was based on the flimsiest of evidence really worth it. But it was Karen's decision, and she had chosen to try. She was jerked from her musings when she heard a distinctly familiar voice talking to the receptionist. Briefly looking over the top of the paper, she saw it was the Judge himself, the very man who had sent her son to the last place he had ever seen. But she wasn't about to put any blame on this man. He had simply been doing his job in punishing the two guilty people before him.
"I'm sorry, sir, but Mrs. Mills is with a client just now," Said the receptionist who was used to this regular visitor flirting with her. John glanced at his watch.
"I'll wait," He said, and moved over towards where Yvonne was sitting. Taking a seat near her, he looked at what she was reading, the list of horses due to run at Stratford that afternoon.
"I haven't had a bet on a horse for a long time," He said, as a way to open the conversation.
"From what I've heard," Said Yvonne with a smirk, "You just bet on other people's sex lives." Wondering how on earth Yvonne and therefore Karen had known of the bet he'd had with Jo, John had the grace to look a shade uncomfortable. Thinking he had the look of a naughty schoolboy caught with his hand up the gym teacher's skirt, Yvonne laughed, which immediately put him at his ease.
"Female Intuition," She said, pointing to a horse listed for the third race. ""Wins every time."
"I've no doubt," He replied, "But what odds would you give her?"
"Five to one, if some bastard doesn't get in her way."
"A healthy dose of luck wouldn't go amiss either," He observed, liking her ability to have two conversations rolled in to one.
"Are you here to see Jo?"
"Yes. I was at a loose end so I thought I'd bring her lunch," He said, gesturing to the delicatessen bag on the seat beside him.
"Karen isn't the only one who'll need a hefty shot of luck to get through this one," Observed Yvonne, "The prison service is very good at covering its tracks."
"I'm sure they'll both get all the help they need," Replied John, seeing in Yvonne a strength, a force of will that would back Karen up every step of the way.
About ten minutes later they saw Jo and Karen making their way down the stairs.
"What are you planning to do for the rest of the day?" Asked Jo quietly.
"I wasn't making much headway on my budgets this morning, so I hope I'll have more success this afternoon."
"Possibly the only piece of advice I can give you right now," Replied Jo, "Is that being anywhere near Fenner after telling me all that, probably isn't a good idea. I'd take the rest of the day off and give yourself a chance to come to terms with reopening old wounds."
"We'll see," Replied Karen as she caught sight of John and Yvonne. Jo smiled when she saw him.
"Is that for me?" She said, looking at the bag that clearly held lunch.
"Sometimes I wonder if she's more pleased to see me or lunch," Said John, looking between the other two women, attempting to lighten the palpable tension he could feel coming off Karen. Karen simply offered a shaky smile, knowing that if she tried to speak amidst the different variations of support and comfort she could feel coming from these three people, she knew she would cry. Jo hadn't been surprised to see Yvonne, knowing that some people preferred to bring someone with them, and some didn't. Turning to Karen, Jo said,
"Please do what I suggested. I think you need it. I'll call you in a couple of days." As Karen and Yvonne walked out to her car, Jo simply watched them, wondering if justice would ever be served.
Karen's appointment with Jo was for eleven o'clock on the Monday morning following her phone call. Once the officers meeting was out of the way, Karen went back to her office and tried to do some work. But the figures kept swimming out of focus on the screen in front of her. She lit one cigarette after another, and only just resisted drinking endless cups of coffee. She was nervous enough without the caffeine making her jittery as well. Both Sylvia and Di seemed to appear at her door with a never-ending stream of inconsequential problems that morning and Karen couldn't help snapping at both of them. At almost ten, she gave in and phoned Yvonne.
"Are you okay?" Asked Yvonne on realising it was Karen.
"No. I'm snapping at everyone, smoking too much and not doing anything useful, and that's before I even go there. I promised myself I wouldn't do this, but please would you come with me?"
"Of course I will," Replied Yvonne.
"The thing is, Jo's going to want every little insignificant detail, and I'm not sure how ready I am for you to hear most of that. When I told you about this, you got only what I thought you needed to know."
"Listen," Said Yvonne gently, attempting to calm Karen down. "I know there's things about all this that I don't know, and only you can decide if and when you want to fill me in. But if all you want today is for me to come with you and wait outside, then that's fine. Okay?"
"Yeah, okay. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You'd probably have a very quiet but a very boring life," Said Yvonne matter-of-factly, which made Karen laugh.
After talking to Yvonne, Karen knew there was one thing she had to do before leaving to see Jo. Walking down to the wing, she knocked on the partially open door of Denny's cell and was relieved to see that she was alone. Denny appeared pleased to see her.
"I thought you might like to know," Said Karen, coming in and pushing the door too, "That I'm off to see my barrister."
"Yeah? That's great. You're gonna nail him, Miss."
"Don't get your hopes up too high," Warned Karen, "It's not always as simple as it sounds. What are you doing?" She asked, looking at what Denny was reading.
"I borrowed this off Tina," Replied Denny, holding up the education department's prospectus of the courses they had on offer at Larkhall. "only, I don't really understand most of it."
"Would you like me to go through it with you some time this week?"
"Would you, Miss?"
"Of course."
"Cheers, and good luck for today. They've got to listen to you, innit."
"Let's hope so," Said Karen as she left Denny's cell. Quickly putting her head round the door of the officers' room, Karen saw Jim and Sylvia taking a break.
"I've got an appointment so I won't be around for a while."
"Anywhere nice?" Asked Fenner, for once sounding genuinely interested.
"The dentist," Replied Karen off the top of her head. As she was closing the door, she heard Sylvia say,
"Let's hope she gets her jaw wired up. That'd give us all a bit of peace." Leaning back in to the room, Karen replied,
"You never know your luck, Sylvia," Which was followed by a hearty laugh from Fenner and the hint of a blush from Sylvia at being caught in slagging off her boss.
Walking out of the gate lodge a short time later, Karen was relieved to see Yvonne waiting for her, not in the red Ferrari, but in a beautiful silver-gray jag that Karen had seen in Yvonne's drive. At Karen's questioning look, Yvonne said,
"It used to be Charlie's. It hasn't been driven for a while so I thought it would do it good."
"Don't let Fenner see you round here driving this," Said Karen, with a sly grin, "It'd make him as jealous as hell and even more difficult to work with."
"Well, let's hope by doing this that you can finally put him out of action for good," Said Yvonne softly.
"Do you really think I'm doing the right thing?" Asked Karen, needing the reassurance that she usually doled out to others.
"Yes," Said Yvonne emphatically. "If for nothing else than that you won't be able to move on from this until you've done all you possibly can to see that he doesn't do it again."
As they walked in to the reception of the law firm Jo worked for, Karen felt a rising panic in her, a feeling, a warning that she really shouldn't do this. But telling herself this was stupid, she walked purposefully to the desk and informed the receptionist who she was there to see. Having been told to take a seat, they moved to a row of very comfortable-looking armchairs.
"I feel like I'm about to have major surgery," Observed Karen quietly.
"I guess you are in a way," Replied Yvonne, not entirely sure how best to help Karen through this. Then, they were approached by a very pretty redhead who introduced herself as Jo Mills' secretary and asked Karen to follow her. Giving Karen's hand a brief squeeze, Yvonne said,
"Don't worry, I'll be right here." Following this extremely attractive woman upstairs, Karen was led along a corridor to an open door where Jo was waiting for her.
"Come in," She said, holding the door open. Everything about Karen, her posture, her facial expression, gave off rigidity and fear. "Would you like some coffee?" She asked.
"No thank you. I'm nervous enough about this without caffeine."
"That's only natural." Jo had a couple of low armchairs by the window with a coffee table between them, on which she had placed an ashtray. Jo usually tried to avoid sitting at her desk when she had to have this type of meeting with a client. She found that the barrier of a desk often made her clients feel more vulnerable, as if they didn't entirely have her support in what was usually a stressful time.
"I have managed to obtain a copy of your statement to the police," Began Jo once they'd sat down.
"That was quick," Observed Karen.
"An ex-Deputy Assistant Commissioner owed me a favour," Replied Jo, thinking briefly of how Roe Colmore had used both her and John, and that if necessary, this wouldn't be the first time she called in part of the recompense due to both of them.
"And did it make interesting reading?"
"Yes. Now, I know this isn't something you will be in favour of doing, but I need to hear what happened in your own words. If you're serious about taking this further, I need to know everything."
"I know," Said Karen, digging for her cigarettes.
"I purposefully arranged this for my last appointment of the morning to give you as much time as you need."
"How much background do you need on him?"
"As much as you can tell me. It doesn't matter how irrelevant it might seem." Jo reached over to her desk for a tiny cassette recorder. "You have a choice," She said, putting the recorder down on the table between them. "I can either tape this and write it up afterwards, or I can take notes as you talk. Which would you prefer?" Karen privately thought that neither would be the right answer, but agreed to her interview being taped.
"I met Fenner about four years ago. We were at a conference together, some prison officers thing. He was charm personified. He'd been in the job about twelve years and I'd been a prison officer for about eight. I'd mostly worked with men, he with women. He seemed intelligent, experienced at the job, just normal. Anyway, most of us got fairly plastered on the last night of the conference, and me and Jim ended up sleeping together. I was bored with my relationship of five years, and he was bored with his marriage. It was a one night stand, no more no less. I didn't see or hear from him again until I got the job at Larkhall. He was acting wing governor whilst Helen Stewart was on holiday. He seemed pleased to see me. Surprised, but pleased. He tried to take me out for a drink, but not wanting anything to interfere with a working relationship, I said no. Then, Shell Dockley alleged that he'd beaten her up. I saw her straight after it'd happened, so I know he did. He was suspended, but as a result of Simon Stubberfield, the then number one not wanting to thoroughly investigate the matter, Helen Stewart resigned. Somehow, Fenner got at Dockley. I don't know how, but I suspect one of the other officers, Sylvia Hollamby brought in a letter from him, after which, Dockley dropped the charges."
"What explanation did she give?"
"She said she'd made it up because he wouldn't sleep with her. I've never been able to get the entire truth out of her about what happened that day. So, when Helen Stewart resigned, I was made wing governor. Not long after his return, I was certainly glad of his help when an HIV positive inmate came after me with a syringe of her blood." Jo tried not to shudder at this. "Snowball Merriman wasn't the first time I'd been held hostage. A lovely girl by the name of Tessa Spall. Working for the CPS, you may have heard of her." Remembering a particularly nasty case some years back, Jo nodded. "Not long after this, Helen Stewart came back as a prison service professional, overseeing a project for women lifers. All was fairly quiet for quite a long time, at least up until a couple of days before he was stabbed." At Jo's raised eyebrow, Karen explained. "One of the officers had a party in the officers' club, and four of the inmates from G wing were there as waitresses. Shell Dockley was one of them. Two days before this party, I'd ended up sleeping with Jim again. He'd just split up from his wife, and I think I felt sorry for him. The more he drank at this party, the more indiscreet he became. During this party, Shell Dockley told me that her initial allegation of Fenner having assaulted her was true. I can only assume that she either realised or had it pointed out to her that there was more than a professional relationship between Jim and me. I'm not sure why, but I believed her. After the party, she smuggled a broken bottle back to her cell, and when he went to lock her up, she somehow persuaded him in to her cell and stabbed him. I don't know exactly what happened but I wish I did. Seeing him lying there, it really shocked me. She held him hostage and wouldn't let us get to him for a good couple of hours. He almost died. Both me and Helen seemed to be on a power trip that night. She pulled rank because Dockley was a lifer and therefore under her jurisdiction, and I sent the heavies in instead of waiting for Helen's more persuasive tactics because it was my wing and my lover. After that night, Helen conducted an internal investigation in to what had happened, but we couldn't get the truth out of Dockley so we had to conclude that he was totally innocent, and that he wasn't in her cell for any remotely nefarious reason. but she did find out that I was sleeping with him, which is why I tried to put him off, relationships at work and all that. But when it comes to women, he's one of the most persistent men I've ever known. It was too easy to slide back in to a relationship with him, too easy to be seduced by his charm." Finding herself disturbingly thinking of John in the same breath as Fenner, Jo hoped Karen would move off her coincidental comparison of the two men. "Not long after he came back, he assaulted Helen Stewart." Karen handed Jo a copy of Helen's report and watched as she read it. When Jo reached the end, Karen continued. "I didn't know about this at the time, but apart from the date on the report, I'm fairly sure I know when it happened. It was the week before three of the inmates escaped. Helen asked me how things were going with Jim. There was something different about her, something I couldn't put my finger on. Jesus, I was completely under his spell. If he hadn't reeled me in so thoroughly, I would have seen it. Every time she was in the same room as him after that, she seemed to exude a mixture of fear and anger, and I never once questioned it." There was such a corrosive air of sheer self-loathing in Karen's voice that inwardly, Jo winced. "I didn't find out about the assault until she resigned and left a copy of that report on my desk. I don't know why she left, but I'm certain Fenner had something to do with it. He was so happy on the day she left, that he asked me to marry him, and me being the deluded idiot I was, I said yes. But not long after Helen left, me and Jim split up." At Jo's raised eyebrow, Karen said, "You may well ask. I had a lovely little envelope left in my in-tray. It contained a pair of knickers belonging to one of the inmates and a porn mag from his locker. I don't know who put it there, but I think Yvonne instigated it. Someone clearly wanted to tell me just what I was getting in to. Then, Neil Grayling arrived, and demoted me and put Fenner in my place as wing governor. When I began getting closer to Mark Waddle, one of the other officers, Fenner used his position as my boss to try and lecture both of us about relationships at work." At the introduction of Mark's name in to the conversation, Karen's rapid flow of words began to dry up. Sensing they were almost at the heart of the story, Jo simply waited. Karen had to be allowed to tell this in her own way and in her own time. Karen lit another cigarette and Jo became aware that Karen was no longer looking at her.
"It was a week or so after I'd had to deliver a baby for one of the inmates. He'd had a really bad day, had taken more flack from inmates than any of us usually did. I thought he was about to quit the job. When he stormed off the wing, he looked broken. When he was splitting up from his wife, he had a bit of a drink problem, and maybe I thought he was about to go through all that again. He didn't have anyone else to try and pick up the pieces. I went to see him. He was as low as I'd ever seen him." Karen's eyes became fixed on the opposite wall, as if she needed to look at something blank, something that couldn't possibly judge her. "He kept pouring me drinks," She went on, and her voice had taken on the strangled quality that is usually the precursor to tears. "I gave him a hug because he looked so lost. He said I was the best thing that'd ever happened to him and that he cursed himself for losing me. I think I told him I knew he wasn't a quitter, which let's face it, is true. He never has been a quitter, but then maybe that's the problem." Karen was drifting off the subject, but she couldn't help it. Taking a long drag of her cigarette, she willed herself to keep on going. "He started kissing me." Jo got the feeling that every word was being ripped from Karen with as much force and lack of consent as the original act had been. "We were lying on his bed. He began undoing my blouse, and I let him." Karen's eyes were slightly dilated now, as if she could picture the scene taking shape before her. "When he started undoing my skirt, I think I said that I wished I could get him out of my bloody system. He said, why fight it, you know you want me, you can't fake this." Jo could pinpoint the very moment when the tears had risen to Karen's eyes, it was at the utterance of the words, you know you want me. "I said, I don't want this, and he kept insisting that I did. He just wouldn't listen!" Abandoning any hope of keeping up her usual professional facade, Karen allowed the floodgates to open. "I begged him to stop. I told him to let go of me. I kept saying no, but he just held me down and forced me. I couldn't stop him. I just lay there till he fell asleep. Why is it men always do that? All I could think of was what Helen had said to me the last time I saw her. She came to my office to let me know she'd resigned, which is when she left the report on my desk. She said that he'd been playing me since day one and that he was a misogynist bastard. When I questioned this, she said that I was too close and that I couldn't see it. I kept hearing those words as I was getting dressed. She saw straight through him from day one, and I think part of me thought that what he'd done to me was my fault for not listening to her and for not taking her report of sexual assault as far as perhaps I should have done. He woke up just as I was leaving. He tried to stop me getting in to my car and I vaguely remember pushing him in to the hedge and driving off like the devil was after me." Karen seemed to have run out of steam. Jo reached for the box of tissues on her desk and switched off the tape recorder. "I'm sorry," Said Karen, pulling some tissues from the box and wiping her eyes.
"Don't be," Replied Jo softly.
"I usually have more control than this." Jo privately thought that this must be her week for strong women cracking up in her presence. First George, now Karen. She just wondered who would be next. When Karen had calmed down slightly, Jo switched on the tape recorder.
"What made you go to the police?"
"It was Mark. I had to tell him. I was after all supposed to be in a relationship with him. He didn't believe me at first. I've never had anyone look at me the way he did that morning. He said that I expected him to believe me when I didn't believe it myself."
"And did you?"
"I had to," Said Karen, the desperate need to have Jo believe her evident in every word. "Mark wouldn't let it go until I had talked to the police. He implied that I hadn't done so earlier because I wasn't sure whether or not it was rape. After I'd given the police my statement, I had to inform Grayling because of the possible conflict of interest, and you know all about that fiasco."
"Neil Grayling persuaded you to drop the charge because of a fictitious contact at the CPS who supposedly told him they weren't going to take up the case."
"That about sums it up. What I didn't tell either you or the Judge, is that initially, Fenner tried to warn me off taking it further. When I was living with him, he took some pictures of me, pictures that wouldn't have looked out of place in the magazine I was sent from his locker. Using Grayling as his mouthpiece, I was warned that if I did take it further, these pictures would be sent to the press. It was when that threat didn't work that Grayling placed his card of the supposed contact from the CPS."
"Did you try to take this further through area management instead?"
"I was informed that area management wouldn't touch it if the CPS had refused too. Grayling said that they couldn't pre-empt the law."
"And it wasn't long after this that Ritchie Atkins arrived on the scene to further complicate things." Karen laughed mirthlessly.
"A bit of a shambles, isn't it."
"I've seen worse," Replied Jo, switching off the tape recorder and putting it back on her desk, feeling that she'd obtained all the useful information she was going to get out of Karen today.
"How do you feel?" Asked Jo after a moment's silence.
"I don't know," Replied Karen in a hollow voice.
"There are a number of gaps that do need filling in," Went on Jo, "But not today. I need to get my head round all this, and you need to recover slightly before I start playing devil's advocate. Do you object if I use another barrister as a sounding board?"
"No, not at all."
Downstairs in the lobby, Yvonne was reading the paper. Having briefly checked on the stock market to make sure her ever so legal investments were safe for the time being, she turned to the racing pages. Having once owned her own betting shop, she liked to show an interest now and then. But her thoughts kept straying to Karen. Yvonne found that she didn't have the first idea about how to help Karen through this. She knew that it was the right thing to do, Fenner should have been behind his own set of bars years ago. But was pursuing a case that was based on the flimsiest of evidence really worth it. But it was Karen's decision, and she had chosen to try. She was jerked from her musings when she heard a distinctly familiar voice talking to the receptionist. Briefly looking over the top of the paper, she saw it was the Judge himself, the very man who had sent her son to the last place he had ever seen. But she wasn't about to put any blame on this man. He had simply been doing his job in punishing the two guilty people before him.
"I'm sorry, sir, but Mrs. Mills is with a client just now," Said the receptionist who was used to this regular visitor flirting with her. John glanced at his watch.
"I'll wait," He said, and moved over towards where Yvonne was sitting. Taking a seat near her, he looked at what she was reading, the list of horses due to run at Stratford that afternoon.
"I haven't had a bet on a horse for a long time," He said, as a way to open the conversation.
"From what I've heard," Said Yvonne with a smirk, "You just bet on other people's sex lives." Wondering how on earth Yvonne and therefore Karen had known of the bet he'd had with Jo, John had the grace to look a shade uncomfortable. Thinking he had the look of a naughty schoolboy caught with his hand up the gym teacher's skirt, Yvonne laughed, which immediately put him at his ease.
"Female Intuition," She said, pointing to a horse listed for the third race. ""Wins every time."
"I've no doubt," He replied, "But what odds would you give her?"
"Five to one, if some bastard doesn't get in her way."
"A healthy dose of luck wouldn't go amiss either," He observed, liking her ability to have two conversations rolled in to one.
"Are you here to see Jo?"
"Yes. I was at a loose end so I thought I'd bring her lunch," He said, gesturing to the delicatessen bag on the seat beside him.
"Karen isn't the only one who'll need a hefty shot of luck to get through this one," Observed Yvonne, "The prison service is very good at covering its tracks."
"I'm sure they'll both get all the help they need," Replied John, seeing in Yvonne a strength, a force of will that would back Karen up every step of the way.
About ten minutes later they saw Jo and Karen making their way down the stairs.
"What are you planning to do for the rest of the day?" Asked Jo quietly.
"I wasn't making much headway on my budgets this morning, so I hope I'll have more success this afternoon."
"Possibly the only piece of advice I can give you right now," Replied Jo, "Is that being anywhere near Fenner after telling me all that, probably isn't a good idea. I'd take the rest of the day off and give yourself a chance to come to terms with reopening old wounds."
"We'll see," Replied Karen as she caught sight of John and Yvonne. Jo smiled when she saw him.
"Is that for me?" She said, looking at the bag that clearly held lunch.
"Sometimes I wonder if she's more pleased to see me or lunch," Said John, looking between the other two women, attempting to lighten the palpable tension he could feel coming off Karen. Karen simply offered a shaky smile, knowing that if she tried to speak amidst the different variations of support and comfort she could feel coming from these three people, she knew she would cry. Jo hadn't been surprised to see Yvonne, knowing that some people preferred to bring someone with them, and some didn't. Turning to Karen, Jo said,
"Please do what I suggested. I think you need it. I'll call you in a couple of days." As Karen and Yvonne walked out to her car, Jo simply watched them, wondering if justice would ever be served.