Part Twenty
Sitting in their places in the Gods, Sir Ian and Lawrence James were already starting to feel 'saddle sore' from prolonged sitting in the back row of the gallery and to wish that they were back in the comparative luxury of their offices at the LCD. This was their most abiding memory of the Atkins/Pilkinton trial and now they were going through the same painful process but at least this time around, the case must surely go in favour of the Crown. Even Deed couldn't be that perverse, could he?
They were mildly surprised to see a striking looking black woman with long plaited hair and colourful, flowing robes walk down the aisle from the top of the gallery. Surprise turned into total bemusement when she took her place in the hecklers section of the gallery along the front row and started chatting to the well-dressed white middle class women. What on earth could she have in common with them?
"The Lord will protect Lauren…..and a good barrister," They overheard her say in her decided Caribbean accent.
"Don't worry, Crystal," the tall slim, short haired woman next to her answered in her educated accent. "She's got the best that there is going." The trial started promptly at two as everyone shuffled into their appointed places and the background chatter to fizzle out as John resumed the trial.
On the witness stand, Di Barker took the Bible in her hand rather nervously. She had accompanied prisoners before on guard duty while she stood to the side of them. She had felt secure that questions would not be asked of her and that she watched the cross-examinations from a certain emotional detachment and distance. It was quite another matter to be in the witness stand. She knew what needed saying and how people reacted to her. Her brown curly hair framed her face, mask-like in its plain innocence and helped by her believable solid down to earth northern accent. However, she was determined to tell her version of the truth and her eyes flitted round the court somehow avoiding looking upwards too much.
"Miss Barker, can you explain to the court what James Fenner was like, both professionally and personally." Neumann Mason-Alan was determined to let Miss Goody Two Shoes paint a glowing portrait of James Fenner and, judging from her conversations in advance, the man seemed to be a pillar of the Prison Service. It didn't matter greatly how much he personally believed so long as a convincing story could be told to win over the jury.
"Jim Fenner was one of the finest prison officers that I've ever worked with," Di spoke in rugged, emotional tones with that especially convincing 'soul's awakening' look in her faraway eyes and an open smile. "He was the longest serving officer on G Wing and what he didn't know about looking after prisoners isn't worth knowing. He was always there to lend a helping hand to the new PO who's dead nervous and wondering if she's going to be able to cope." Selena stood to one side of Lauren on prisoner duty with a polite blank expression on her face. Inwardly she cringed at Di Barker, wondering how she could come out with all this self deluded rubbish. Helen and Karen both glared openly, knowing full well that his help was bought at the price of a stealthy and insidious corruption that oozed from him.
"He had years of jailcraft behind him." The automatically uttered words from her memory bank, carefully placed there by the dead man with his grip on the living. "He was someone that you trusted, who you looked up to if there was a crisis. He made you believe in yourself when he was around. It sounds daft but I still miss him after all these months. The chair where he used to sit still in the prison officer's room looks as if he should be there." Karen and Helen both felt this murderous rage well up inside them, choking them from being able to shout it out in words. It was just as well as only the worst obscenities could possibly exorcise their feelings, The voice of Fenner spoke through this woman who sounded drugged or hypnotised as if someone had taken over her mind. Nikki, next to them, could see that their hands locked onto the rail as if they were round Fenner's throat. Karen was the angrier of the two as something in Di's manner reminded her of someone she knew only too well.
"Hey, you two, take it easy," Nikki's quiet voice cut in. curiously, she was calmer than the other two, only because she had never worked with Fenner. To her, the absurdity of the evidence distanced itself from her emotionally. "Sit tight and see what happens when Jo Mills gets to rip that stupid bitch apart." It was only in her last few words that her own suppressed anger leaked through but focussed on the future.
"Was there anything that James Fenner did that was outstanding, that really stood out?" "Yeah, come to think of it, there was. I remember that there was a bit of a mix up and a dangerous prisoner got to hold the Wing Governor, Karen Betts, hostage. Tessa Spall held a syringe of her HIV blood to Karen's face. In fact she's in the gallery up there, first row at the end."
For the first time, Di Barker glanced up at Karen with a faint self-satisfied smile on her face. In a sickening moment those hated words of Fenner came back to her, spoken with that slow pace and his hypnotic stare. 'We've saved each other's lives. That's got to mean something.' Yes, he had acted in a thoroughly professional manner, you couldn't fault him, but there was always payback and the worst of it was that she never, never knew she was paying with the first tiny installment on her soul. True, she was redeemed but despite the man, not because of him.
"Can you tell the court exactly what happened?" Neumann Mason-Alan asked in his unctuous tones.
"He told us all what to do while he tried to calm Tessa down. When that didn't work and she tried to make a run for it taking Karen with her, he got hold of a firehose single-handed. The second that Tessa Spall came out of the building and was in the open, he let her have it with the hose. Turned down a medal, he did."
"Did he really do that, Karen? I wasn't at Larkhall then," Helen whispered.
"Yeah, he really did. The devil looks after his own." Karen venomously borrowed the words that Helen had spoken to her clean out of her unconscious. At the time she heard them she had disregarded them as of no particular significance and had forgotten them.
"How did James Fenner get on with the prisoners in his care?" "Generally fine. Of course, every prison has its share of trouble makers…….." "……… So anyone not in his 'fan club' is a trouble maker, is she. Of course, manipulating Babs here against me to think that I was a sex crazed lesbian ready to leap on Babs come lockup doesn't count. Of course, Di Barker knows best, doesn't she." "She'll burn in hell. The Lord hears her bear false witness and he remembers. She will be cast down into hell for her sins," Crystal's somewhat louder voice followed Nikki's more softly spoken sarcasm. The problem was that Crystal was so used to preaching hellfire and damnation in a loud voice that sotto voce preaching was a contradiction in terms.
Despite all their best efforts to keep quiet, the mutterings from the gallery smouldered away with greater intensity so as to cause a background grumbling sound to echo off the hard walls of the courtroom noticeable to John. Crystal's words could be heard loud and clear and were the last straw. Horrified glances were exchanged amongst the rest of the women. They wished they had tipped her off about John Deed.
"I appreciate that visitors in the gallery have their opinions and are trying to be reasonably quiet. However the religious zeal of the last visitor, though suitable for 'Songs of Praise' on a Sunday is not suitable in a court of law. I see that she is new to the gallery and perhaps some of her friends will quietly inform her what I am prepared to do if I consider that anyone is acting in contempt of court, whatever form that contempt takes." "He means it, Crystal," Karen hissed at the other woman. "He'll have you down the block, no messing. He's as tough as anyone, including me." Helen was transfixed by the sheer force of personality that radiated from the man and respected the sheer effortless grip he had of the proceedings. She wished she had known him when she was a young, naïve Wing Governor and she could have borrowed a few lines off him. In turn, Nikki was equally impressed and couldn't help noticing his stylish command of the English language. Before she had been granted real justice from her two appeal court decisions, she had dismissed judges as arrogant pricks, sitting up in their thrones in their antique robes and blind to justice or reason. This guy was different.
"Did James Fenner have any problems with prisoners in his care?" Neuman Mason-Alan asked Di of this paragon of virtue.
"Well, in a prison with women locked up for years, it's only natural for some women to get familiar with male prison officers. But Jim, always had their best interests at heart and the women were comfortable with him and knew not to take advantage of him. That sort of thing does go on, you know." "And where were we, Karen, when Fenner was running g Wing, single handed?" "Oh, don't ask, after all, we're only Wing Governors," Karen's elaborate irony answered Helen's sheer hatred.
"So if anything kicked off, it was all our own fault," Was Nikki's icy verdict.
"Sure, and if a mother had problems in sleeping at night being separated from their kids, he'll help us out," Roisin's angry Irish accent rounded out the chorus of suppressed anger.
"Miss Barker, what was your acquaintance with the defendant?" "Oh, I've seen her lots of times over the years from when she first started visiting her mum, Yvonne Atkins, in Larkhall and I was on prisoner duty. I used to see her sometimes, hanging round outside the gates as well." "Was that before or after the days when she visited her mother?" "I'm not sure but there might have been a few times when I saw her outside and I didn't see later," Di's questioning voice cleverly insinuated all sort of possibilities for the jury to believe in the same way that a tempting morsel floating on the water would cause a curious minded fish to swallow the well baited hook. Unfortunately, she was in the wrong place to play these games.
"Miss Barker, you are a prison officer in the prison service and you ought to know better not to favour us with your speculations but to offer precise hard evidence. The court is not to be trifled with. I am asking you, yes or no, did you or did you not see the defendant on any other days apart from occasions when she visited her mother?" John's diamond hard tones and stony stare were suddenly turned in Di Barker's direction like a searchlight. Di's mouth was suddenly set in a tight, hard line and pulled slightly down at the corners. Her eyes glittered as anger flared up in her at the man who snatched out of her hands the prize which her carefully contrived words were reeling in. A coldly calculating side sensed that her act was slipping. She switched off her anger as if she was flicking a light switch and she manufactured the couple of teardrops to run discreetly down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry, judge, I'm still very upset about Jim and the slightest cross word sets me off this way. This trial brings back memories that I want to forget." She doesn't ring true, thought Jo. Something's wrong.
"Do you want a short break and a glass of water?" "No, no. I'd best carry on ………for Jim's sake," Di's reply timed the pause for maximum effect.
"Can you tell the court specifically what you heard both the defendant and Yvonne Atkins say about James Fenner?" Di searched her mind thoughtfully for her memories and a slight smile spread across her face when a memory came back to her.
"Well, there's one thing I can remember as clear as if I heard it the other day. It was when Jim Fenner was on duty when they were both there and Yvonne Atkins said 'Dockley should've sliced your dick off while she had the chance, Sir.' She really meant it." "Can you repeat what you said for the benefit of the court," Neumann Mason-Alan's smooth voice asked to make the most of this gem. "She said, 'Dockley should've sliced your dick off while she had the chance, Sir.'" "No further questions."
Jo Mills couldn't wait to wade into the attack and the woman had foolishly reached out for a two edged dagger which could cut both ways.
"Miss Barker, how long have you worked at Larkhall prison and, specifically, on G Wing?" "I've been ten years in the service and four years on G Wing after a transfer from H Wing." "Would it be true to say that you know pretty well what goes on in G Wing?" "Well, when you've been around a long time, you get to hear what goes on if you're doing your job." She preened herself and thought that she was getting her points over nicely so that the jury would believe her. "So therefore, Miss Barker, you will know exactly what incident that Yvonne Atkins was alluding to? Can you explain it for the benefit of the court." "Well, I'm not sure. It was some time ago. A lot goes on in a women's prison," She said in confusion as Jo had gently slid the knife in.
"Come on, you have claimed perfect recall of a mere scrap of conversation. You are prevaricating. Was it not true that the allusion was to the incident when Mr. Fenner was stabbed, which item 2D in the bundle of evidence refers to." Jo's very expressive voice was laden with scorn at this pitiful attempt to dodge the issue. She wasn't having any of this.
"Well, it's very complicated. There was a woman called Michelle Dockley whose personal officer was Jim Fenner. She was one of those women who wasn't the sort of woman she appeared to be on the surface. She was never any trouble to begin with and was 'top dog' on the wing." "Meaning?" "An expression that prisoners use to mean the woman who is in charge of the others. They got on well enough to begin with but they eventually had a falling out." "What caused that and in what way did that lead to the stabbing?" "I'm not sure. It may have been at a time when she had some sort of mental breakdown and had to be kept in solitary confinement once. She seemed to get better later on and, as a reward, she was allowed to help out with the most reliable trustworthy girls to serve drinks at a wedding anniversary for one of our long serving prison officers. Anyway, Jim was helping lock them up after the party last thing and Shell Dockley must have sneaked a broken bottle and stabbed him while they were both in her cell. It took us totally by surprise how much she really hated him. It was a terrible evening which I'll remember as long as I live……………….Anyway, that's what Yvonne Atkins was talking about. I hope I've made everything clear." "So it all happened quite out of the blue?" Di ought to have taken warning from the blinding white smile on Jo's face which was a precursor to a lightning fast verbal rapier thrust that verbally pinned the opponent to the back of the witness stand.
"Yeah, that's the way it happened." "How many other prison officers have been attacked in the time you have been on G Wing?" "Well, I can't think off hand," Di's dazed voice feebly answered.
"Come on, as a long standing prison officer, are you really going to say that your memory is that selective, both of what you would have seen or what you would have heard about?" Di swallowed and gazed blankly round, the courtroom going out of focus as her mind froze over in horror. For once in her life when her back was against the wall, her native survival instincts to battle her way out of a tight corner refused to function. The words that came were forced out of her mouth in a mumble. The front row of the gallery was one long grin from end to end while Sir Ian and Lawrence James's stony silence matched the increasingly stony feel of the bench. "None, as it happens." "For the benefit of the court, can you speak a little louder." The steel hard tones cut through her mental fog.
"None." "So the only person who has ever been attacked in all that time was the one man who you describe as the outstanding officer on the wing, the friend of all the prisoners," Jo's sarcastic tones piled on the pressure.
"It was just bad luck," Di shouted back angrily. "It could have happened to anyone." "Except that it never happened to you or anyone else except James Fenner," Came Jo's lightning retort. "Your evidence appears flimsy to say the least from beginning to end." I hope the bastard is somewhere looking down on her and seeing his reputation publicly cut to pieces. That thought, phrased differently, ran through the front row of the gallery as Fenner's reputation was put up on trial and found guilty in his absence. "I had a lot on my mind round then. I used to live with my disabled mum till I had to put her in care as she got too much for me. I was under a lot of stress at the time. The stabbing was not long after all that carry on. Jim Fenner helped me out to cope with my problems and whatever way you try to smear his reputation, I'll always stand up for him as he can't stand up for himself." A fresh thin trickle of tears ran down the lines of her face and her body hunched up. Jo felt a little uncomfortable despite her suspicions. She hadn't got the Brian Cantwell blood lust fox hunting mentality that would tear in regardless for the kill. She allowed her to have a period of grace.
"Are you able to continue to give evidence, Miss Barker?" John called from somewhere well above her as an usher passed her a glass of water at which point Di nodded.
"Let us turn to the defendant, Miss Barker. Did you directly hear her utter any threatening or aggressive words to the deceased?" Di looked vaguely round and her mouth opened slightly. Her mind was sluggish and for the life of her, it failed to conjure up any memory. She was too scared to fabricate any stories till she grabbed blindly at a passing train of thought.
"No but she was bragging about killing Jim Fenner when she came to Larkhall as a prisoner. She made a joke about it to all the other women." "But you said earlier that, apart from a few troublemakers, he was popular with the prisoners. If what you say is true, then surely the defendant would have kept very quiet about what she had done." The front row of the public gallery had the greatest difficulty in bottling down their emotions but this time from a totally opposite direction. Left to themselves, they would have broken into uproarious cheering. "Miss Barker, I think I need not detain you any longer as there is nothing in your testimony that can possibly inspire any confidence in your status as a witness." Mr. Neumann Mason-Alan had sat as still as a carved ebony statue as Jo mills systematically picked apart the evidence of what he had thought of as his expert witness from Larkhall. She had seemed so eager and convincing when he had questioned her before the trial and thought she would be a natural in giving evidence. After all, she had been in court before in her professional capacity.
"Do you wish to reexamine the witness, Mr. Mason-Alan?" He shook his head mutely to John's request. He would have to hope for better fortune later, especially as he could sense the two dark suited officials from the Lord Chancellor's Department sitting like threatening statues in the back of the gallery.
Di Barker tottered out of the witness stand. She had had years of pulling the strings on people and was all the more traumatised by the way that that hated woman blew apart her carefully constructed story and left her hideously exposed. It was other women who were the most dangerous, after all. She would hate her all the more as she nursed her grudge against her but would never be able to do anything about it. That was what made her more angry than anything.
Sitting in their places in the Gods, Sir Ian and Lawrence James were already starting to feel 'saddle sore' from prolonged sitting in the back row of the gallery and to wish that they were back in the comparative luxury of their offices at the LCD. This was their most abiding memory of the Atkins/Pilkinton trial and now they were going through the same painful process but at least this time around, the case must surely go in favour of the Crown. Even Deed couldn't be that perverse, could he?
They were mildly surprised to see a striking looking black woman with long plaited hair and colourful, flowing robes walk down the aisle from the top of the gallery. Surprise turned into total bemusement when she took her place in the hecklers section of the gallery along the front row and started chatting to the well-dressed white middle class women. What on earth could she have in common with them?
"The Lord will protect Lauren…..and a good barrister," They overheard her say in her decided Caribbean accent.
"Don't worry, Crystal," the tall slim, short haired woman next to her answered in her educated accent. "She's got the best that there is going." The trial started promptly at two as everyone shuffled into their appointed places and the background chatter to fizzle out as John resumed the trial.
On the witness stand, Di Barker took the Bible in her hand rather nervously. She had accompanied prisoners before on guard duty while she stood to the side of them. She had felt secure that questions would not be asked of her and that she watched the cross-examinations from a certain emotional detachment and distance. It was quite another matter to be in the witness stand. She knew what needed saying and how people reacted to her. Her brown curly hair framed her face, mask-like in its plain innocence and helped by her believable solid down to earth northern accent. However, she was determined to tell her version of the truth and her eyes flitted round the court somehow avoiding looking upwards too much.
"Miss Barker, can you explain to the court what James Fenner was like, both professionally and personally." Neumann Mason-Alan was determined to let Miss Goody Two Shoes paint a glowing portrait of James Fenner and, judging from her conversations in advance, the man seemed to be a pillar of the Prison Service. It didn't matter greatly how much he personally believed so long as a convincing story could be told to win over the jury.
"Jim Fenner was one of the finest prison officers that I've ever worked with," Di spoke in rugged, emotional tones with that especially convincing 'soul's awakening' look in her faraway eyes and an open smile. "He was the longest serving officer on G Wing and what he didn't know about looking after prisoners isn't worth knowing. He was always there to lend a helping hand to the new PO who's dead nervous and wondering if she's going to be able to cope." Selena stood to one side of Lauren on prisoner duty with a polite blank expression on her face. Inwardly she cringed at Di Barker, wondering how she could come out with all this self deluded rubbish. Helen and Karen both glared openly, knowing full well that his help was bought at the price of a stealthy and insidious corruption that oozed from him.
"He had years of jailcraft behind him." The automatically uttered words from her memory bank, carefully placed there by the dead man with his grip on the living. "He was someone that you trusted, who you looked up to if there was a crisis. He made you believe in yourself when he was around. It sounds daft but I still miss him after all these months. The chair where he used to sit still in the prison officer's room looks as if he should be there." Karen and Helen both felt this murderous rage well up inside them, choking them from being able to shout it out in words. It was just as well as only the worst obscenities could possibly exorcise their feelings, The voice of Fenner spoke through this woman who sounded drugged or hypnotised as if someone had taken over her mind. Nikki, next to them, could see that their hands locked onto the rail as if they were round Fenner's throat. Karen was the angrier of the two as something in Di's manner reminded her of someone she knew only too well.
"Hey, you two, take it easy," Nikki's quiet voice cut in. curiously, she was calmer than the other two, only because she had never worked with Fenner. To her, the absurdity of the evidence distanced itself from her emotionally. "Sit tight and see what happens when Jo Mills gets to rip that stupid bitch apart." It was only in her last few words that her own suppressed anger leaked through but focussed on the future.
"Was there anything that James Fenner did that was outstanding, that really stood out?" "Yeah, come to think of it, there was. I remember that there was a bit of a mix up and a dangerous prisoner got to hold the Wing Governor, Karen Betts, hostage. Tessa Spall held a syringe of her HIV blood to Karen's face. In fact she's in the gallery up there, first row at the end."
For the first time, Di Barker glanced up at Karen with a faint self-satisfied smile on her face. In a sickening moment those hated words of Fenner came back to her, spoken with that slow pace and his hypnotic stare. 'We've saved each other's lives. That's got to mean something.' Yes, he had acted in a thoroughly professional manner, you couldn't fault him, but there was always payback and the worst of it was that she never, never knew she was paying with the first tiny installment on her soul. True, she was redeemed but despite the man, not because of him.
"Can you tell the court exactly what happened?" Neumann Mason-Alan asked in his unctuous tones.
"He told us all what to do while he tried to calm Tessa down. When that didn't work and she tried to make a run for it taking Karen with her, he got hold of a firehose single-handed. The second that Tessa Spall came out of the building and was in the open, he let her have it with the hose. Turned down a medal, he did."
"Did he really do that, Karen? I wasn't at Larkhall then," Helen whispered.
"Yeah, he really did. The devil looks after his own." Karen venomously borrowed the words that Helen had spoken to her clean out of her unconscious. At the time she heard them she had disregarded them as of no particular significance and had forgotten them.
"How did James Fenner get on with the prisoners in his care?" "Generally fine. Of course, every prison has its share of trouble makers…….." "……… So anyone not in his 'fan club' is a trouble maker, is she. Of course, manipulating Babs here against me to think that I was a sex crazed lesbian ready to leap on Babs come lockup doesn't count. Of course, Di Barker knows best, doesn't she." "She'll burn in hell. The Lord hears her bear false witness and he remembers. She will be cast down into hell for her sins," Crystal's somewhat louder voice followed Nikki's more softly spoken sarcasm. The problem was that Crystal was so used to preaching hellfire and damnation in a loud voice that sotto voce preaching was a contradiction in terms.
Despite all their best efforts to keep quiet, the mutterings from the gallery smouldered away with greater intensity so as to cause a background grumbling sound to echo off the hard walls of the courtroom noticeable to John. Crystal's words could be heard loud and clear and were the last straw. Horrified glances were exchanged amongst the rest of the women. They wished they had tipped her off about John Deed.
"I appreciate that visitors in the gallery have their opinions and are trying to be reasonably quiet. However the religious zeal of the last visitor, though suitable for 'Songs of Praise' on a Sunday is not suitable in a court of law. I see that she is new to the gallery and perhaps some of her friends will quietly inform her what I am prepared to do if I consider that anyone is acting in contempt of court, whatever form that contempt takes." "He means it, Crystal," Karen hissed at the other woman. "He'll have you down the block, no messing. He's as tough as anyone, including me." Helen was transfixed by the sheer force of personality that radiated from the man and respected the sheer effortless grip he had of the proceedings. She wished she had known him when she was a young, naïve Wing Governor and she could have borrowed a few lines off him. In turn, Nikki was equally impressed and couldn't help noticing his stylish command of the English language. Before she had been granted real justice from her two appeal court decisions, she had dismissed judges as arrogant pricks, sitting up in their thrones in their antique robes and blind to justice or reason. This guy was different.
"Did James Fenner have any problems with prisoners in his care?" Neuman Mason-Alan asked Di of this paragon of virtue.
"Well, in a prison with women locked up for years, it's only natural for some women to get familiar with male prison officers. But Jim, always had their best interests at heart and the women were comfortable with him and knew not to take advantage of him. That sort of thing does go on, you know." "And where were we, Karen, when Fenner was running g Wing, single handed?" "Oh, don't ask, after all, we're only Wing Governors," Karen's elaborate irony answered Helen's sheer hatred.
"So if anything kicked off, it was all our own fault," Was Nikki's icy verdict.
"Sure, and if a mother had problems in sleeping at night being separated from their kids, he'll help us out," Roisin's angry Irish accent rounded out the chorus of suppressed anger.
"Miss Barker, what was your acquaintance with the defendant?" "Oh, I've seen her lots of times over the years from when she first started visiting her mum, Yvonne Atkins, in Larkhall and I was on prisoner duty. I used to see her sometimes, hanging round outside the gates as well." "Was that before or after the days when she visited her mother?" "I'm not sure but there might have been a few times when I saw her outside and I didn't see later," Di's questioning voice cleverly insinuated all sort of possibilities for the jury to believe in the same way that a tempting morsel floating on the water would cause a curious minded fish to swallow the well baited hook. Unfortunately, she was in the wrong place to play these games.
"Miss Barker, you are a prison officer in the prison service and you ought to know better not to favour us with your speculations but to offer precise hard evidence. The court is not to be trifled with. I am asking you, yes or no, did you or did you not see the defendant on any other days apart from occasions when she visited her mother?" John's diamond hard tones and stony stare were suddenly turned in Di Barker's direction like a searchlight. Di's mouth was suddenly set in a tight, hard line and pulled slightly down at the corners. Her eyes glittered as anger flared up in her at the man who snatched out of her hands the prize which her carefully contrived words were reeling in. A coldly calculating side sensed that her act was slipping. She switched off her anger as if she was flicking a light switch and she manufactured the couple of teardrops to run discreetly down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry, judge, I'm still very upset about Jim and the slightest cross word sets me off this way. This trial brings back memories that I want to forget." She doesn't ring true, thought Jo. Something's wrong.
"Do you want a short break and a glass of water?" "No, no. I'd best carry on ………for Jim's sake," Di's reply timed the pause for maximum effect.
"Can you tell the court specifically what you heard both the defendant and Yvonne Atkins say about James Fenner?" Di searched her mind thoughtfully for her memories and a slight smile spread across her face when a memory came back to her.
"Well, there's one thing I can remember as clear as if I heard it the other day. It was when Jim Fenner was on duty when they were both there and Yvonne Atkins said 'Dockley should've sliced your dick off while she had the chance, Sir.' She really meant it." "Can you repeat what you said for the benefit of the court," Neumann Mason-Alan's smooth voice asked to make the most of this gem. "She said, 'Dockley should've sliced your dick off while she had the chance, Sir.'" "No further questions."
Jo Mills couldn't wait to wade into the attack and the woman had foolishly reached out for a two edged dagger which could cut both ways.
"Miss Barker, how long have you worked at Larkhall prison and, specifically, on G Wing?" "I've been ten years in the service and four years on G Wing after a transfer from H Wing." "Would it be true to say that you know pretty well what goes on in G Wing?" "Well, when you've been around a long time, you get to hear what goes on if you're doing your job." She preened herself and thought that she was getting her points over nicely so that the jury would believe her. "So therefore, Miss Barker, you will know exactly what incident that Yvonne Atkins was alluding to? Can you explain it for the benefit of the court." "Well, I'm not sure. It was some time ago. A lot goes on in a women's prison," She said in confusion as Jo had gently slid the knife in.
"Come on, you have claimed perfect recall of a mere scrap of conversation. You are prevaricating. Was it not true that the allusion was to the incident when Mr. Fenner was stabbed, which item 2D in the bundle of evidence refers to." Jo's very expressive voice was laden with scorn at this pitiful attempt to dodge the issue. She wasn't having any of this.
"Well, it's very complicated. There was a woman called Michelle Dockley whose personal officer was Jim Fenner. She was one of those women who wasn't the sort of woman she appeared to be on the surface. She was never any trouble to begin with and was 'top dog' on the wing." "Meaning?" "An expression that prisoners use to mean the woman who is in charge of the others. They got on well enough to begin with but they eventually had a falling out." "What caused that and in what way did that lead to the stabbing?" "I'm not sure. It may have been at a time when she had some sort of mental breakdown and had to be kept in solitary confinement once. She seemed to get better later on and, as a reward, she was allowed to help out with the most reliable trustworthy girls to serve drinks at a wedding anniversary for one of our long serving prison officers. Anyway, Jim was helping lock them up after the party last thing and Shell Dockley must have sneaked a broken bottle and stabbed him while they were both in her cell. It took us totally by surprise how much she really hated him. It was a terrible evening which I'll remember as long as I live……………….Anyway, that's what Yvonne Atkins was talking about. I hope I've made everything clear." "So it all happened quite out of the blue?" Di ought to have taken warning from the blinding white smile on Jo's face which was a precursor to a lightning fast verbal rapier thrust that verbally pinned the opponent to the back of the witness stand.
"Yeah, that's the way it happened." "How many other prison officers have been attacked in the time you have been on G Wing?" "Well, I can't think off hand," Di's dazed voice feebly answered.
"Come on, as a long standing prison officer, are you really going to say that your memory is that selective, both of what you would have seen or what you would have heard about?" Di swallowed and gazed blankly round, the courtroom going out of focus as her mind froze over in horror. For once in her life when her back was against the wall, her native survival instincts to battle her way out of a tight corner refused to function. The words that came were forced out of her mouth in a mumble. The front row of the gallery was one long grin from end to end while Sir Ian and Lawrence James's stony silence matched the increasingly stony feel of the bench. "None, as it happens." "For the benefit of the court, can you speak a little louder." The steel hard tones cut through her mental fog.
"None." "So the only person who has ever been attacked in all that time was the one man who you describe as the outstanding officer on the wing, the friend of all the prisoners," Jo's sarcastic tones piled on the pressure.
"It was just bad luck," Di shouted back angrily. "It could have happened to anyone." "Except that it never happened to you or anyone else except James Fenner," Came Jo's lightning retort. "Your evidence appears flimsy to say the least from beginning to end." I hope the bastard is somewhere looking down on her and seeing his reputation publicly cut to pieces. That thought, phrased differently, ran through the front row of the gallery as Fenner's reputation was put up on trial and found guilty in his absence. "I had a lot on my mind round then. I used to live with my disabled mum till I had to put her in care as she got too much for me. I was under a lot of stress at the time. The stabbing was not long after all that carry on. Jim Fenner helped me out to cope with my problems and whatever way you try to smear his reputation, I'll always stand up for him as he can't stand up for himself." A fresh thin trickle of tears ran down the lines of her face and her body hunched up. Jo felt a little uncomfortable despite her suspicions. She hadn't got the Brian Cantwell blood lust fox hunting mentality that would tear in regardless for the kill. She allowed her to have a period of grace.
"Are you able to continue to give evidence, Miss Barker?" John called from somewhere well above her as an usher passed her a glass of water at which point Di nodded.
"Let us turn to the defendant, Miss Barker. Did you directly hear her utter any threatening or aggressive words to the deceased?" Di looked vaguely round and her mouth opened slightly. Her mind was sluggish and for the life of her, it failed to conjure up any memory. She was too scared to fabricate any stories till she grabbed blindly at a passing train of thought.
"No but she was bragging about killing Jim Fenner when she came to Larkhall as a prisoner. She made a joke about it to all the other women." "But you said earlier that, apart from a few troublemakers, he was popular with the prisoners. If what you say is true, then surely the defendant would have kept very quiet about what she had done." The front row of the public gallery had the greatest difficulty in bottling down their emotions but this time from a totally opposite direction. Left to themselves, they would have broken into uproarious cheering. "Miss Barker, I think I need not detain you any longer as there is nothing in your testimony that can possibly inspire any confidence in your status as a witness." Mr. Neumann Mason-Alan had sat as still as a carved ebony statue as Jo mills systematically picked apart the evidence of what he had thought of as his expert witness from Larkhall. She had seemed so eager and convincing when he had questioned her before the trial and thought she would be a natural in giving evidence. After all, she had been in court before in her professional capacity.
"Do you wish to reexamine the witness, Mr. Mason-Alan?" He shook his head mutely to John's request. He would have to hope for better fortune later, especially as he could sense the two dark suited officials from the Lord Chancellor's Department sitting like threatening statues in the back of the gallery.
Di Barker tottered out of the witness stand. She had had years of pulling the strings on people and was all the more traumatised by the way that that hated woman blew apart her carefully constructed story and left her hideously exposed. It was other women who were the most dangerous, after all. She would hate her all the more as she nursed her grudge against her but would never be able to do anything about it. That was what made her more angry than anything.