Gina went to answer the phone call from Karen and felt comfortable enough when she first heard her distinctively mellow expressive voice. She had got to enjoy a closer working relationship with her than she was used to, and had found her feet on G Wing. There was a quality abr friendliest fashion but there was a very slight nervousness about her manner. Gina's senses picked up on that one straightaway.
"I'd thought I'd call you in to be the first to hear the news and it isn't good, I'm afraid for either of us…….."
Gina started to take a sharp intake of breath but Karen's inclusion of herself in the bad news took the edge off her sense of panic. Fortunately, she had the sense not to hold Gina in suspense and waffle round the point. She preferred it this way.
"I've had a difficult decision to make ahtaway.
"I'd thought I'd call you in to be the first to hear the news and it isn't good, I'm afraid for either of us…….."
Gina started to take a sharp intake of breath but Karen's inclusion of herself in the bad news took the edge off her sense of panic. Fortunately, she had the sense not to hold Gina in suspense and waffle round the point. She preferred it this way.
"I've had a difficult decision to make and I'm afraid that I have only one answer to your shortage of prison officers, and I know that she won't be your favourite choice. It's Di Barker."
"You mean that that poisoned dwarf is coming back onto G Wing, to carry on with her evil schemes where she left off?"
What there was of Gina's sense of verbal appropriateness was stripped off her by such a ghastly prospect. Even the vision of her smug simpering face was in front of her eyes provoked a violent impulse in her to slap her hard round the face. She would never trust her on her own with the genuine article.
"Gina, can you hear me out as to why I've made this decision. Please." Karen's courteous low-pitched voice persuaded Gina to at least be quiet even while she was still in shock. Normally her ability to speak her mind was her very last faculty to give out on her.
"I've tried all the possible options that are open to me and to be equally fair to the other wings. My first thought was an external transfer. I don't take it for granted that just because I've not heard of a request, then none exists. I phoned up Neil Grayling at area, explaining why I was making such a request and he has personally scoured everywhere but the cupboard is absolutely bare. You're going to ask me why don't I move a prison officer off another wing instead of Di but every other wing has far too many inexperienced basic grade Prison Officers, and none whom I can spare at her grade. Even a three-way move won't work. The jungle drums beat very quickly about those two resignations on the spot so that her present Wing Governor lost no time in reminding me of the initially temporary nature of the move, and that it was extended for the foreseeable future against his wishes. Your staff shortage has put me in a cleft stick that way. Now this has come up, you can see that there is no alternative. On the face of it, if Di has nothing else, she has experience, more so than a number of other Officers."
"Yeah right, Karen. That drama queen is bloody good at setting staff against each other. Ought to get a bloody degree in it. Her and Sylvia will have a right time moaning away together the second my back's turned."
You've made a mistake, Karen thought as she had attempted to improve on what was perfect and spoiled all. She cut in and urged Gina with all the patience she could muster.
"Don't I know it, Gina.I won't lightly forgive or forget her despicable behaviour at the Lauren Atkins trial. You saw me………"
"I'm sorry, Karen," Gina said remorsefully. She suddenly noticed, as the heat of the moment died down, how nervously Karen fiddled with her hands, something very unusual for such a cool, calm and collected woman. Poor sod, she thought sympathetically. She's feeling it more for myself than she was for her. "I'm forgetting and I should have thought before I opened my big gob. I'll have to manage, that's all. "
Karen smiled freely, moved by Gina's loyalty and understanding but knew that there was more to the matter than that.
"There's more to it than that, Gina. You're right to some extent. You'll have to be prepared for, and expect trouble from the minute she sets foot on G Wing. She'll make Sylvia worse than she is, that you may be certain of, as those two will feed off each other. It's your decision but I would strongly advise you to talk to Di immediately and set the boundaries straightaway. You might be best to encourage her to play ball, but warn her that you'll take full disciplinary action against her the moment she crosses the line. You would be welcome to say that you have discussed matters with me first. I'll leave that up to you. I would urge you to remind her, above all else that, while you're acting wing Governor, you're Wing Governor and not the Senior Officer she used to know. It will work."
"Are you sure?" Gina asked. She was fine when it came to telling some stupid sod to pull their finger out but anything smacking of disciplinary procedures made her nervous in case she messed up.
"It worked with you. Remember when I first saw you?"
Karen grinned impishly and Gina remembered Karen laying down the law and giving her a right kick up the backside. They had come a long way since that very first day she barged in while Karen was talking to Sylvia and had tried to give her a load of bull about why she was transferred. She must have seemed a right gobby immature brat and could see how and why Karen took the line that she did.
"Yeah, that's true but I had the bad habit of slapping around prisoners who fancied my ex. My problem was that I was just mouthy but I was never the evil snake that she is."
" If anyone's got a sense of decency, you'll get there in the end. When you get to someone like Di, I'd be kidding you if I didn't say that it is much harder. You've just got to look for the way in. The principle's the same whoever you're dealing with. Get in first before she does. You've no choice."
Gina had started listening very closely to Karen's sensible advice and had made a mental note to follow it to the letter. It was when her final words pulled everything together in her mind, that Gina had a plan of action that she had confidence in.
"I'll do that, Karen only I'll have to make sure I don't lose my temper."
"You'll manage," Karen grinned. A feeling of immense relief poured over her when she had sensed that Gina had risen to the situation.
"I'd like to stay but I've got my weekly meeting to do."
"There's just one other thing." Karen interrupted."I meant to tell you that Denny Blood has got permission to visit Shell Dockley at Ashmore.I expect the paperwork for the inter prison visit and I'll pass it to you as soon as I get it."
Gina's fired up feeling of self confidence rapidly drained at Karen's casual announcement and the smile disappeared from her face.
"Sylvia's going to go off the deep end," Came Gina's gloomy reply, eventually after deep thought. She could handle telling the POs these two items separately but not together. Sitting on the news felt out of the question as hadn't she moaned in the past at not being told what was going on? "And if most of the others are relaxed about it, Di's return will put the mockers on the atmosphere."
"Look here, Gina. Would it help if I sat in on your meeting? I have left you to it partly, as I felt self-conscious coming back to the wing where I was Wing Governor. I'm still learning my way in when to intervene and when to keep in the background."
It somehow reassured Gina in a peculiar way that Karen had her occasions of self-doubt, something she thought was impossible. She weighed everything up in her mind and nodded in agreement.
"I'll stay in the background to make it easier on you," Added Karen helpfully.
Gina was back in command of herself, words and phrases being pulled from the back of her mind as she mentally roughed out the meeting. She grinned, grabbed her papers and led the way to the door.
Gina could see Bodybag's mouth opening and closing like a fish taking in air as she led the way to the door, the way her head turned round to spot Karen coming as well and her lips tightening.
"Hi everyone," Gina breezed in, papers tucked under her arm while Karen made a subdued entrance, smiling briefly. "Yes I know by the clock, Sylvia, what time it is. Time we started this meeting. Karen's sitting in on this meeting just to get out and about amongst us. Now if everyone is comfortable then I'll begin."
Karen smiled at Gina's very individual yet effective style of grabbing the meeting by the scruff of its neck leaving Bodybag to glower into the carpet that her planned opening little ploy had been brushed aside. She sat right in the corner, far to one side of the centre stage position that she had adopted and was highly conscious of being an onlooker which gave her a strange feeling. So many times, she had briskly run through the agenda of the meeting chipping the conversation back and forth between those more vocal PO's. How peculiar it was to see another person in her role that she once wore, in her shoes and metaphorically speaking, her outer garb. She had passed on and if she hadn't known before, it was made plain at this moment.
"….and for your information, I'm picking two volunteers to do prison escort when Denny visits Shell Dockley at Ashmore this Friday….." Gina started to announce when Bodybag had to stick her oar in.
"Hmmph. Might as well fix up for her to spend the day at Butlins, all expenses paid. That evil woman deserves no favours for what they did to me and my Bobby."
"One thing I got to hand it to you, Sylvia, you always come out with the most original punchlines. Let's get it straight, Denny Blood's been bending our ears to visit Shell Dockley and it makes sense as she's behaved well enough by my book to deserve it."
"And what strings did she pull, I wonder to get this free holiday?" Bodybag muttered.
"I arranged it with the powers that be for the reasons Gina's explained. That makes me responsible for giving Denny a pep talk before she goes," Karen intervened quietly, stealing one of Bodybag's favourite cliches. "I am perfectly aware what happened to you and Bobby all that time ago and I don't expect you to forget it but there will be no open-ended revenge trip around here. Not in my prison."
"I want to be kept up to speed on how Denny is after the visit and Karen also," Gina concluded to which Karen nodded in agreement. "Now, next business since everyone who's going to be involved with the visit will get to know what's going on. "
Bodybag glared down at her stout shoes while the smart way that Gina dealt with the meeting impressed Karen. She observed with interest that Gina had a real snap in her delivery and was much plainer and blunter than ever she was. Gina, shrewdly, left a long gap in the agenda for the ripples to calm down before broaching the matter of Di Barker
"…..and before I forget, we're getting a prison officer transferred from another wing, date to be arranged. She's no stranger to G wing as it's Di Barker."
An evil smile of satisfaction spread across Bodybag's face. A shining vista opened up before her that she would no longer be on her own with these young upstarts. She pictured all that time she and Di could have a good moan and, between them, turn G Wing around.
"We're grateful for another pair of hands to take the pressure off us but this place has changed since she was last here. I hope she fits in."
Karen suppressed a smile as Selena's crisp voice sailed as close to the wind in directly insulting Di and also at the murmured agreement with one significant exception. Her smile was harder to suppress as the opening in the conversation was immediately filled by Gina with slick precision.
"As soon as Di sets foot through the door, I'm going to have a nice friendly chat with her to make her feel right at home. Wouldn't want her to miss out on all the latest gossip, would I?"
Karen definitely smirked, as did all the others, at Gina's highly effective brand of plain speaking, entirely different from her own style. Gina would never be accused of being overly politically correct but she thrived on her own style.
"There might be a few changes round here when Di comes back," Bodybag sniffily observed.
"Not if I can help it, Sylvia. Why should this place change for one prison officer? Those who shout the loudest don't get special favours, in my book. Life's a bitch that way."
Gina's frozen smile changed by degrees into a glare straight between Bodybag's eyes. Unknown to all but Karen, she marvelled to herself at the way she had persuaded herself that Di Barker could be dealt with if she handled her cards right. The reality of it might be different when it came to the crunch but she would have a good stab at it. It reassured her to run a swift glance round the room and saw just how well her thinly disguised hatred of that evil cow went down.
"Now the usual locks, bolts and bars. Chop chop everyone," Gina concluded.
All the prison officers offered brief but sincere friendly greetings to Karen as they went out with one exception. Bodybag could swear on her mother's grave that this scheme had clearly been cooked up between the two of them. It was at moments like this that she missed Jim Fenner but she was the only mourner on G Wing.