Grayling had to smile with satisfaction at the end of the day. He always said that he could make a living selling ice cream to Eskimos but this time, he had pulled off a real coup.
"And exactly who do you have in mind to attend the Howard League for Penal Reform?"
Came Alison Warner's searching question. "You have someone in mind, I assume. I know you far too well to think otherwise."
"As if I would," came his honeyed tones, broad grin and outstretched arms. "That makes me sound as if I have already crudely fixed matters behind the scenes."
Alison Warner's spectacles slid down her nose letting her glare over them straight into his eyes. He knew all her little mannerisms which were intended to intimidate, recognised them for what they were and remained cool and calm.
"And have you?"
"That would be improper as you know."
"Hmmm. You have spent quite a bit of your valuable time going backwards and forwards to that perpetual source of disruption and controversy, Larkhall prison. It's easy enough for me to put two and two together and make four."
"So, if you were in my place, rather than giving support and practical backup to a hard working, highly talented governing governor who has suffered from a bereavement, you would divert precious time for concerns for private schemes of your own? Is that what you are telling me?"
"That is absolutely not what I mean. You are being unusually difficult even by your standards." Alison Warner was ready to bristle with annoyance at the best of times but she was becoming especially threatening and Grayling felt he had to make a lightning tactical shift from his barely repressed cheek.
"I'm so sorry. I wouldn't ever want to be disrespectful but I wanted to share my pleasure with you that, except for one incident of a solitary prisoner on the rooftop, Larkhall has changed for the better. Karen Betts has been governing governor since March, that's nearly five months and the prison has been running remarkably smoothly, no riots, no escapes, no explosions, no suicides, no complaining letters to the Guardian from inmates, the sort of thing that must have given you no end of sleepless nights over the years …….."
Grayling ladled on the smooth talk in liberal proportions, his silky voice touching on the
events, which had made her, cringe so many times in embarrassment. She had imagined every time the bad news broke that the Home Secretary to be on the phone at any second if not down in reception. Each smoothly recounted incident made her twitch nervously to Grayling's intense amusement.
"………and since Nikki Wade, the new G wing governor was appointed, I hear that she had been a tower of strength. Again, aside from the incident I mentioned, she has slotted in effortlessly and has even taken a leading role in covering for Karen Betts when she has been away……."
"Enough of the sales pitch, Neil. You are being rather carried away. I suppose that you have these two in mind in attending this conference….."
"It is entirely up to them but since you raise their names, I would be very keen to see them as the embodiment of a radical caring spirit who would carry themselves admirably and would be a credit to the Home Office…"
"They would not be able to express wildly unbalanced personal opinions in an attempt to ingratiate themselves with some 'trendy leftie' lawyers."
Grayling grinned to himself. He had been immersed in the very pleasant company of the cream of the legal profession and knew far more than this woman with her blinkered views and lifestyle.
"They will be very much in demand, Nikki Wade would be especially welcome. Her court case years ago was a 'cause celebre' in the legal profession as far as I am aware."
"Well, I am deciding that you are going because I am holding you personally responsible for their good conduct should they express an interest in attending as I am sure they will. You may go now."
"Thank you, Mrs. Warner," Grayling said in his most restrained fashion though he was jubilant inside. He could not wait to get back to his room and then set things in motion.
Karen was working away with no great enthusiasm on the second Monday of her return to work feeling a sense of flat anticlimax to everything at work, including all the well wishers. She hears the words they said and the expressions on their faces but she could not make them real to her. She received no warm feeling of well being inside her and that only made things worse. She had dismissed the mysterious tone in Grayling's phone call when he announced his visit though chatting to him would be pleasant and would break up the monotony of the day. She smiled politely as he came striding in, a mischievous gleam in her eye like a naughty boy who wanted her assistance in an exquisitely amusing prank.
"So, how has it been being back at Larkhall since I last saw you?"
"I feel less like death warmed up as I was and everyone's been very nice to me…"
"So they ought to be."
Karen's shrewd gaze took in the barely suppressed grin that threatened to spread all over his face, a certain restlessness. It was all so reminiscent of John at his most 'bad boy.'
"Come on, Neil. I know that you've got some news. You didn't just drop by to enquire after my health."
"Well, as it happens, there was an ulterior reason……"
Karen smiled slightly and nodded slightly at Grayling's sly confession. She hoped there wouldn't be a long, sustained introduction, just please cut to the main theme.
"……..as I have received advance copy of the draft prospectus for the forthcoming annual conference for the Howard League for Penal Reform which I thought I would show you…….."
The paper was placed in Karen's hands and immediately, her interest was engaged. She had most certainly heard of the organisation but it had always been one of those august bodies up on high, which had been remote from her. It was as if she had read in the news of a particular female country rock performer whose CD she owned who was appearing at Madison Square Gardens. She might hear them in concert several months later if she was lucky but she would not think that she, Karen Betts, would be sitting in aisle 24, seat C36 and buy the T-shirt afterwards. That had always been impossible.
"It's always been Governing Governors who have gone to events like these…."she mouthed her thoughts aloud.
"Well, you're one now."
She was indeed. She had always been one to look at the practical daily drudge work of any activity she had been involved with from changing bed pans, changing babies nappies to snatching time to write up her personal officer's reports. She had never taken a starry eyed glamorous look at life. It was not her way of thinking.
"I used to hog all the conferences and jealously kept away others who could have gone too, from them. I used to love the limelight……"
"Still do, Neil," Karen grinned.
"Well, yes, you're right but I've learned to share it and to give a chance to those who deserve it. Besides, my choice in conferences used to leave something to be desired. I blush when I remember presenting my paper on part privatisation of the prison system and I sincerely hope that the audience forgot every single word of my ill-considered views…."
"You're going as well," It was a statement, not a question.
"Naturally but if you look at the prospectus, you'll see why. I want to learn from this event."
The paper was very attractive to Karen's eyes as it briefly encapsulated all her ideas of prison reform, which she had slaved away at all these years. The ideas had always been at the back of her head but had been subordinated to the daily grind. It might do her good to step back and immerse herself in the very spring source of all the ideas. She could do with something different in her life.
"OK, Neil. I might at that…I'm really interested."
Grayling was gratified to see that light ignite slowly in Karen's eyes, which had been so distressingly dull and downcast. He would have to edge his way very slowly to the more delicate proposition he had to make.
"That's excellent news. The danger of any conference is that far too many people are attracted to the shallow pleasures, conference has to offer, being away from home and the normal restrictions of daily life. An environment with plenty to drink is the least of the problems as too many come and the words go in one ear and out the other. The standards to the speeches can become pedestrian even with the most well motivated conference. I have the vision in my head that what this conference needs is someone fresh, someone dynamic, who has vivid recall to a wealth of life's experiences which can be shared with the most radical, most caring audience there could possibly be contained in one conference hall."
By the way he was talking, Grayling was totally revved up and passionate about the faraway vision that he could see so clearly. Karen was carried away by the generalities until a light was switched on in her mind as she could see the direction the conversation was heading.
"Oh, no, no, no, Neil. It's one thing for me to go to a high-powered conference but I was thinking in terms of what I might learn from others, not the other way round. I had it in mind to sit back and taking note of what others had to say, not that they have anything to learn of what I might know. You want me to be one of the speakers."
"You are right first time but you are being too modest about yourself, Karen."
"You are outrageous, Neil."
"Aren't I just as I'm going to ask Nikki as well"
At that point, Karen was reduced to utter speechlessness, Grayling very kindly reached over and passed her a tumbler full of water, which she eagerly drank from to loosen her throat muscles, which had become rigidly locked in total shock.
"I repeat myself, you really underestimate what you have to offer…….".
"You bastard, Neil."
"Think back to the rehearsals we had for the 'Creation,'" Grayling continued, spieling away at top speed, unruffled by Karen's interjection. "We were amongst the highest echelons of the legal profession but how many of them, even the best of them, know what you and I know about the realities about what life in prison really means. It's not that there weren't some very bright, very perceptive human beings. I can think of John and George and others who, regrettably, I did not find time to talk to, as much as I would have liked. Your speciality is a lifetime in the prison service from the bottom up. Their speciality is as judges, barristers and solicitors in arguing over the merits of the case from whose deliberations, those in the dock are set free or are received by us, yes even by the Sylvia Hollambys of the world. You know so much about the prison system that you find, in this closed in life we lead that others know so little apart from what they read in the papers."
Karen was moved for the first time in ages by the sheer passion in Grayling's voice. He meant every word that he said and, yes, she could recall odd snatches of conversation, unregarded at the time. In a weird kind of way, he made sense.
"But why me, Neil? There are other governors on hand who must have done that job before."
"Nobody as fresh and dynamic as you, Karen," Grayling finished earnestly.
There was something hypnotic about his ways, Karen reflected as she wearily started that slide in thought to the inevitable. She had more than a slight suspicion that she would be an emblem of his success but if it reinforced his position at area, was that such an ignoble ulterior motive? He must have faith in her dynamism though she frankly thought that she had never felt less dynamic in her life. Ah well, she could not even begin to think of how she would get on if Grayling's very indirect but caring presence wasn't around. She had no pressing purpose in her life right now so she might as well go with the flow.
"Only you could bamboozle me outrageously into such a mad idea but I suppose you have made your case. I might as well live dangerously. Chances like this don't come up often but I'll never forgive you if it turns out a complete disaster."
"So won't Alison Warner but hey, we'll prove her wrong."
I like the 'we' all of a sudden, snorted Karen inwardly. He is definitely as bad as John.
A silence reigned over the room as Karen's dull dreams of boring nonentity were banished forever by this reckless man. Her secretary appeared with a welcome cup of coffee for them both. She would have loved a cigarette but she was conscious of Grayling's solitary instance of Puritanism, which stuck up like a lonely milestone.
At that point, Nikki entered the room, totally unsuspecting.
"Ah Nikki, you came at the right time. We have an interesting proposition for you."
Count me out, Neil, from your mad enterprise, Karen thought through gritted teeth.
"Can't think what that might be. You told me the other day just to stick to the one job."
Nikki's mind was full of all kind of duties around Larkhall that were totally confined to the grey stone walls of Larkhall.
"As I was just saying to Karen, there's the upcoming conference of the Howard League for Penal Reform which I've had advance notice of. Karen has very kindly agreed to give a speech …….."
Nikki's face lit up in pleasure for her. She knew that Karen had a wealth of experience of the prison service and would be a splendid representative, not only for Larkhall but the whole prison service.
"…….and, guess what, Nikki, you're going to be our other speaker."
"If it wasn't you, Neil, I would tell you to piss off," Nikki said without thinking before she blushed in embarrassment while Karen grinned all over her face. Only Nikki could come out with something like that. "I'm ever so sorry. I didn't mean it to come out like that. That was very rude of me."
Grayling burst out in hearty laughter. Despite the unpromising reception of his idea, he couldn't help but give way to the humour of the situation.
"Do you know, I've been questioned , lectured at, stared at and glared at for months by Alison Warner and she has never had the fundamental honesty to tell me that one."
That broke the tension and the three of them laughed along with Nikki at her refreshing bluntness.
" 'Howard League for Penal Reform.' That rings a bell." Nikki said reflectively. "Helen's been there before and she was only talking about it the other day."
"Is she likely to be going?" Grayling enquired discreetly while Karen sat back and wondered just how Grayling would manoeuvre Nikki into acceptance. She stood back, taking no part in this which meant that he would be the fall guy if his plan misfired.
"She'll go, I'm sure," Nikki said thoughtfully. She had first heard from Helen about the conference when she was stuck with working in the club at all sort of unsocial hours, having perennial problems in negotiating any absence from the club.
"It would be obviously convenient if both of you went." Grayling pressed his case very discreetly and softly.
"Attending the conference, fine but not as speaker. I've never been to a conference like that before much less speak at it for the very first time. It's one thing for me to stick my hand up if I were fired up on the spur of the moment by something someone said but not to prepare something in advance. I wouldn't know if I were ex prisoner or wing governor or both."
"How many ex prisoners do you get speaking at conferences like this? Especially someone of your calibre?"
Karen could see the wheels revolving round in Nikki's mind as she turned over the matter in her mind. I can't believe it, she shook her head slightly in sheer wonder. How does he do it?
"You've got a point, Neil. But you haven't answered my question. Who do you see me as?"
"As Nikki Wade, first and foremost and in both roles. Don't forget, it is certain that your case will be one that any members of the legal profession will be keenly interested and sympathetic. By definition, they will be among the more enlightened members of the profession or they wouldn't be there."
Nikki found this point convincing. A shadow in the back of her mind had taken shape of the very first judge who had sent her to Larkhall in the first place. Her bitter memory of the 'pricks in wigs' had been softened over the years and especially by her experience of John. Now that would be an idea, she wondered.
"Are you going as well, Neil?" she pursued as she sought further facts to hang her ideas on.
"I am indeed. If you want it and you might not, I will keep you company and offer any help I can possibly give you in the preparation work for public speaking. If you do that properly, you're well away," Grayling urged in soothing tones.
"Does Alison Warner know about your little plan to infiltrate us into the Conference?" probed Nikki with a slight smile on her face.
"Her words in so many words were that she was detailing me to keep the pair of you on the straight and narrow." Smirked Grayling. "That is, if you were interested in going."
"In that case," laughed Nikki, "You're on, both for me going and also giving a speech as well. I owe it to the women on G wing, past and present."
"We ought to drink in celebration to this," enthused Grayling before hesitatingly added, "except that the drinks aren't mine."
"Typical," Karen scoffed in mock annoyance, intercepting his glance at her drinks cabinet. "He cons us into speaking at a conference and then he steals his drink off me."
A little while later, Nikki and Karen compared notes after Grayling had made his way back to area. Somehow, he had livened up the atmosphere.
"So how did you agree so easily to speaking at the conference? I mean, I'm sure you'll do fine but it was your agreement that helped sway me into agreeing as well."
"Don't you know Neil better than that?" Karen retorted crossly to Nikki. "That cunning man blagged his way into me doing it. I'm nervous at the thought of speaking to a huge hall full of people and he knew it. I've never done that sort of thing before."
The light dawned upon Nikki. She might have known better.
"Too late to back out now……..well, there's a first time for everything or so they say."