Double Noose Read online

  Double Noose

  By

  Jay Sharman

  Copyright © Jay Sharman (2019)

  The right of Jay Sharman to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

  Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

  Acknowledgement

  I am grateful to Paro for her support and inspiration and Edna for helping me to type the manuscript.

  About the Author

  Jay Sharman loves music, reading, cinemas, current affairs, psychology and plays badminton, table tennis, chess, bridge, and cricket. He has travelled to more than forty countries to gain invaluable experience by meeting people from different races, religions, and creeds.

  Being a writer is hardwired into his DNA which is just as well, because it is the only real job that he has ever been allowed to do without any interference and directions.

  His fiction tastes tend to combine both the literary and the commercial that is creative, witty, and explosive narrative.

  His other books are:

  London to Chicago

  Not Lost Forever

  Poems for a Woman You Love

  Volcano man

  Poems for all Occasions

  Problem Tenants

  Poems on Ways of Life

  Chapter 1

  A gang called The Greens was an envy of the whole prison. They were composed of four big inmates, who had been in the prison for more than one year each.

  Greg, Robin, and Angelo were all well-built, muscular and over six feet tall, whereas David was a short and diminutive guy, but was more outspoken and outrageous than the other three members of the gang. All of them had chosen to become cleaners in prison as they were allowed to come out of their cells for most of the day, whereas rest of the inmates were left inside their cells. In fact, the prison officers hardly locked their doors, that gave them more opportunities to mix with each other. Their job as a cleaner required them to wear green trousers all the time, hence their nick name – The Greens.

  They virtually controlled ‘B’ wing of the prison, as nobody dared to raise voice against them. They spent a lot of time in watching TV or DVD, playing cards and playing on the pool table that was situated in the middle of the B wing. As a result, the landings near the shower room area remained unclean and unkempt most of the time. The remains of shampoo cover and small pieces of soaps were scattered along with wet and dirty towels on the floor. The bad stench in the bathroom was intolerable and small area of ventilation through small windows was not adequate.

  The majority of inmates were scared of them and did not dare to intimidate or question them. Greens as they were known did not resort to violence on a large scale, they did not need to do so as people stayed out of their way, but whenever somebody dared to question them, they would go to any means necessary to maintain their control and authority over the prisoners.

  Greg was the overall leader of the Greens, he was six feet and six inches tall and the size of his biceps matched that of the thighs of most of other inmates. Greg did not follow any queues, rules and regulations. He only talked to a few other selective inmates on special occasions, and most of the other times, he kept to himself. One could hear his shouting and screaming in all the four landings of ‘B’ wing, but none of the prison officers restrained him, as that was Greg’s way of expressing himself without causing any harms to anybody.

  Angelo was locked in a cell on the second floor of the B wing, but he considered the whole of B wing as his own personal property, that was the privilege he enjoyed as one of the members of the Greens.

  The time was 7 PM and Angelo went to a telephone box in the B wing to make a phone call to his girlfriend, but unfortunately, the phone was not working. So, he decided to go to the third floor, where somebody else was using the phone. Angelo waited for a minute to see if that prisoner finished talking on the phone, but nothing happened. The phone was in an open space, and that meant that other prisoners could hear their conversations, so most of the time, prisoners whispered to their friends and families on the phone.

  Angelo could not wait any longer. He simply went to the phone box and pushed the phone ‘s button down to disconnect the call of the inmate and then snatched the receiver of the phone from him with the full force of his hand. The inmate tried to resist Angelo by shouting, ‘How dare you disconnect me without asking me.’

  Angelo shouted back, ‘I don't need to take anybody’s permission to use the phone. Just fuck off from here.’

  Angelo moved forward and in a split second, he wrapped the telephone wire around the inmate’s neck and whispered, ‘Now, do you want to live rest of your life in peace or you want this to be your last conversation with anybody?’

  The inmate started to feel chocking sensations and very quickly removed the entangled wire from his neck and ran away from the scene back to his room.

  His cellmate Asif, who was sitting in a chair in the room stood up and asked him, ‘What happened to you, Hussain. Why are you breathing like this?’

  Hussain touched his neck with his left hand, took a deep breath and said, ‘That tall man Angelo tried to strangle me, when I was talking on the phone to my girlfriend’

  Asif came near to Hussain and looked at a round red mark on his cell mate’s neck, ‘Oh, My God, I can see the marks on your neck.’

  Hussain massaged his neck with his hand and shouted. ‘I will not let Angelo get away with this. I am going to report him to the prison officer.’

  Asif told Hussain to sit down on the chair, and said, ‘What is the point of complaining against him, the prison officers will not take any action against him. Even if they decided to investigate the incident, they will find no evidence against Angelo and the case will be dismissed but your life would be endangered as all four Greens will get together to take revenge against you. I suggest that you better leave it.’

  Hussain was still fuming and could not control himself as he stood up again and shouted from the top of his voice.

  ‘This is bullying, and we must put a fight together, otherwise, somebody else will be a victim.’

  Asif gave a glass of water to his friend and said, ‘Look Hussain, cool down, we are in prison only for a few months. Let us spend our time here in harmony and peace. I am going home next week and have become a changed person after coming here. The prison has taught me to show remorse and after looking at my past, I want to stay away from any trouble. I suggest that you do the same.’

  Hussain got the glass of water in his hand to sip which cooled him down a bit. He whispered, ‘I will think about this. We Asians are in minority here and that is another reason that we are mistreated in a condescending way as all muslims are seen as terrorists by others.’

  Asif whispered, ‘Stop thinking that way. I know the general public’s opinion has changed regarding Muslims, but now with the passage of time, that will change again, provided we prove that we also are an integral part of this society by joining the mainstream line and contribute to the British society in a positive way.’

  Hussain put the glass on a small table and sat down in his bed that was part of a bunker bed, ‘Ok Asif, I don't understand you, your duty first is to Islam and think how badly we are treated by society. If you apply for a job with a Muslim name, the chances are that you will be rejected. Look at the poor housing in London, it is meant only for the ethnic minoriti
es. We are not treated the same as anybody else’

  Asif realised that Hussain had moved more towards a political discussion and he wanted to avoid it, so he got up from his chair and said, ‘Well, we started talking about Angelo and look where our conversation has gone. I will not advise you anymore, but just want to say a word of caution that you do not take a path from where you cannot return.’

  Hussain showed his resistance. ‘Allah has made me strong and I am not afraid of anyone.’

  Chapter 2

  The next day Hussain got a complaint form from a prison officer and filed a complaint against Angelo for an assault. Hussain also pointed out that there was a racial tone in the incident and that an Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) should investigate the case instead of the Governor of the prison. Hussain did not bother informing Asif, as he knew that he would disapprove of his action.

  The following week Asif was released from prison and his new cell mate was Trevor, a tall white guy, who was sent to prison for an assault on an Asian man outside a night club. Asif was not aware of his criminal background and treated him with respect and offered him biscuits and tea on his arrival in his cell.

  Angelo that day had gone to take a shower on his second floor landing, but the shower was not very hot so he decided to go to the fourth floor, that had boasted of four hot showers, all of them in good working conditions. All showers were in use by other prisoners and more than three inmates were waiting near a bench.

  The steam was getting hotter as the outlet from the windows was not big enough to let it out. Two inmates had been under the shower for more than ten minutes, as they scrubbed and applied soap many times to clean themselves. The other two had bald heads and they were busy shaving each other’s heads with razors and their fallen hair were scattered on the floor. One of them even decided to brush his teeth and shave his beard in the shower, unconcerned about the waiting inmates.

  The waiting area was getting stuffier, as now five people were jammed together in a small space. Some inmates had left their wet towel and shirts on the floor to use them as a mat for drying themselves up. Two inmates were murmuring to each other. ‘These people think that they own these showers. I may get flu waiting here and I do not know that how long I will have to wait for my turn.’

  Angelo had been listening quietly up to now but then he went to the shower area and asked one of the prisoners, ‘Oyo, fucking hell, which one of you have been the longest here? No, fucking I don't need to know that. One of you just make space for me.’

  Two guys who had just finished shaving their heads moved away and said, ‘Oh yes mate, you can take my place.’

  Angelo started to sing, while taking his shower. Four guys waiting there got furious that they had to wait for their turn as Angelo had muscled his way in. One of them went forward to Angelo and asked, ‘Why have you jumped the queue. I was supposed to be next.’

  Angelo simply frowned at him and shouted, while rinsing his hair, ‘Fuck you. What are you going to do about it?’ The echoes of his laughter reverberated all around in the shower room

  The poor chap simply retracted his steps, as he was pulled back by his friend. ‘Come on mate, leave Angelo alone, it is not worth it to have an argument with him.’

  Five minutes later, the first chap got his turn to go under the shower. By the time he had finished his shower, Angelo was still under the spray of water. Angelo then opened the windows and the entrance door of the shower room, so that more cold air blew across the room, making everybody to shiver.

  Two inmates were standing naked trying to dry themselves with their towels in full view of other passing by inmates in the corridor. After finishing the shower, the first inmate came to close the open window, as he was shivering with the cold. Angelo started to shout again. ‘you are fucking idiot; how dare you close the window. Leave it open, I am feeling very hot here.’

  The inmate took one step back and whispered while looking directly in Angelo’s eyes ‘Look mate, for one person, we cannot leave the window open as everybody is feeling cold.’

  ‘I don't fucking care about others, but I am feeling hot.’ replied Angelo while rubbing cream on his body.

  The inmate raised his voice this time ‘By leaving the door open, you are also exposing us to others. They can see us here like this. We want some privacy in the shower room.’

  Angelo did not know how to react to this outburst and laughed ‘You fucking chic, you are worried that somebody will like your body. Fucking hell, you look like an ugly buffalo, go and fuck yourself. In this prison you don't have any privacy and here, you do whatever I tell you to do.’

  The first chap was still in an assertive mood but he kept his voice down and said while putting his blue coloured prison shirt that had some stain marks in the front, ‘Some of us could also get flu if we leave these doors open. Moreover, this shower is for the inmates on the fourth floor. You should go to your own shower in the second floor, not bully us here.’

  To everybody’s surprise Angelo had cooled down a bit, normally he was expected to hit people if they carried on arguing with him. Angelo just kept his calm and carried on putting on his clothes.

  As the first inmate was leaving the shower room, he put his feet accidentally on Angelo’s slippers on the floor, and in response to that Angelo reacted quickly and put his leg in between inmate’s legs, and then he pushed him back with his hand that sent him flying to the corridor with his chin hitting the floor with a bang.

  Angelo stood up and whispered quietly, ‘Fucking hell, you should be careful when you walk past me.’ Then he turned towards the other inmates to shout at the top of his voice. ‘We should all live in harmony here, but Tony wanted to argue with me. Look where that has landed him, on the floor, ha, ha.’

  Angelo simply walked outside the room, without bothering even to look at Tony lying on the floor.

  Tony was lying flat on the floor with drops of blood oozing from his chin. His towel and clothes had fallen from his hands to the floor and slipper had come out of his right foot.

  John who was with him in the bathroom came rushing to his rescue. He extended his hand to raise Tony from the floor. Although Tony was still in pain, he could not control his emotions. ‘What does Angelo thinks that he will get away with this? No way, he will have to pay a price for this. I will report him to the Governor.’

  John picked up Tony’s clothes and towel from the floor and handed them over to Tony. He said, ‘Tony, listen to me carefully. By reporting him to the governor, you will attract more animosity from the Greens and if you do not take any action against him, then I know that you will feel humiliated for just few days but then at least you will go out of prison in one piece. I know about two people who got more punches after they reported the Greens to the authorities here. I suggest that you keep calm and forget about the incident.’

  Tony simply wiped blood from his chin and said, ‘If we all got together, then we can take action against the Greens. We need to teach them a lesson. I know that I have to take those risks. Any way thanks for your advice, John.’

  In the meantime, one landing officer saw Tony fall to the floor and came running for his rescue. ‘What happened Tony? Are you all right?’

  Before Tony could say anything, John stepped in to say, ‘Officer, Tony just slipped over while coming out of the shower room. He will be fine. I will take him to see the doctor for his cuts on the chin.’

  Tony had already stood up and was pressing underneath of the chin with his fingers to stop more bleeding.

  Angelo in the meantime went to Greg’s room and walked inside without knocking on the door. Greg was sitting there with two other Greens, Robin and David.

  Angelo just put his towel on the bed and said, ‘Hi Greens, do you realise that some of the fucking inmates have started to challenge us these days and if we do not do anything about this now, then we will lose our control in this prison.’

  David stood up and shouted, ‘Come on Angelo, tell me what happened, and I wil
l sort the bastard out.’

  Greg took David’s arm and pushed him down to the bed and shouted, ‘Sit down David, you talk too much. Let us listen to Angelo first, then you can decide what type of action to take.’

  Angelo’s towering figure only matched Greg’s in height but his build was half that of Greg’s size.

  Angelo started to describe both the incidents and then commented. ‘Fucking Hussain seemed to think that he can report me to the prison officers, but he does not realise that the officers here would not listen to him. He needs to be taught a lesson by us. The other fucking guy Tony shouted at me in the shower room and demanded that I should close the windows of the shower room.’

  Robin who was quiet up to now said, ‘But Angelo, why were you fucking taking shower in the fourth floor, when you live on the second floor?’

  Greg intervened with his loud voice, ‘The Greens have a right to take shower anywhere they like or snatch any item from anyone that they like. This prison is run by us and for us. If any fucking inmates raise their voice against us, then they need to be silenced. We need to re-establish our authority again. I am a fucking leader here and I need to run my kingdom with authority like that of Pharaohs of Egypt.’

  Robin started to laugh, ‘So you think we are fucking your slaves and you are our God.’

  Greg laughed back and said, ‘No man, I am only joking, we are together and united. We will teach lessons to both Tony and Hussain. We need to start to terrorise inmates this weekend. Tomorrow we get our canteen and we must show our strength and teach them a lesson. All fucking inmates get their items tomorrow evening, so we would start snatching items from them especially from new inmates. In the morning, we can summon all of them in the exercise yard and issue our orders to all the prisoners one by one.’