Bang Up: Prison walls don't just keep criminals in, the keep the outside world at bay (12 page)

Gary had a choice to make and there was no way he was siding with Sarah. He was the mediator now and spoke in a calm voice. “Sarah, you are out of order, love. You can’t speak to people like that.”

Rachel pulled her shoulders back and nodded. Her man had her back and he’d told the daft cow straight. This was a mess.

Sarah was tearful and as per usual she was blubbering. “I’m sorry but she’s not treating me like that. I’ve had enough of her snide comments and it’s about time I put an end to it. She’s a bully and I won’t stand for it.”

Rachel kept her eyes on the road and replied to her in a sarcastic tone. “Sort your bleeding head out, girl. As if I’m a bully!” She raised her eyebrows as she continued. “You mean, I won’t stand for any more of your bullshit. Just because mummy and daddy won’t say a wrong word to you, it doesn’t mean that I won’t. It’s about time someone put you in your place and told you a few home truths. You’re a mard arse nothing less.”

Gary blew a laboured breath and banged his hand on the steering wheel. “Can you both hear yourselves here? Just let’s all have a breather for a few minutes. We’re all stressed out and words have been said out of frustration. Mikey doesn’t need to know about this either, he’s stressed out enough without worrying about you two bickering all the bleeding time.”

Rachel turned her head and growled at him. “Stop treating her with kid gloves, Gary. It’s about time she knew that she’s stuck up her own arse anyway. I don’t care if Mikey loves her or not, she means fuck all to me.” Here it was, the only way Rachel knew how to protect herself. Hurtful words; deep, soul-destroying sentences she could never take back. “Why don’t you just leave our Mikey to it? Move on with your life, find one of your own kind. It will never work out with my son anyway. So just face it and stop kidding yourself.” Rachel always had to have the last word, she could never let sleeping dogs lie.

Sarah wasn’t taking it lying down though. If they were both putting their cards on the table here, she was getting things off her chest too. “We’ll let Mikey be the judge of that. I’d be careful Rachel because if you make him choose, I’m sure I’ll win hands down. He owes you nothing, remember. It’s not like you have been Mother of the Year is it? In my eyes he’s better off without you. You only bring him down anyway.” Sarah had overstepped the mark, she dug deep and went for the jugular.

Gary could see Rachel bubbling with anger and reached over and stroked the top of her shoulder. “Come on Rach, don’t be letting her ruin your day. If she wants to involve Mikey then let her do it. It just goes to show how inconsiderate and immature she is.” Gary was clever with his words. He knew now Sarah would never tell Mikey about the beef between them. He carried on driving and turned the music up. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.

Lancaster Farms HMP looked like a modern jail from the outside. Made of clean, sand-coloured stone set in rural grounds, it was a bit of a contrast to Strangeways. This was the first time Gary had ever been to this nick and he raised his eyes as he drove into the car park. “Looks okay doesn’t it, not like the shit-holes I’ve stayed in!”

Rachel had seen her arse, she was still in a mood. “It’s a jail Gary, they’re all the same to me. Behind them walls is nothing but tears and heartbreak. A jail is jail in my eyes. What do you want, a fucking circus.”

Gary was in a world of his own, he was talking to himself. “It makes Strangeways look like a right dump. Look at all the modern shit it’s got. I mean, take a butcher’s at how clean it is.” Gary parked up and unclipped his seat belt. “I’m just going to blast a cig before we go inside. I’ve been driving for ages and I need a fag to calm me down. You two have wrecked my head.”

Sarah was quiet. She’d never been on a prison visit before and this was a whole new experience to her; a proper eye-opener. Gary opened the car door and twisted his body so his legs were hanging outside the car. When Rachel was in this frame of mind he knew more than anyone that she was better left alone, moody cow. She would come around without water or so his old gran used to say anyway.

Sarah pulled a cherry coloured lip gloss from her handbag. Mikey loved kissing her with this on her lips and always requested she wore it if they were having a date night. He was romantic in his own kind of way and deep down in her heart she understood him. This hard-man image he portrayed to the world was just his way of coping with stuff. Having led the life he had, he had to stand tall and never let anybody think that he was weak. Sarah had first met Mikey by chance. Fate she liked to call it… destiny. Her head was away with the fairies, it was just a party where he happened to be. It wasn’t really her scene if she was being honest with herself. Sarah liked to have a few drinks when she went out at wine bars but she was never really into getting pissed like most of her friends. She wasn’t a raver. She was a bit prudish really. The party had gone well and she’d had enough for the night. Her friends were still hard at it and all she wanted to do was to go home and get into bed. Standing outside the house to ring a taxi she realised she had no battery left on her mobile phone, it was flat. It was a complete nightmare.

Mikey Milne had always been a hit with the ladies and when he stood there watching her alone, he realised she was stressed out. He walked over with a cocky smile and full of confidence and made his move. “What’s up pretty lady? Anything I can help you with?”

Sarah lifted her head and from the moment she set eyes on him her heart skipped a beat, she was breathless. She took a few seconds to speak. “It’s this bloody phone. I need to ring a taxi and of all times for this to happen, the battery has decided to go flat.”

Mikey pulled his own phone from his coat pocket and smiled over at her. “There you go, my lovely. You can use mine. Where are you going anyway?”

Sarah was shy and she’d not really had any interest from guys in the past. Her head was in her career and she had no time for them, they were more trouble than they were worth. Her future was way more important. “I live in Middleton. It’s not far from here but it’s too late for me to walk on my own at this time of the night. My dad will go ballistic if I did anyway. He’s funny like that.”

Mikey was never one to miss a chance to gain a new lady friend and he stepped up to the mark hoping he could be her knight in shining armour. “It’s a nice night if you fancy me walking you home. It will save you a few quid too.”

Sarah was gobsmacked, Mikey was so full of himself, she was stuck for words. “Would you really do that for me? You don’t even know me and I don’t know you?”

“So, let’s take a chance and get to know each other then. You seem like someone I would like to get to know better anyway, so that’s a start.” There it was, the moment she would remember for the rest of her life, the night she became his lady. The two of them just hit it off from the word go and they looked as if they had known each other for years. He made her heart skip a beat every time she looked at him, she was smitten. It was love at first sight and no matter what anyone ever told her about him in the future, he could never do any wrong in her eyes. She was besotted by him. The pair were joined at the hip after that first night and Mikey was mesmerised by the new girl on the block. It didn’t matter to him how posh she was or who her family were, he just knew he really liked her… a lot.

Love had never hit Mikey like this before - it was something he had always struggled with. Of course he’d banged loads of girls but they were just dirt-bags to him. They were little more than a jerk and a squirt; a sack emptier. He never loved them. Love was something that had caused him immense pain in the past and only seemed to leave empty holes in people’s hearts and Mikey never wanted to open his heart again. All the things he’d ever loved had gone. He had loved his dad and he left, he loved his family too but they just got off and left him to rot. No, love was something that he struggled with and as of yet nobody had ever got into his heart. Of course, Sarah’s family went ballistic when they found out who their daughter was dating. Some big mouth from the estate let the cat out of the bag. Her parents told her point-blank to end the relationship before they did. They didn’t understand the passion they shared and they were doing everything in their power to make sure their daughter got as far away from this dead leg as she possibly could. Sarah’s brothers were livid at the thought of their sister mingling with the riff-raff in the area. They had done their homework on Mikey and they had him down as a scumbag, a grafter and a liar. And, it didn’t take long before they paid someone good money to warn him off. They would break his neck if they had to.

Mikey Milne shit himself when it happened. They Shanghaied him right out of the blue, with no warning whatsoever. There he was just minding his own business walking down the street when from out of nowhere he was dragged into the back of a white transit van. A pillowcase was rammed over his head and he was in no position to fight back. His body was numb and he was light-headed after the first blow was struck. They went to town on him, kicked fuck out of him and nearly killed him. His attackers took him to a deserted area and that’s when he could see their identity for the first time. These men were the real McCoy, gangsters, head the balls and, his heart was in his mouth the second the ordeal began. Malcolm Jackson was a well-known head around the area. He was getting on a bit nowadays but he could still put the fear of God in someone if he wanted to. He pulled out a silver pistol from his jacket and stuck the cold steel barrel in the side of Mikey’s face. There were another two men there too and they watched as Malcolm began his torment. “I’ll blow your fucking head off if you ever go near Sarah again. Do I make myself clear, laddo?”

Mikey was shaking like a leaf and he swallowed hard. All he could do was nod his head. His eyes were wide open and he felt his windpipe tightening. He was in a bad situation, one he’d never found himself in before. Malcolm was a sick bastard and he was well known for the way he attacked the people who’d wronged him. He grabbed some rusty old pliers and stuck them deep into his victim’s mouth. Mikey was wriggling about but there was no way he was moving. They had him pinned down. Malcolm rammed the pliers inside Mikey’s mouth and attached them to his teeth. He had a firm grip on one and let out a menacing laugh. “Fuck me, these are like donkey’s teeth.” He pulled and tugged inside his mouth. A metal taste oozed onto Mikey’s tongue, there was blood dribbling down his chin. This mad cunt had pulled one of his side teeth out. Writhing in pain, Mikey was sucking up the dribbling blood and watched as Malcolm examined the bloody tooth still lodged firmly inside the pliers. “This is just a reminder, kid. If I ever see you again it will mean you didn’t listen to me. And trust me I’ll pull every one of them gnashers out one by one! I’ll make a fucking necklace out of them!”

Mikey had feared for his life that night but he didn’t say a word about it at the time. He tried his very best to cart his new girlfriend but she kept coming back and after days of sobbing her heart out, he knew he couldn’t let her go. He had to face the consequences of his actions and when the time came for Malcolm to pay him another visit he would just have to be ready to defend himself. Mikey Milne was tooled up every day after that attack. He was always looking over his shoulder and waiting for the next beating. The missing tooth on the left side of his mouth was a constant reminder that death was only a whisper away and now he was a target, he valued his life more than ever. In truth, prison was a good place for him to be at the moment and while he was locked up he knew Malcolm and his boys couldn’t get their hands on him. In his own way he’d tried to tell Sarah how bad things were but she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box and even if he spelt it out to her, she would never have believed her family could have contemplated having him wiped from the face of the earth just so she wouldn’t date him anymore.

*

Gary stood inside the visitors centre and booked in for the visit. It was such a malarkey and things had changed so much since he’d last visited someone in the nick. It gave him the creeps. They were given bright green wristbands to wear and it was the screw’s job to make sure they were fitted securely on the visitor’s wrist. Every last detail had to be followed; passports, proof of address, utility bills - it all had to be produced before a visitor was allowed inside the jail. Rachel sat tugging at her wristband, she was still in a mood. “What the fuck is this all about? Look how tight mine is, it’s irritating me already. I’m going to rip it off.”

Gary was distraught and kept a low voice as he tried to calm her down. “Just leave it alone! They won’t let you go over to the main prison if you’re not wearing one. Please, for me, just chill out.” He was sweating, small beads of sweat forming on his forehead. The parcel had to be stashed yet and his arse was twitching knowing the time was nearing to go into the main prison.

Sarah was fidgeting, she’d had enough of the atmosphere. She shot a look over at Rachel and gasped her breath. “Can we just start again? I’m sorry for my part in all this but you have to understand where I’m coming from. Day after day I take all the insults from you and I just keep quiet. But, it does my head in, it really hurts my feelings.”

Rachel folded her arms tightly in front of her and bit hard on her lip. She was a ticking bomb and if they would have been anywhere else, she would have dragged her hair all over the place and kicked fucked out of her. But they were in public and she knew she had to curb her anger and try and sort things out, not for her, for her son. “Just forget about it now, I can’t be arsed anymore. It’s happened and we both said stuff. No point in going over it all is there?”

Sarah was never one to be quiet. She wanted to explore the reason why they argued now and she tried dissecting every part of the dispute. “We’re just different me and you. You have to accept me for who I am. It’s not my fault if I come from a good background,” she paused. “And, I know you don’t really mean all you say anyway, it’s just your way of trying to release your frustration. I’ve read up on things like this and it’s a sort of defence mechanism. The best form of defence is attack.”