Page 69 of Next in Line

Lamont stood in line at the visitors’ shop. When he reached the front, he selected two KitKats and a carton of fresh orange juice. He handed over the two-pound voucher he’d obtained in exchange for cash at the reception desk before he entered the jail.

At the appointed hour, he joined a large group of wives, children and assorted criminals who were being escorted to the visitors’ room, and received a plastic disc with the number 18 on it, indicating the table he’d been allocated.

He sat down in the blue chair, and waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing moves quickly in prison, unless there’s a riot.

Eventually, prisoner 0249 appeared and sat down in the red seat opposite him.

‘Before you speak,’ said Lamont, ‘just checking that you know half the officers watching us from the gallery are there with the single purpose of checking to see if anything passes between visitors and the prisoners. Drugs, knives, and I remember on one occasion even a gun, when the visitor ended up with an even longer sentence than the prisoner he was visiting.’

‘And the other half?’ said Miles.

‘Far more dangerous,’ said Lamont as Miles tore the wrapper off his KitKat and continued to listen. ‘Trained lip-readers. They’ve helped solve several crimes even before they were committed just from the information they pickedup during visits. You’ll have to play the part of a ventriloquist unless you want our conversation to be repeated word for word to Commander Hawksby.’

‘I’ve been wondering how to get a message to Hawksby,’ said Miles, barely moving his lips. He glanced up at the gallery and quickly spotted the officer who’d been allocated his table, before looking across to the other side where he saw his opposite number. He intended to make sure they spent a wasted hour.

‘I asked to see you because I know you do the occasional job for Booth Watson,’ said Miles, quickly discovering that Bs were a problem.

‘I do,’ said Lamont. Two words that could be said without moving your lips.

‘How much does he pay you?’

‘Twenty pounds an hour,’ said Lamont.

‘He can’t even tell me the truth about that,’ said Miles. ‘From now on, you’ll be paid double. But under no circumstances is he to find out you’re also working for me. Is that understood?’

‘Understood,’ said Lamont firmly. Another word that could be pronounced without moving your lips.

‘I hope so, Lamont, because otherwise it will be the last job you do for me,’ he paused, ‘or anyone else for that matter.’

Lamont looked convinced.

‘I want you to find out if BW …’ Miles’s lips hardly moved for the next ten minutes, while Lamont nodded several times.

‘If you need to get in touch with me,’ Faulkner said finally, ‘you can phone the prison any afternoon at five past four.’

Lamont tried to hide his surprise.

‘I’ve got a cooperative guard who’ll be manning the switchboard at that time, and will be expecting your call. Just saythe word “library” and he’ll put you straight through. But don’t stay on the line any longer than necessary.’

‘Understood.’

‘Be warned, if BW discovers you’re working for both sides, he’ll drop you and, more important, realize he’s been sussed. If that happens, you’ll have lost both your paymasters.’

Lamont got the message.

A loud buzzer sounded, the warning that in five minutes the prisoners would have to return to their cells.

Miles gulped down his orange juice and pocketed the second KitKat before he said, ‘If you carry out the job successfully, Bruce’ – the first time he’d ever called him by his first name – ‘you can spend the rest of your days drinking piña coladas in Mallorca. If you fail, you could end up sharing a cell with me.’

Miles rose from his place and without another word got up and walked slowly across the room towards the waiting guards, but not before he’d glanced up at his lip-reader in the gallery, met his eye and said distinctly, ‘I need to see Superintendent Warwick urgently.’

He turned to the other side and repeated the same message.

•••

‘I realize you have other things on your mind at the moment,’ said the Hawk when William joined him at the tea urn, ‘but I’ve just had an urgent call from Belmarsh that we will we need to discuss after stumps.’

‘Of course, sir, but first I have to score a half-century if we’re going to win the match.’

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