Chapter 5 - The Meeting, Part 2

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The Beginning; Prologue - The Attic

Chapter 5
The Meeting
Part 2

Soon the car slowed, & the mist cleared, as it entered the 30 mile an hour speed limit of the small town, which was situated on the upper featureless wastes of Dartmoor. Every single house that they passed was built of imposing grey granite, that collectively implied tough, fortress-like togetherness, as if to parameterize a mystic kingdom. However, it wasn’t hard to imagine that on dark stormy days, or grey misty mornings that this place could be mistaken for hell on earth, by some, whilst others admired it’s cruel beauty. Today, thankfully, there was a break in such weather.

                     The few locals that walked the roadside pavements, as the sun peered down on them through gaps in wispy cloud, were by contrast colourfully dressed, as if to deny there somewhat grim surroundings. In some cases they stood out like exotic birds of paradise, loud against the greyness, rebellious with cause. Especially the sprinkling of youths, with their silent, yet colourful, cry for escape, from the town they were born into without choice.
                     It happened that most of the town's folk worked, or had family members that worked for the town’s principle employer & its premises loomed over each & every other building present castle-like; So much so that every road lead to its front gates, except that this was no fairy tale kingdom!

    The infamous Princetown prison, better known in some parts as Dartmoor prison, was built during the Napoleonic wars & was originally used to incarcerate French prisoners. It has been home to murderers, terrorists, bank robbers & some say ghosts, since. The armed bank robber John McVicar, once termed “public enemy number one”, was an inmate there in the past. Reformed he is now an author, but during his spell at Dartmoor he was at his most intimidating. Jailed during the sixties, at his height he chilled the blood of many a warder & fellow inmate, even from behind steel bars. Rumour had it that his disruptiveness & imposing attitude lead to a deal that was designed to quell his misbehavior. Whether it was true or not, it involved visits to the local pub, under police escort, on special occasions, such as birthdays!
Anyway, long before McVicar’s time & long since he’d left, there were others who boasted that they had survived the place. However, it is interesting to know that many of the convicts, that are on record as having escaped, had either been recaptured on the roads, or had perished on the moor! Dartmoor was also the fictional location of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Baskervilles Hall & you’d be forgiven for believing that it was possible for hounds from hell to roam these parts. The story after all was based on local legend! Therefore, I guess you get the picture? It’s not a place for the weak hearted.

    Stark parked in the visitors car park & after locking the vehicle the pair made their way to the gated entrance. On arrival they were greeted at the guard house & asked to present ID, before being searched.

Prior to their visit Hodgkins had written many letters & made many telephone calls to enable the meeting. He had managed to convince Jenkins that the visit was more than just research for a novel, & that a genuine attempt would be made to unearth fresh evidence. Obviously he stressed in the letters that he hoped that it could perhaps lead to an appeal with some chances of success, if they were lucky enough to force the re-opening of the original closed case.


Written by T.R.Vinnicombe (aka Dr. Peter Hodgkins) ©2009 all rights reserved & none of the contents of this site can be copied or used in any way without the written consent of the author. Published online by MicroHotStar 2009.