Chapter 5 - The Meeting, Part 3

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The Beginning; Prologue - The Attic

Chapter 5
The Meeting
Part 3

Jenkins as a result of the approach had sought his friend Higgins’ advice on the matter. Many times before Billy Jenkins had been duped into such meetings, only to find later that it was either some cheap newspapers ploy of obtaining information to twist & use against him, or it was amateurs that built up his hopes without foundation. There were also the sympathizers & the nuts that wrote to him. Some were women who even proposed marriage. Many of the sick letters he received he submitted to the governor, who was in turn supposed to pass them on to the CID for further investigation. Unknown to Jenkins the majority ended their days at the bottom of the governor’s waste paper bin.

There had also been written approaches made by prominent writers & doctors of this & professors of that requesting audiences before, but none were able to grab the attention of Higgins like that of the correspondence received from Dr. Hodgkins. It was true to say that Dr. Peter Hodgkins was a public figure, but it was more than this that struck a note. It was as if he had inside information. There was an edge to his letters which implied he had access to information that Jenkins had long forgotten. It was only after he had written that Billy was reminded of it. How was this possible? This intrigued the friends that shared cell number 58. So a meeting had been agreed, but only in Higgins’ presence, for he wished to test the Doctor’s conviction.

    The old partitioned interview room was small & shabby. The four men sat in silence at either end of the tabled surface. Separating them was a reinforced Perspex screen, specially constructed for visitors of category “A” prisoners years before. It would be an understatement to say that the room was in desperate need of redecoration. However, demolition & perhaps a rebuild would be more like it, thought Stark as he observed the shabby room from his uncomfortable chair, before facing forward to focus on the scratched Perspex & beyond. Stark observed that the years had not been kind to Billy Jenkins. He sat head hung, slouched in the chair directly opposite, only glancing up on odd occasions, as if to confirm his very existence, to reconnect with the outside world for short periods before drifting away again. He looked drawn & tired. His pale face & lined forehead were concealed slightly by a long greasy fringe, parted in the middle, which hung like curtains.
In contrast to this, Higgins sat bolt upright in his chair next to Jenkins, opposite Stark’s comrade Peter Hodgkins. Peter appeared as professional as per normal, with his pens & note books arranged neatly in front of him on the surface. Higgins’ shoulder length brown hair was swept back behind his ears & his piercing grey eyes alert & inquisitive. Dressed in a pressed navy blue prison uniform, which was immaculate in comparison to Jenkins’s scruffiness, he looked ready for business.

A very special occasion indeed, for it was not usual for two category “A” prisoners to be present at the same visit, in the same room. Extra security had been arranged to ensure there were no problems, because of this. It helped greatly that both inmates were well behaved. So much so that Higgins’s classification was up for renewal, which could have led to his eventual relocation if it continued. This type of evaluation was an on-going prison service process, which in addition to its cost cutting aims was supposed to alleviate problems of overcrowding, but, due to the ever increasing numbers of convicts, was never realized. Higgins’ relocation was OK theoretically, but because Jenkins would never be allowed the privilege, it could one day pose the Governor the discomfort of choice.

Hodgkins inhaled deeply & then began, as the four prison warders looked on.


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.