In an effort to satisfy the needs of funding bodies, government statistics, the service of justice to broader society and a humane approach to custodial sentencing, a prison service has to sustain a complex juggling act. It remains a most difficult and frustrating conundrum for society and an appearance of progress must be displayed to satisfy those who are asked to pay for the service through taxation and those at the top of the administrative pyramid who are ultimately answerable to them. As with other apparently insoluble social riddles, a new initiative is always required to show, using carefully manipulated statistics, that the utmost effort is being made to improve matters. This initiative fails to meet its objectives and is eventually superseded by the next one.
Dursley, buzzing from his work-out, felt like a million dollars, his torso rippling under his short sleeved uniform shirt, chest high and nipples standing proud and more than a little turned on by what he had so recently witnessed in the gym, was still grinning from ear to ear as he let himself into the security department building and mounted the odd, 19th century stairs which led to the office on the first floor. His bubble was only a little deflated by the news that Singleton was in conference with the governor and the senior probation officer. It could wait.
Bob Kirkland had generated enough respect with his younger colleagues, that his team would emulate his work ethic, keep their heads down and get on with the job, not to mention record what they saw and heard as Dursley breeze through.
Overconfident as he was, Dursley was wary of staff from security, quite rightly, he felt ostracised and so he elected to save his verbal report for the following day and promptly left the building, tight lipped.
His large, black leather hold-all, alway in and out through the main gate but never searched, swinging slightly less jaunty by his side, Dursley passed with a wink through the security cordon at the main gate and walked to his car. The black Mercedes was incongruous among the tatty old vehicles and tiny city runabout cars the prison staff usually ran, Dursley knew well that myopic institutions, pressed for staffing to sustain basic functions, would never notice but it was all these very things running through Bob Kirkland's mind as Dursley left. Sooner or later something or someone would connect. Bob would find a way to rid himself and the prison service of Lee Dursley.
Meanwhile, the nugget of information Dursley delighted in was too incredible to be leaked in simple tittle tattle gossip, there was time to think about how to use it well, meanwhile the cocky bodybuilder needed fuel. He flicked open his phone and dialled the answering service, then headed for the Mall.
Not for the first time, Bob Kirkland brooded on the 'cleft stick' he found himself in. A powerful and dangerous boss who could make Bob's whole family a target if he acted against their unlawful activities and a courier who walked in and out of the prison every working day with illegal substances and the potential for all manner of dangerous situations for staff and inmates alike. He knew he needed a little luck.
Bob had been off duty when Ellis had been summoned to the security chief's office so the matter had been reported to him dutifully by one of the young officers present on the afternoon lock-down when Doug had arrived for that dreadful "interview". Who was in the escort party? None other than Dursley. Who was it that stayed, the sole witness to Singleton's interview? Oh! Dursley! There were no raised voices, no sounds of struggle, the abrupt movement of furniture? The meeting had lasted some 45 minutes, medical staff had arrived, 2 big, uniformed men, the interviewee was then brought out apparently semi-conscious but with no visible signs of abuse nor any dishevelment in the appearance of either the security chief or his minion. So, a cozy chat? Was the prisoner drugged?
So many questions flooded Kirkland's mind. Who is Doug Ellis? What's he in for? Why of all the lifers was Singleton interested?
The routines and pitfalls of working life kicked over his curious enquiry, all that would have to wait. So he quickly copied the brief report of the incident, left the original in the appropriate locker, by the book, he was obliged to but knowing that Singleton would not imagine an incident had been logged on the matter. If his boss did go looking or was tipped off that Kirkland was interested it would certainly be destroyed, so on the way to a cell search Bob paid a brief visit to the gym office with the special copy in a document wallet tucked out of site in his clipboard.
At the gate, a huge officer ducking under the lintel as he emerged escorting Dent, one of the trustees / orderlies a man of comically contrasting proportions, who worked for Harry Bantock. As Kirkland nodded recognition and closed the gate behind them, he noticed that the tiny office at his right smelled of something other than cleaning fluids and the overheated body of Harry himself but without even a shrug Kirkland got on with his brisk business, handed the file to Harry who instinctively took it , read it's brief contents without a word and locked it in his own filing cabinet. Nothing much sunk in about it's content but the name "Ellis, Douglas" and the prisoner number. He was already so freaked, his expression couldn't change, Kirkland could see his old friend was 'under the weather' but he was on his way elsewhere. The less that was said and the less that was seen, the safer they would all sleep.