Capital Offence

Chapter 35

Saturday 22nd June

4 days left

It had been easy enough for Vaila to arrange a meeting with Dave at short notice. Dave didn’t have any other kind of notice.

She had requested a meeting with him in a private room, away from the other prisoners and their families. Again, no problem. That’s the way the authorities preferred it too. Physical contact seemed to be permissible. Given the circumstances...

She had been asked to submit to a search before she went in. She’d taken the precaution of putting the new mobile phone into a make-up bag. The phone was one of the tiny new ones which folded in half. The type you could hide in your bikini, according to the adverts. Obviously the dozy female warder who’d given her a lingering rub-down in the interrogation room thought the phone was a powder compact or something, rattling about among the lipstick and mascara.

Vaila had programmed in the phone number which Jamie had supplied. It would now take only one button press to make the call. If she could get the earpiece into Dave’s ear, then...

Dave was in a hell of a state.

He was brought in to the room in which she waited, handcuffed to a warder. He seemed clinically depressed. He shambled in, barely lifting his feet. Vaila wondered if he’d been medicated somehow. Perhaps they’d been sedating him.

As the warder unfastened the handcuffs, Dave looked down at his feet.

Vaila walked over to him, and took him by the hand. Dave didn’t respond. She told the warder that she wished to be left alone with him. The man told her that they’d be keeping an eye on things.

The door slammed heavily shut.

The damp oppression of cream gloss-painted brickwork closed in on Vaila’s soul. The room had only one exit.

Only one conceivable exit.

“Davie.”

No response.

“He didn’t mean it. He’s not given up.”

Dave continued to look down at the painted concrete floor.

“Dave. I want you to look at me. I want you to concentrate.”

Dave’s eyes eventually lifted to meet hers. She put her hands on his shoulders. For a moment, there was a kindling of light in his eyes. Then they went blank again. It was like trying to start a car with a flat battery.

“OK. Time for the jump leads.”

A look of vague annoyance flitted across Dave’s face, but he couldn’t summon up the enthusiasm to ask what she meant.

“Don’t give up, Davie boy. We haven’t.”

“He shook his head slowly, then looked down again. Vaila lifted her hands to his head, and started to run her fingers through his hair. The she spoke very quietly to him.

“In a moment, I’m going to do something unexpected. Don’t worry - I won’t embarrass you. But I don’t want you to react. Do you hear me Dave?”

Dave looked back up. He put his hand on hers, as it ran through the wavy hair above his ear.

She leant her face forward, against his, and murmured again. “I’m sure they’re listening. Just don’t react. Pretend you’re speaking to me. OK?”

She leaned back, and cupped his face in her hands. He nodded, warily.

“OK?”

He nodded again.