Angel 33 (on report)

Angel didn’t see what happened to Carol Anne. Before he dashed away to use the phone Peter had taken her by the arm into one of the workrooms and thanked her for getting help so promptly. The garden squad was escorted quick-time back to the wing and it was all the girls could talk about. 

‘She’s fucking loop-the-loop anyway,’ Leslie sniggered, as she walked beside Angel, swinging her arms. Speeding, and out of her head, she added, ‘The nurses were putting a bag over her heid. There’s a lot of prime beef, we’ll probably be getting her the night for dinner’.  

 ‘Can I have a word?’ Cherry caught Angel in the corridor between her cell and the dining room. ‘We got report of a very serious assault.’  

Spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread, one of Angel’s favourite. Girls weaved past them, briefly, looking behind them, their eyes lingered on Angel.

Church and the new-start guard moved forward, give Cherry added muscle and crowded Angel, backing her against the wall and blocking their view.

‘A stabbing,’ Church eyed Angel. ‘We’re taking you to the Orderly Room, you’re to appear before the governor on a charge.’

‘That’s nonsense.’ Angel looked towards the dining room, she heard the banging of trays and dishes, the catty comments and smelt the hot grub.

Cherry grabbed at her wrist and arm. The other guards piled on to her.  Angel was on the floor her head had struck against the wall and her was nose and cheek were flattened against the floor. The fat new-start was sitting on her legs. Church lay across her back and had her arms tight and her wrists crossed over where she gripped her hands.

‘Cunts!’ Angel cried. ‘You decked me, for nae reason.’ She tried to raise her head. ‘You’re hurting me.’

‘Just calm down.’ Cherry pressed down on the back of her neck, so Angel’s cheek was hard against the floor. ‘And we’ll let you up.’

‘Fuck off!’ Angel could see the feet and flat shoes of one of the girls standing at the dining room.  

‘We’re going to let you up,’ Church’s grip slackened. ‘We don’t want to hurt you. But we just want to keep you calm…you agree to behave yourself?’

‘Get aff me,’ she screamed. ‘I’m pregnant, remember, and you’re sitting on my belly, yah, fat cow.’

The new start scraped her feet as she shifted over and off Angel’s legs and stood up. Church let go of her arms. And Cherry offered a helping hand as Angel twisted on to her side and sat on her hunkers. Angel rubbed at her arms before standing up and staring at Church.

‘Will you come quietly?’ asked Church.    

Angel rubbed the back of her neck and wrists as she was escorted along the corridor and out of the block. ‘You didnae need to dae that. I’d have came along, all you had to do was ask.’

They went down the stairs and between walkways. ‘You were getting a bit boisterous and threatening there,’ replied Cherry.

‘That’s just rubbish and you know it.’

‘And I suppose Carole Anne beat herself up and stabbed herself with a garden folk tae?’

‘Well, aye, she did.’ Angel’s head fell and she slowed down and stopped on the lower level near a door. They crowed around her once more. ‘You don’t think I did it, dae you?’

Cherry put her hands up, as if surrendering. ‘Don’t get upset now.’

‘Think of the baby,’ said the new-start, sniggering.

Church was more matter of fact.  ‘Aye, she said you did it. And I’ve no reason to disbelieve her.’ She shrugged, ‘Must admit after all these years in here I didn’t think anything else could surprise me. You seemed such a nice and pleasant girl.’

Angel stood her ground. ‘I’m only nice and pleasant when people are nice and pleasant to me. And don’t beat me up and fling me on the ground for nae reason.’

‘It’s out of our hands, you’re seeing the governor anyway.’ Cherry pulled open the door. ‘You can make an official complaint about us to him if you like. And there’ll be a full investigation.’

Angel looked at their uncaring faces. ‘Whit’s the point?...Whit’s the point of anything?’

Church led the way and led them to the Orderly room, she brushed the top of her hair with her hands before entering.

The orderly room wasn’t very orderly. A man in a dark suit, a pen in his hand, was reading papers on his desk. He had a lanyard with his plastic identification tag around his neck hanging over his tie in case anybody didn’t know he was the governor. At his back is a side table with a black-small screen television and video recorder and a telephone.  He glanced up at Church and Angel and back at his papers.  

Angel sat in a chair facing him and Church stepped back towards the door. He drummed his pen as he read in a monotone voice as grey as his hair.  

‘I’ve had a report of a breach of discipline and a  very serious assault on  90232 Carol Anne Docherty in the Garden Area  and you’ve been named as the assailant by Carol Anne Docherty, how to you plead? Guilty or Not Guilty?’

‘Not guilty. She did it to herself.’

He looked back down at his papers and wrote something, before looking back up at her. ‘Due to the serious nature of the crime, I must report this matter to the police. Who’ll make a full investigation. Do you understand that?’

‘Aye,’ Angel nodded.

‘Have you anything to add Officer Church?’

Church stepped forward, Angel could look see the side of the governor’s face, but he was listening.

‘Prisoner 90232, Carol Anne Docherty said earlier today at around 3.40pm that she had got into an argument and been beaten up by prisoner 98636 Angela Orr. The fight had escalated and Angela Orr had taken a garden folk from a wheelbarrow and stabbed her in the stomach with it and left her for dead.’

‘Anything else?’ asked the governor.

‘There was blood and bruising around Carol Anne Docherty’s nose and mouth.’

‘Right,’ the governor, scribbled his notes, before turning to Angel. ‘What have you to say for yourself?’

‘We did get into a fight, but she attacked me…And you’ve got to believe me, I didnae stab her. That’s just rubbish. She just made that up.’

‘Well, as I said,’ he waved Church to the side so he could address her directly, ‘the police will need to investigate to see if they are grounds for pressing charges and a report going to the procurator fiscal. But in the meantime I’m downgrading you. You’ve admitted to breach of discipline by fighting. So there’ll be a loss of privileges for four weeks and obviously you can no longer be trusted to work in the gardens. We’ll need to look at other education or training opportunities after that.’

He looked at Church then at Angel. ‘Dismissed,’ he said.