Jakes Dilemma ( Part 13)

That was nine years ago almost to the day. Jake remembered how he’d tried to explain about the three heavies that had blackmailed him into shooting the Russian; no one believed it of course. It was all on CCTV, quite clearly, he watched it in court along with everyone else, including his Mum and Dad!

They saw him quite calmly and deliberately shoot the Russian four times in the back, then get shot himself by one of the bodyguards.

The Police could find no evidence to substantiate his claim about Squashed Nose, Karate Kid and Quiet Man. The Railway Arch where they met was empty and according to Railtrak, who owned it, it had been empty for years. No one had ever seen Jake with them and no one could remember seeing a blue Bentley in the area, something Jake had always thought strange.

His mates Stevie and Gerry had done him no favours either, both told the Police that they thought he had been acting strange weeks before the shooting, Stevie even went further and told them that he thought Jake was on drugs!

His Mum and Dad told the Police about Jakes “winnings” and the Police found another two thousand pounds in Jakes bedroom. The accusation was that he was secretly dealing drugs as well as using them!

The Police either didn’t believe the story or couldn’t be bothered to follow it up, they just wanted a quick end to what was a straight forward shooting. It was easier for them to go with the story that Jake had shot the Russian while he was high on drugs. They ignored the fact of course that no traces of any drugs were found in Jakes system. The pure facts of the case were very clear, Jake killed the Russian.

Even Jake couldn’t deny that fact.

He kept thinking how clever the three of them were; they had killed the Russian and yet had played no part in it whatsoever. It was all a scam; they had got their money for the killing and had got away scott free. In some way he even admired their technique. Frighten someone into doing a job for you, it was simple and perfect.

Jake pleaded guilty to murder and was given a life sentence, as he was only nineteen; he was given “Custody for Life” with a minimum tariff of ten years.

Jake was quite relaxed about the whole thing, he accepted his fate, he had to, he HAD killed someone and would have to pay the consequences.

His main concern was his Mum and Dad, he could still see their faces when the judge sentenced him to life, Mum broke down, Dad tried to console her but in the end he was sobbing more than she was. But they visited him once a month, no matter where he was.

The first three years were tough; he was in Wandsworth Prison, a large, damp, over crowded, Victorian building. He shared a cell with Terry, Terry owned a chip shop in Lewisham, times were hard so he decided to burn it down for the Insurance money, unfortunately it was in a row of five shops and all five burned down. Terry was serving fifteen years for arson. Terry was in his forties and took Jake under his wing; he had a son around Jakes age and almost “adopted” Jake.

Terry was a martial arts fanatic, he studied every form of combat, Karate, Judo, Kung Fu, Tai Kwan do, no one messed with Terry in Wandsworth.

He once saw Terry take on three much bigger guys in the laundry room once, they were all on the floor within two minutes, it was impressive to watch, Terry almost looked like he was dancing around them, then suddenly bang, he would connect with either hand or foot and they’d drop like flies. He learned a lot from Terry!

Then on to Chelmsford for another three years, once again he shared a cell, this time with Pete. Pete was a career criminal, had been inside longer than he’d been out. He was a burglar, forger, getaway driver, anything really that he could earn a few bob from. On day one Pete tried to bully him, let him know who was boss, Jake was only twenty two but had been taught well by Terry. Pete ended up rubbing the side of his face from a punch that he never saw coming, he apologised for any “misunderstanding”. After that they became firm friends. He also learned a lot from Pete but in different ways entirely!

For the past three years he’d been at Littlehey Prison near Peterborough, he had his own cell and as it was a Cat C Prison it meant that he had a degree of freedom. He’d worked on a local farm for the past twelve months looking after cattle and sheep before they went to slaughter. He liked the work, he liked being outdoors, the farmer was a good bloke and fed him well every lunch time.

He had to be back at Littlehey every day at four o’clock, quick shower, then banged up for an hour before dinner at six. Two hours recreation afterwards then banged up again from eight thirty through till seven the next morning. A month ago he got the news; he was being released on licence. He would have to report in every twenty four hours, he would have to attend certain “meetings” from time to time but he would be out.

When he told Mum and Dad they were thrilled. Dad had aged a lot in nine years; he was only in his fifties but looked ten years older. Mum had a cancer scare a few years back but seemed to be fine now. They needed him more than ever.
Today was the big day, at noon today he would walk out of Littlehey and go home. Neither Mum nor Dad had a car so they had asked his Uncle Tom to pick him up.

At exactly twelve O’clock he walked out of the gates of Littlehey and breathed the air for the first time in nine years as a free man. He was a boy when he went in and now he was a man. A big, strong, fit man!

His uncle Tom was parked about one hundred yards away and he saw him waive, he waived back and headed towards the car.

There is a saying amongst Prisoners, “Just do your time”. He’d done his time; he was told early on that in prison you get a choice of two things, education or religion. He didn’t much care for any religion, but he did get educated, both Terry and Pete had “educated” him very well. But he smiled as he thought about both sayings, his time had not been wasted, in fact he was glad of the time, it had given him time to think, time to plan and most importantly time to organise and get ready for the most important thing in his life. REVENGE!