“Are you sure you want to go?” James senior asked his wife for the umpteenth time since they had received the letter saying they could see the person who stole their baby.
“I’m not going to get any answers sitting here,” Mary replied, putting her coat on.
“OK, but if you feel uncomfortable at any time, or you want to change your mind, just say,” said James, picking the car keys up.
“I don’t expect it will be a comfortable visit,” said Mary. “I suspect there will be things said that I’d rather weren’t true. But I want to know the truth. So are you going to drive or shall I?”
“I’ll drive,” said James heading for the door.
“Are you still sure you want to go through with this?” James senior asked as he parked the car in the prison car park.
“We are here now,” said Mary. “It would be stupid to turn back now.”
“No one would think any less of you if you didn’t go in,” said James.
“I would,” said Mary, getting out of the car.
“I was just saying,” said James, locking the car and following her. “It’s a very imposing building.”
“I know,” said Mary. “So lets get this thing over with.”
“I don’t think Myrtle should have asked you to do this,” said James. “It’s too much.”
“I don’t want to hear any more of this,” said Mary. “I’m beginning to think that you don’t want me here.”
“Of course I do,” stuttered James. “There are things we need to ask her.”
“We’ve come to see Peggy Brown,” Mary told the prison officer.
“This would be restorative justice?” the officer asked.
“Yes, that’s what it is,” said James senior.
“I’m afraid that we only allow one person to speak to the prisoner,” the officer explained. “Your wife can wait for you in the room over there,” he added nodding towards a side room.
“Why do you assume that it will be my husband who is going to talk to her?” asked Mary.
“I, er, it can be very upsetting, in a case like this,” the officer said, looking round him for someone else to explain.
“I shall speak to Peggy Brown,” said Mary. “My husband can wait in that room.”
“Do you really think that is a good idea,” said James, hurriedly. “You will be in there, by yourself with her.”
“If I am with her, I wont be by myself,” said Mary. “And I should think there would be someone in there to make sure I don’t kill her or anything like that.”
“Of course, the visit will be supervised at all times,” said the officer, happy to get onto familiar ground.
“Then there should be no problems,” said Mary.
“I just don’t think you should put yourself through this,” said James. “I know what questions you want answering, I can tell you what she said.”
“I want to look her in the eye and see how she reacts to what I ask,” Mary replied.
“The prisoner has just arrived in the side room,” said the officer. “If you would care to come this way.”
“Thank-you,” said Mary.
“I’ll be waiting,” said James as she headed off into the prison. When the door closed behind her he went to the side room to wait.
“The prisoner is in here,” said the officer, unlocking a door for Mary to walk through. “I shall be here to supervise,” he added following her into the room.
“Thank-you,” said Mary as he pointed to a chair. Peggy Brown was sitting on a similar chair on the other side of the table.
“I thought James was the one who was coming to ask the questions,” Peggy said to the prison officer.
“He offered, but they are my questions,” said Mary. “Anyway, it shouldn’t matter who is asking them.”
“No, of course not,” said Peggy, looking to the officer, who shrugged his shoulders. “I just thought.” her words trailed off.
“You thought you could flannel him,” said Mary.
“No, of course not,” stuttered Peggy.
“Why did you take my baby?” asked Mary.
“There was a couple, they wanted a baby, but they couldn’t have one and you had two,” said Peggy.
“They could adopt,” said Mary.
“They tried, but there is so much bureaucracy to go through,” said Peggy.
“They were turned down for adoption?” asked Mary.
“It is a difficult process and so easy for things to go wrong,” said Peggy.
“So it was easier to steel one?” asked Mary.
“It wasn’t like that,” said Peggy. “Your husband said that you couldn’t cope with two, your finances would be stretched just looking after one, and the strain on you.”
“Who told you this?” asked Mary.
“Your husband,” said Peggy.
“Who were these people, the ones who couldn’t adopt by the normal channels?” asked Mary, doing her best to stay calm.
“I can’t remember their names,” said Peggy. “I don’t think that I ever had them, just Mr and Mrs X.”
“You left my baby at an orphanage, why?” asked Mary.
“Mr and Mrs X, they died,” Peggy explained.
“There was a drive past shooting, they were having lunch outside at a restaurant, a motor bike drove past and the pillion passenger opened fire on the diners,” the prison officer explained.
“I was supposed to meet them there,” said Peggy.
“Did you see what happened?” asked Mary.
“Yes,” Peggy sighed.
“Did you stop to help?” Mary asked.
“I didn’t think it would be a good idea,” said Peggy.
“So you took my baby to the orphanage?” Mary asked.
“Seemed like the best thing to do,” Peggy smiled.
“You could have taken him back to the hospital and us,” said Mary.
“Then I’d have had to explain what I was doing with him,” said Peggy. “I’d have lost my job.”
“Which one, the one at the hospital or the one steeling babies?” asked Mary.
“Both,” said Peggy.
“Do you want to ask any more questions?” asked the prison officer to Mary when she had not said anything for a couple of minutes.
“Just one last question,” said Mary. “Who told you which babies to steel and where to take them to?”
“I don’t think it would be very wise of me to answer that question,” said Peggy, looking at the prison officer, not Mary.
“Why not?” asked Mary.
“I’d like to go back to my cell,” Peggy said to the prison officer. “I’ve said all that I’m going to say.”
“Wait here and you will be escort you back to your cell,” the officer said to Peggy. “If you will come this way,” he said to Mary, holding the door open for her.
“Thank-you,” she smiled, getting up and walking out. The officer closed and locked the door behind her and they headed back to the little room where James senior was waiting.
“Are you OK?” asked James senior as soon as he saw Mary. “You look very pale.”
“You told her that I couldn’t cope with two babies,” said Mary.
“You struggled with just one,” said James.
“I struggled because I had lost one baby,” Mary replied. “You don’t know how I would coped if I had been allowed to take both my babies home. You didn’t give me a chance.”
“I,” stuttered James.
“Always you isn’t it,” said Mary, pulling her phone out of her pocket.
“Who are you ringing?” asked James.
“Myrtle,” said Mary. “Could you get me out of here?”
“Of course,” said Myrtle, waving her wand.
“Thank-you,” said Mary as she materialised in Myrtle and James juniors living room.
“Mum, are you OK?” asked James junior.
“He told the midwife that I wouldn’t be able to look after two babies, so she took you,” said Mary. “He tried to justify himself by saying that I struggled looking after one baby!”
“Of course you struggled, you’d lost one of your babies,” said Myrtle. “I don’t know how I’d cope if someone took one of my two precious little one.”
“Exactly,” said Mary. “I hope you didn’t mind me ringing. I couldn’t stand being in the same room as him for one minute longer.”
“You can stay here as long as you want,” said Myrtle.
“I just need to sort out what to do next,” said Mary. “That and help get to the bottom of all this baby steeling.”
“Did you find out anything from the person who stole me?” asked James junior.
“The couple you were to be given to were killed, just before the handover, so she fled and left you at the orphanage,” Mary replied.
“Why didn’t she just take the baby back to the hospital?” asked Myrtle.
“She thought she’d loose her job,” said Mary, slowly. “The prison officer knew how they had died,” she added. “I didn’t think of it at the time, but, why would he know that? It didn’t come up in the court case.”
“That is a very good question,” said Myrtle. “We need to talk to that officer.”
“I think your wife smells a rat,” said the prison officer, as Mary disappeared.
“What are you going to do about it?” asked James senior.
“I need to have a word with Peggy,” said the officer. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“I’ll be heading off,” said James as the door shut behind the prison officer and James heard the key in the lock.
“I don’t suppose Myrtle would get me out of here,” he thought pulling his phone out of his pocket and then putting it back ask he heard the key in the lock again.
“I will walk you back to your car,” said the prison officer, taking James senior by the arm and pulling him out of the room.
“But,” stuttered James.
“Just act natural,” said the officer as they walked to the car. “Car keys,” he said holding out his hand.
“What are you doing?” asked James.
“You are too emotional to drive, so I am going to drive for you,” said the officer, taking the keys from James’s hand and pushing him into the passenger seat.
“You can’t do this,” said James as the officer fastened his seat belt and then got into the drivers seat.
“There’s no one to stop me,” said the officer as he stuck a knife through James heart into the seat and then drove out of the prison.
“The pay wasn’t very good,” he thought. “And this has tied up a few ends that needed tying up.”
He accelerated down the road, putting the car into fifth gear as soon as he got to some clear road and as he did so the bomb under the bonnet exploded and the car was engulfed in a ball of fire.
By Janice Nye © 2021
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