Kerry Barnes - Deceit

‘This neighbour, then. Was she shagging this fella of yours?’ asked Julie.

With an inward groan, Kara replied, ‘No, that’s just a story that grew legs and ran. I didn’t know my neighbour was in the driveway, and the truth is, I didn’t know the boiler was going to explode. It all happened so fast. I doused the house and lit the match and headed for the back garden. That’s all I remember, really, apart from ending up in here.’

There was silence. You could have heard a pin drop. Julie and Vic looked at this attractive and slim woman in front of them and just stared, totally dumbfounded by the precise and unemotional words leaving Posh’s mouth. It was left to Vic to speak up. ‘So, you’re a bit of a reckless fucker on the quiet, then?’

A soft chortle left Kara’s mouth. ‘Well, I guess I must be.’

‘Right, I’m off to the canteen. I need to get a few bits. Jue, show Posh the ropes, will ya? She’s walking around like a tit in a trance.’ With that, Vic jumped from the bed and was gone.

‘You already know the ropes, I take it?’

With a big huff, Julie replied, ‘Yeah, well, me ol’ man, the wanker, don’t work, ya see, and I needed a few bits for the babe, and I got caught choring ’em. They gave me three months. I already had a suspended, for nicking out of Waitrose. Some snooty cashier caught me, but it was the thump on her nose that got me inside. Anyway, I ain’t never done anything too serious like burning down a big posh house.’

For the first time, Kara realised that inmates like Julie saw her crime as more serious than stealing and violence, and yet she hadn’t given it a second thought, assuming that hitting someone was far worse. Perhaps Julie was right, and the judge would come down hard on her. She’d been racked with guilt since the incident and would take whatever the judge decided to throw at her if the neighbour was seriously injured. She would deserve to suffer and yet she was also terrified of being locked away for years.

‘What’s up, Posh? You don’t ’alf look white.’

‘Just the thought of that innocent woman dying and it’s all my fault. I will never get out of here. I don’t deserve to either.’

‘So, what’s ya brief say? I mean, is she outta hospital yet?’

She guessed Julie meant her lawyer. ‘Er, no, I don’t have a brief, or family, or a boyfriend anymore, so I haven’t a clue.’

‘You best speak to your personal officer and get a brief, sharpish. You will need all the bleedin’ help you can get. I’ll give ya the name of mine, if ya like. I’m seeing him on a legal visit tomorrow. Shall I put a word in? He does legal aid.’

Kara nodded, feeling totally deflated. ‘If you wouldn’t mind, that’s so kind of you.’

‘No worries. I’m going down to the canteen. I need some sany towels. I came on early. All the bloody stress, I guess.’

A sudden thought almost knocked Kara sideways. She hadn’t even considered her period. She was late, the sickness over the last few days having put everything else to the back of her mind. And what with worrying about herself and Justin and now being incarcerated in this absolute shit-hole, it was no wonder that her once logical and formidable brain was out of kilter.

She did a mental recap of when she’d last had a period and an uneasy feeling gripped her stomach. It had been her last trip to Papua New Guinea where she’d thought she had contracted the lingering gastro bug that had been infecting the villagers. She could quite easily have thrown up the pill then. She calculated back the dates and sat there numb; she was possibly two or three months pregnant. How the hell could she have not known? She was medically trained. She’d put it down to sickness and stress, and she hadn’t thought a baby was on the menu yet – not this side of thirty anyway.

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