‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ she replied.

‘Why not?’ He was genuinely puzzled by her unwillingness to discuss the issue. After all, it sounded like she was well aware that she had a problem.

‘I just can’t,’ she said. ‘So please don’t ask me about it again.’

Chapter 57

It was a bright fresh Saturday morning and there was a definite crispness in the air. Amber loved being outside on days like this. She was on her way to start her morning shift and she was walking across the prison car park in the direction of the gatehouse.

Even the bruise on her temple couldn’t dent her positive mood. It had gone down considerably since the fight in the canteen, but it was still a little bit on the tender side. She would definitely be more careful from now on when it came to intervening in prisoner-on-prisoner disputes. At least now, though, she had a little extra insurance in the form of the CS gas Terry had given her. So saying, she kept it in her locker most of the time as she didn’t feel completely comfortable with the idea of using it.

As she drew closer to the gatehouse, she fell within the shadow of the huge perimeter wall that towered up above her. Even on a nice sunny morning like this, the place still looked incredibly draconian and unwelcoming. But then she guessed that was supposed to be the idea – it was a prison, not a five-star hotel.

As she made her way through the car park, she recognised Terry’s maroon S-type Jaguar pulling into a nearby bay. Presumably he was due to start work on the same shift that she was on. She looked at his car in admiration and wondered, not for the first time, how he had managed to afford such a nice vehicle on a prison officer’s salary.

She’d almost reached the entrance to the gatehouse when the howl of a police siren cut through the tranquillity of the morning. She jumped in shock, startled by the loud noise, and spun around to see what was happening.

At least three police cars and one police van had suddenly appeared from different directions, seemingly out of nowhere, their blue lights flashing. They skidded to a halt, their doors swung open and a torrent of uniformed and plain-clothes police officers poured out.

Amber stood rooted to the ground, watching in astonishment, completely taken aback by this sudden frenzy of activity. What the hell was going on?

At the epicentre of the commotion was Terry’s Jaguar. He had just opened the door and stepped out and he looked just as bewildered as she did. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second before he was overwhelmed by a squad of police officers and roughly manhandled into a face-down position on the bonnet of his car, where he was handcuffed and read his rights.

At that point she thought it best to continue on into the prison, if only for the reason that hanging around outside any longer would have made her late for work. She went through gatehouse security in a semi-trance, her mind still processing what she had just witnessed. Terry had obviously done something very wrong to be the subject of such a furore, but what exactly?