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‘Ta-ra for now.’

Chapter Nine
    Left alone, Colin sat on the edge of his bunk. He’d been nervous when he woke up, and now his body was shaking and he was finding it hard to control. He took deep
breaths, and listened to the noise of the inmates making their way to the canteen. He almost fainted when someone rapped on the cell door and an officer looked in on him.
    ‘Not going down for breakfast?’
    ‘No, sir. Got a bit of a dickey tummy from the shepherd’s pie last night.’
    ‘Oh, right,’ the officer said and went off down the corridor.
    Colin took more deep breaths to try to calm his nerves. He watched the minutes tick by very slowly until ten minutes to eight. Then he collected Barry’s things, his art pad, his crayons
and felt-tipped pens. He put them in the plastic bag along with Barry’s wash bag, which held his toothbrush, razor, shaving cream and comb. By the time Colin had stripped Barry’s bed
and folded the sheets and blanket, it was two minutes to eight and time to go.
    He paused by the cell door and took the art pad, crayons and pens from the bag and hid them under Barry’s pillow. Colin knew how important they were to his friend, and he reckoned he could
do without them.
    With the bag and the bedding stacked in his arms, his head was only just visible above the pillow. He could hardly see a thing as the thick lenses of the glasses blurred everything. He pushed
the glasses to the end of his nose so he could peer over the top of them, and walked out into the empty corridor, moving slowly. He walked down the iron staircase and on towards the wing’s
staff office. There was only one officer on duty. He was eating a bacon sandwich as Colin appeared at the open door. Colin gave Barry’s name and number and waited, his heart pounding hard
inside his chest.
    The officer popped his last bite of sandwich into his mouth, checked on a notice board and then looked at his wristwatch. He put in a radio call for another officer to come to escort prisoner
Marsden to the release area for processing. Colin hoped that his shaking legs would not give the game away.
    ‘You had breakfast?’ the officer asked.
    ‘Yes, sir,’ Colin lied, not wanting to speak any more than was necessary.
    He remained standing as the officer drank his coffee and read the newspaper. It was ten minutes before there was a call to say the escort was at the wing entrance. The officer, irritated by the
interruption, tossed the paper aside, picked up some paperwork and gestured for Colin to follow him.
    They had to walk the length of the recreational area of the wing, then along a narrow corridor to the barred gate, where a female officer was waiting. Colin was relieved as he had never seen her
before. The male officer handed her the paperwork, saying it was prisoner Marsden’s court release file.
    Colin was amazed that she didn’t even check the file before unlocking the gate and stepping to one side to let Colin pass in front of her. The officers chatted for a while and it was
another few minutes before the gate was relocked. She then gestured for him to walk ahead of her along the corridor. It seemed to go on and on forever, until finally they reached another gate.
    At each gate, CCTV cameras were filming them and the female officer would come to a stop, show her key, and speak into a microphone.
    ‘Officer Stoodley taking Prisoner 8724 Barry Marsden to reception gates for court appearance release,’ she said every time in a bored voice.
    Once that was confirmed, the gates opened electronically and the officer used her key to open the last lock. Each time, Colin stood with the stack of Barry’s things in his arms, his heart
jumping in his chest. They turned down what seemed like endless corridors, crossed the exercise area and eventually reached the entrance to the prisoners’ main reception area.
    Colin frantically wondered why they were there. He was relieved, when the gate opened, to discover that the reception was