KIMMY'S LIST

CHAPTER 22

Trevor strolled back into the cottage after escorting Alicia to her bus. He placed the paperwork he received for Alicia into a file on his desk. When his eyes lifted to the common area, none of the inmates were around.

Trevor frowned. It was too quiet for his liking. That was unusual for this time of morning. All inmates should’ve been up and showered, had breakfast and out of their cells.

He moved towards the kitchen. He glanced in as he passed, on his way to check the cells. His face froze as he stopped in his tracks. He moved back to the kitchen doorway. His jaw dropped. The colour instantly drained from his face.

‘Oh Shit…’ he blurted, as he ran into the kitchen. ‘Oh Shit…’ His panicked voice repeated. A large pool of dark red blood covered the floor, in the rear corner of the kitchen. Kimberly was sitting against the wall. Frenchie was leaning back against her. Both were unconscious and both were covered in blood.

Trevor squatted down beside Frenchie and checked for a pulse. His eyes locked onto what looked like the handle of a knife protruding from her chest. He gasped and pulled his hand back. Only a small part of the silver handle was visible.

He re-checked Frenchies’ pulse. There was nothing there. He checked Kimberly’s pulse. He couldn’t feel a pulse for her either. Trevor stood and ran a hand through his hair. ‘What the fuck happened….?’ he asked himself.

He ran to the rooms of the remaining inmates. Both cowered in their cells. They had seen the bodies in the kitchen and panicked and returned to their rooms. Neither could answer Trevor’s questions about what happened. They simply did not know. One inmate said she heard a blood curdling scream, but that was all she could offer.

He checked their hands and clothes for blood. They were clean. Trevor closed their cell doors, securing them inside. He had to lock down the cottage until investigators arrived..

Panic filled his face as he ran back to his guard station. He dialled a number. ‘I’ve got two bodies in the kitchen,’ he blurted into his phone.

‘I’ve got no idea. I escorted an inmate to the Sally Port for transport to court and when I came back, they were both dead on the floor. OK. I’ve locked everyone else down. I’ll wait until you get here.’

Trevor hung up the phone and moved back to the kitchen door way. As per the direct instructions from his boss, he didn’t re-enter the kitchen, it was now a crime scene.

He couldn’t take his eyes off the two bodies slumped against the rear wall. The blood pool had grown since he was last there and it started to congeal.

Trevor was on his haunches with his head in his hands when his boss burst into the cottage. He ran the whole way there. Trevor stood to greet his boss. He gestured to the rear corner of the kitchen. ‘They’re in there….’

The boss stood in the doorway assessing the situation the situation. His chest heaved while he caught his breath. ‘Who are they?’

‘The one in front is inmate, Frenchie Spencer. The one behind her is inmate, Kimberly Davis. Inmate Spencer has a knife embedded in her chest.’

‘None of the others saw anything….’

‘No,’

Both guards knew that even if the other inmates did witness what went down in the kitchen, the code among prisoners would prevent them from speaking out. The others prisoners couldn’t risk word seeping out to general population that they helped the screws.

Trevor’s boss ran a contemplative hand across his mouth as he regarded the bodies. His eyes lifted to the CCTV camera in the corner of the room. He gestured to the camera. Trevor’s eyes followed. Without comment, his boss moved to the guard station. He lifted the phone and dialled a number.

‘This is Allan Frost. I’m down in the remand precinct, cottage two. Can you key up the footage from the kitchen down here and get it ready for me…’ He checked his watch. ‘Go back about … one hour. I’m on my way up there now.’

He tapped the phone cradle to disconnect the call. He punched in another number. This time it was to the prison general manager.

‘Tammmy…. Allan Frost. We’ve had an incident in the kitchen at Cottage Two, in the remand precinct. Yep. We’ve got two dead after what appears to be some sort of altercation. Looks like one was stabbed …. The other possibly FROM head injuries. There’s a smeared blood trail down the wall behind her head. No, I haven’t yet, but I’m about to go there and review the footage, now. OK. I’ll keep you apprised.’ He hung up the phone.

‘I wouldn’t mind reviewing what happened. Is that a possibility? It is my unit and I’ll be preparing the reports,’ Trevor said.

Allan regarded Trevor in silent contemplation. He nodded as he lifted the phone and punched in an extension. ‘This is Allan Frost. I’m down in remand precinct, Cottage 2...can you arrange for someone to come down here and relieve Trevor. No, immediately. Thank you.’ He hung up the phone.

Once the relief arrived, Trevor and Allan made their way to the prison security monitor room located in the main building. They stopped at a nondescript door. Allan pushed an intercom and glanced up at the camera above the door. An electronic buzz resonated and the door unlocked. Allan shouldered the door open and they stepped inside.

The monitor room was a darkened room about the size of an average bedroom. A guard sat at a bank of six monitors on one side of the room, while on the other side, computer hard drives flashed and blinked from the rows of towers lining the wall.

Allan slid into the chair beside the camera operator and leaned on his elbows. Trevor stood behind watching on.

The camera operator gestured to the middle monitor. ‘This is what I could locate,’ he said. He pressed play.

The vision - only footage commenced with Frenchie standing in the kitchen doorway and Kimberly doing dishes at the sink. Frenchie lifted a knife and brandished it at Kimberly. Kimberly backed away with her hands in the air.

All those watching flinched when Frenchie stabbed Kimberly in the left, upper arm. Kimberly appeared to stagger. Frenchie raised the knife over head to stab Kimberly a second time, but Kimberly seemed to gain a second wind. She lunged at the raised arm, holding the knife, locking both her hands onto Frenchies’ wrist.

They struggled and wrestled as they moved through the kitchen. Kimberly forced Frenchie’s raised arm against the natural movement of the joint. This action caused Frenchie to pivot around, so her back was to Kimberly.

They continued to grapple for the knife. Kimberly managed to free the knife from Frenchie’s grip. With Frenchie leaning on Kimberly, facing away, Kimberly reached around from behind and plunged the knife into Frenchie’s chest. All those watching the review cringed.

With the knife visibly protruding from Frenchie’s chest, Kimberly forcefully hit her palm onto the end of the protruding handle, forcing the knife further into Frenchie.

Frenchie’s knees buckled. She fell back against Kimberly. Kimberly couldn’t handle Frenchie’s dead weight and they both crashed back into the wall, causing Kimberly to forcefully strike her head. Kimberly lost consciousness. Both women slid down the wall from the injury to the back of her head.

The footage continued until Trevor rushed into the kitchen. The camera operator paused the footage. ‘That’s everything,’ he said.

Allan rubbed a hand across his mouth. He exhaled heavily then turned to Trevor. ‘I see that as inmate Spencer attacked inmate Davis with a knife, stabbing her in the left upper arm. In defending herself, inmate Davis wrestled the knife from inmate Spencer and stabbed her attacker with it. Straight forward self - defence, for mine,’ Allan said.

‘Did Davis have to stab her, though…? Then force the knife further in?’ Trevor asked.

‘If someone comes at you with a knife, stabs you in the arm then raises it to stab you again, you act on instincts. If inmate Davis didn’t stop inmate Spencer, she would’ve have been stabbed a second time, possibly fatally. The only way to stop Spencer was to stab her with the same knife that Davis wrestled from her attacker. I don’t think she had much choice.’

Trevor glanced at the monitor on the right. Both Bodies laid motionless against the wall. ‘A lot of good it did her….’ Trevor said. He lifted his chin to the monitor. ‘Split her head open when she hit the wall. She died anyway trying to save herself. At least she took her attacker with her.’

‘Can we get a copy of the footage, please,’ Allan asked the camera console operator.

‘No worries. I’ll get it to you, Trevor,’ the console operator said. ‘I gather you’ll be doing the reports on this.’

Trevor didn’t respond. The console operator glanced back at Trevor to check if the heard his comment. Trevor’s focus was on the two bodies in the kitchen, which appeared on the right hand monitor.

‘That monitor’s a live feed, isn’t it?’ Trevor said. He gestured to the right hand monitor. ‘The review was on the middle monitor?’ he said as a question.

‘Yeah, that one’s live. I brought the kitchen up live and put it on the right hand monitor, while we reviewed the footage here.’ He flicked a finger at the middle monitor.

‘Can you rewind that one?’ Trevor indicated the right monitor.

‘Yeah. Of course. What do you want?’

‘I’m not sure. I thought I saw something, but I can’t be certain. Can you go back about two minutes, or so…?’

The console operator rewound the live feed footage in fast review.

‘Stop. There.’ Trevor jabbed a finger at the monitor. ‘Play … Play from there.’ He leaned in to the review as it commenced to play forward.

A smile filled his face. ‘I knew I saw something. Did you see that?’ He tapped Kimberly on the screen.

Allan stared at the monitor with an open mouth. ‘Shit. She’s still alive….’

Trevor nodded. ‘I thought I saw her right arm move. She just grabbed her forehead, then her arm fell back to where it was. It was quick, but it was there…’

Allan placed a hand on the console operator’s shoulder. ‘Can you get onto the AMBULANCE!… We need one down here, now.’ He pushed himself from his chair. ‘We’ve gotta get back there…’

Kimberly blinked heavily when she opened her eyes. She scanned the room. This wasn’t her eyes. She scanned the room. This wasn’t her bed. Pale blue curtains hung on either side of her.

The sound of shoes squeaking on lino, monitors bleeping somewhere, that unmistakable antiseptic smell all meant she was in a hospital. But why?

She glanced at the clamp over a finger on her left hand and the IV live attached to a stand. She didn’t feel any pain, so why was she there?

Her hand found the bandage wrapped tightly around her head. When she lifted her left arm, a sharp pain caught her breath. She grunted and lowered her arm.

Kimberly closed her eyes. She tried to recall why she would be in a hospital.

A nurse appeared at the foot of Kimberly’s bed. ‘I thought I heard you,’ she said. The nurse checked Kimberly’s IV feed then proceeded to check all Kimberly’s vitals, recording them on Kimberly’s chart.

‘So, where am I and why am I here?’

The nurse flipped the overturned pages to the front and replaced Kimberly’s chart. ‘You’re in the medical centre,’ she said.

‘I sort of gathered that… But what medical centre…?’

‘The prison medical centre. You do know you’re in the Dorathy Oolong Corrections Shelter?’ The nurse asked.

Kimberly closed her eyes. Why Can’t I remember anything? She opened her eyes to the nurse. ‘Do you know why I am in here?’

The nurse lifted Kimberly’s chart from the foot of the bed. ‘You suffered a stab wound to your left upper arm….Um…’ She turned a page. ‘You also suffered a contusion to the back of your head and severe concussion.’

‘Why can’t I remember what happened?’

‘That’ll probably be because of the trauma you suffered to your head. Your memory should return with time.

‘You just have to rest up. You have got considerable swelling on the brain that needs to subside.’

The nurse flipped over the pages and returned the chart. ‘Use the call button there on your bed if you need anything,’ she said, then left the room…