What the hell was Selina doing, wasting herself on him? It didn’t make sense. Except… except, she would need someone to take the blame when she fled, someone Blaine could take his anger out on. Dennis allowed himself a smile. Could she be so calculating, so clever? He didn’t doubt it, not for one second. Yes, she was playing with Fred, same as she was with her own, duped husband. It was perfect.
Apart from the one detaiclass="underline" Dennis himself, who felt he knew everything now. He realized that he had allowed his eyes to drift out of focus. When he blinked them clear, he saw that Selina had turned her head to look at him. Her eyes narrowed as she gave the briefest of smiles.
“Which one of us was that for?” the warder next to Dennis asked. Dennis himself had no doubt. She’d recognized him, maybe placed him as the man she’d seen driving past her house. She turned to say something to her husband, and Fred snapped round, glaring at the warders.
“Ooh, I’m scared,” the warder beside Dennis muttered, before starting to chuckle. But it wasn’t him Fred was looking at: It was Dennis.
Blaine himself just stared at the tabletop, nodding slowly, then said a few words to his wife, who nodded back. When it came time to leave, she gave Blaine a more effusive embrace than usual. It’s called the kiss-off, Dennis thought. She even waved at her husband as she walked away on her noisy two-inch heels. Blew him another kiss, while Fred allowed himself a glance around the room, sizing up the other women on display and rolling his shoulders, as if content that he was leaving with the classiest of the bunch.
Dennis walked back to his office and made a phone call.
“I’m afraid you’re too late,” he was told. “That property was sold this morning.”
He replaced the receiver. She was on her way… he might never see her again. And there was nothing he could do about it, was there?
Maybe not.
Half an hour later, he left his room, locking it behind him as usual. His walk through the prison took him right past Blaine ’s open cell door. Chalmers was on guard duty as usual.
“Visitor, boss,” he growled. Blaine had been seated on his bed, but rose to his feet, facing Dennis.
“What’s this I hear about you, Mr. Henshall? Seems you’ve taken a right shine to Selina. She saw you driving past the house.” Blaine took a step closer, his tone jocular but face set like stone. “Now why would you do a thing like that? Can’t think your employers would be too thrilled…”
“She must’ve made a mistake.”
“That right? She got the make of car and the color: green Vauxhall Cavalier. Ring any bells?”
“She’s made a mistake.”
“So you keep saying. I know I told you plenty of men come to fancy her, but they don’t all go to your extremes, Mr. Henshall. You been following her? Watching the house? That’s my house, too, you know. How many times you done it? Cruising past… peeking through the curtains…” Blood had risen to Blaine ’s cheeks, a tremble entering his voice. Dennis realized that he was sandwiched between these two men, Blaine and Chalmers. No other warders around.
“You a bit of a perv, Mr. Henshall? Locked in that room of yours, reading all those love letters… give you a hard-on, does it? No wife to go home to, so you start sniffing around other men’s. What’s the Governor going to think about that, eh?”
Dennis’s face creased. “You thick bastard! Can’t even see what’s under your nose! She’s out there spending all your loot, shacking up with your pal Fred. I’ve seen them. Now she’s sold the house and she’s clearing off. You just had your last conjugal visit, Blaine, only you’re too stupid to see it!”
“You’re lying.” Beads of sweat had appeared on Blaine ’s forehead. His face was almost puce, and his breathing sounded ragged.
“She’s been conning you from the minute you walked in here,” Dennis rushed on. “Telling you she’s hard up when she spends rolls of cash in every clothes shop in town. Goes shopping with Fred, in case you didn’t know. He carries her bags, carries them all the way into the house. He’s in there for hours.”
“Liar!”
“We’ll soon find out, won’t we? You can call home, see if the line’s been disconnected yet. Or wait for her next visit. Trust me, it’ll be a while coming…”
Blaine ’s hands went out, and Dennis flinched. But the man was hanging on to him, not attacking him. All the same, Dennis cried out, just as Blaine slumped to his knees, hands still gripping Dennis’s uniform. Chalmers was yelling for help, running feet approaching. Blaine choking, clutching at his chest now as he fell onto his back, legs writhing. Then Dennis remembered: old ticker isn’t what it used to be...
“I think it’s a coronary,” he said, as the first of the warders rushed in.
The Governor had asked for Dennis’s version, which he’d had time to think about. Just passing… stopped to chat… next thing, Blaine ’s collapsing.
“Seems to tie in with Chalmers’s version,” the Governor had said, to Dennis’s relief. Of course, Blaine might have other ideas, always supposing he made it.
“He going to be all right, sir?”
“The hospital will tell us soon enough.”
Rushed to the Western General, leaving Chalmers in the doorway of the cell, looking stunned. His only words: “I might not be seeing him again…”
Dennis retreated to his office, ignoring knocks at the door: other warders, wanting to hear the story. He took out the photograph of Selina in her pink bikini. Maybe she’d get away with it now, get everything she wanted. And Dennis would have helped.
And she might never know.
It was nearly going-home time when another call summoned him to the Governor’s office. Dennis knew it would be bad news, but when his boss spoke, he got the shock of his life.
“ Blaine ’s escaped.”
“Sorry, sir?”
“He’s fled the hospital. Looks like it was a setup. A man and a woman were waiting for him, one dressed as a nurse, the other an orderly. One of the escort team has a concussion, another’s lost a couple of teeth.” The Governor looked up at Dennis. “He tricked you, tricked all of us. Bastard wasn’t having a heart attack. His wife and another man came visiting today. Probably making final preparations.”
“But I…”
“You entered the picture at the wrong moment, Henshall. Because an officer was there at the time, we took it that bit more seriously.” The Governor returned to some paperwork. “Just a bit of bad timing on your part… but a major bloody headache for the rest of us.”
Dennis staggered back to his office. It couldn’t be… it couldn’t be. What the hell…? He sat dazed until well past going-home time. Drove home as if by remote control. Slumped into his chair. The story was on the evening news: dramatic escape from hospital trolley. So that had been the plan all along… sell the house and make a clean break, either as a couple or with Fred in tow. Fred: accomplice rather than lover. Scheming with Selina to set her husband free. He took out the copies of her correspondence with Blaine, reading each one through, looking to see if there was anything he’d missed.
No, of course there wasn’t. They could have made plans each time they met. Always the chance of being overheard, of lips being read. But that had to be the way it was. Nothing more or less to it… Dennis couldn’t face sitting here a moment longer, surrounded by her letters, her photos, his senses flooded by memories of her: the shopping trip, her house, her clothing…
He walked to his local bar and ordered a whiskey with a lager chaser. Downed the whiskey in one gulp, shaking the remnants into the beer glass.
“Hard day, Dennis?” one of the regulars asked. Dennis knew him; knew his first name anyway. Tommy. He’d been drinking here for as many years as Dennis had. All Dennis really knew about him were his first name and the fact that he worked as a plumber. It was amazing how little you could know about someone. But there was a third thing: Tommy liked quizzes. Quizzes and puzzles. He was captain of the bar’s Pub Quiz team, and there were trophies behind the bar as proof of his prowess. He was busy right now: tabloid open at the “Coffee-Break Page.” He’d completed both crosswords and was working away at something else. Selina and her crossword puzzles.