Hell by Jeffrey Archer Read Free Book Online

forty-five minutes in a far larger room than my
cell, so without hesitation I thank God and say yes.
    ‘RC or Church
of England?’ the officer enquires.
    ‘C of E,’ I
reply.
    ‘Then you’ll be
on the second shift. I’ll call you around 10.30 straight after Association.’
10.00 am
    During
Association, prison officers watch to see if you become part of a clique or
gang, and how you behave while in a group, or if you’re simply a loner. I’m
about to leave my cell, only to find a queue of prisoners waiting at my door.
Most of them want autographs so they can prove to their partners or girlfriends
that they were on the same block as the notorious Jeffrey Archer.
    When I’ve
finished what can only be described as a signing session not unlike the ones I
usually carry out at Hatchard’s , I’m joined by my new
Listener, Kevin. He confirms that James was shipped out to Whitemoor early this morning.
    ‘So what do you
need, Jeffrey? Can I call you Jeffrey?’
    ‘Of course. What do I need?’ I repeat. ‘How about a bowl of cornflakes
with some real milk, two eggs, sunny side up, bacon, mushrooms and a cup of hot
chocolate.’
    Kevin laughs.
‘I can sort out some Weetabix, skimmed milk, fresh bread.
    Anything else?’
    ‘A decent
razor, some shampoo, a bar of soap and a change of towels?’
    ‘That may take
a little longer,’ he admits.
    As everyone
knows what I’m in for, I ask the inevitable question.
    ‘I was part of
the Dome jewellery raid, wasn’t I,’ he says as if
everybody was.
    What a sentence
to deliver to an author.
    ‘How did you
become involved?’ I asked.
    ‘Debt,’ he explains, ‘and a measure of bad luck.’
    Nick Purnell’s words rang in my ears.
    Don’t believe anything you’re told in
prison, and never reveal to your fellow inmates any details of your own case . ‘Debt?’ I repeat.
    ‘Yeah, I owed a
man thirteen hundred pounds, and although I hadn’t spoken to him for over a
year, he suddenly calls up out of the blue and demands to see me.’ I don’t
interrupt the flow. ‘We met up at a pub in Brighton where he told me he needed
a speedboat and driver for a couple of hours and if I was willing to do it, I
could forget the debt.’
    ‘When did he
expect you to carry out the job?’ I ask.
    ‘The next
morning,’ Kevin replied. ‘I told him I couldn’t consider it because I’d already
got another job lined up.’
    ‘What job?’ I
asked.
    ‘Well, my dad
and I’ve got a couple of boats that we fish off the coast, and they were both
booked for the rest of the week.
    “Then I want my
money,” the man demanded, so I wasn’t left with a lot of choice. You see, I was skint at the time, and anyway, he had a reputation as
a bit of a hard man, and all he wanted me to do was transport four men from one
side of the river to the other.
    The whole
exercise wouldn’t take more than ten minutes.’
    ‘One thousand three hundred pounds for ten minutes’ work? You must have realized that there was a catch?’
    ‘I was
suspicious, but had no idea what they were really up to.’
    ‘So what
happened next?’
    ‘I took the
boat as instructed up to Bow Creek, moored it near the jetty a few hundred
yards from the Dome and waited. Suddenly all hell broke loose. Three police
boats converged on me, and within minutes I was surrounded by a dozen armed
officers shouting at me to lie down on the deck with my hands above my head.
One of them said, “Blimey it’s not him,” and I later discovered that I’d been
brought in at the last minute to replace someone who had let the gang down.’
    ‘But by then
you must have known what they were up to?’
    ‘Nope,’ he
replied, ‘I’m thirty-five years old, and this is my first offence. I’m not a
criminal, and after what my family and I have been put through, I can tell you
I won’t be coming back to prison again.’
    I can’t explain
why I wanted to believe him. It might have been his courteous manner, or the
way he talked about his wife