Night Vision by Jane A. Adams Read Free Book Online Page A

We’ve got a new batch coming in tomorrow.’
    Munroe had gone straight to see the governor; Travers had not been invited, despite the fact that he outranked the other officer, and he had shown no sign of protest at that. It was, Alec thought, almost as though he was determined to be invisible.
    Alec glanced at his boss. Travers stood looking out of the window, seemingly oblivious to the rest of them. Parks was watching him, a look of puzzlement on his face. He doesn’t understand this setup any more than I do, Alec decided. He tried on the thought of Parks as provisional ally; decided it was still too early to tell. He turned back to the prison officer still hovering in the doorway.
    â€˜Care to give me the tour?’ he asked, noting the slight look of annoyance that replaced puzzlement in Parks’ expression. Alec wondered at the cause: because he didn’t want Alec to go off alone? Or simply that he did not want to be stuck with the taciturn Travers? Used to an easygoing man who chatted easily to anyone, Alec was still flummoxed by Travers’ sudden descent into silence and sulks.
    He followed the prison officer back out into the main body of the accommodation block.
    â€˜This was an old army base,’ the officer told Alec. ‘The huts date back to the fifties, but the whole lot was renovated when the base closed in the eighties.’
    Looking at the state of the decor, Alec decided very little had been done since.
    â€˜This is the main recreation area.’ The man indicated the open space. Chairs, small tables screwed down to the floor, a half-sized pool table and table football that looked, from its vintage, as though the army might have left them behind. A dozen men presently inhabited this space; the rest were already out on work detail, the prison officer said. These others were about to join them.
    â€˜Neil Robinson have particular friends, did he?’
    â€˜He was close to one Freddie Gains. Armed robbery – Gains was the driver – but he left us a month before Robinson died.’
    â€˜Did he have many visitors?’
    The officer shook his head. ‘His sister came when she could, but she’s got a young family and lives in Wales, I think. Somewhere that way. She spoke to him on the phone once a week, and I think her husband had a job lined up for Robinson. The rest of the family had given up on him, but she still did her best.’
    â€˜Think it would have worked? The job, I mean?’
    The officer shrugged. ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘Robinson seemed excited about getting back to his family, I know that. Then about a week before he died he seemed . . . I don’t know. Anxious. Jumpy.’
    â€˜Anyone ask him why?’
    Again, the shrug. ‘I think we thought he was just a bit overwhelmed. It can happen when the release date gets close.’
    â€˜Anyone he might have confided in?’
    â€˜After Gains had gone, no, I don’t think so. Robinson got along with most people, in that he knew how and when to keep out of the way. He played pool most evenings.’
    â€˜Any friction there?’
    â€˜No, not that I’m aware. Your colleagues have already asked all this.’
    â€˜I’m sure they have,’ Alec said. ‘Thanks, then, I’ll not take up any more of your time.’ He watched as the officer joined two of his colleagues and the knot of prisoners waiting to leave for their work. All looked at him with varying degrees of hostility and curiosity as they left, but only one met his eyes. A young man, tall, freckled, sandy-haired, who contrived to bring up the rear and dropped something to the floor at Alec’s feet.
    Little seemed to have changed when Alec returned to Robinson’s room. Parks was poking aimlessly at the few paperbacks on the shelf, and Travers now perched on the window sill, looking back into the room instead of out of the window. Other than that, the frosty silence remained.
    Alec