Chapter Three

 

The roll calls that followed were easier to bear. Alfie strolled the last stretch of cells on the second landing. Gruff voices called out their names, all until Queenie’s softer tone gave Alfie whiplash.

After his brief conversation with Nate, Alfie looked up the photographs of the inmates. Some of the most masculine voices had skinny faces and frail bodies. Or at least that was the way they entered the prison. The scariest faces had the scariest voices, but Queenie’s appearance stuck in Alfie’s mind. The voice of Queenie didn’t suit the photograph on the system. A round body type with a chubby face and cracked lips. He had dark skin and dark eyes. Alfie wondered if the voice was a guise to get him to check the cell, but on the rare occasions he heard Queenie speaking to the men in the neighboring cells, he still sounded feminine.

“Freshman…”

Alfie glared at the Nate’s cell door, then tutted.

“It’s prison officer Alfie.”

Nate hummed in amusement, and the hairs of Alfie’s nape stood up. He smacked the back of his neck like it was the prickle of an insect.

“I prefer Freshman. How you liking your first week on H-wing?”

Alfie shrugged, rubbing the place he had struck. “Quieter than expected.”

“You have me to thank for that.”

Alfie shifted from foot to foot. He had suspected as much but didn’t wish to draw attention to it.

“I don’t need any favors.” Alfie mumbled.

“I’m looking out for you Freshman.”

“I don’t need you to.”

Nate tutted. “Don’t get defensive. I can’t have the meaner ones throwing insults at you.”

“I can handle mean insults fine.”

“But you don’t have to. I’ve got your back. So how you gonna thank me? I was thinking opening the hatch and letting me see that smile of yours.”

“Not on your life. Name,” Alfie said, tapping his pen to the board.

“You know who I am, no need to ask, but you still do. You like our little chats just as I do.”

Alfie narrowed his eyes, then pressed the pen hard enough to spear through the paper. He walked away but still caught Nate’s chuckle. He shivered, then tightened his face in anger. Nate toyed with him like a cat with a mouse. A cat that was muzzled and chained, but still managed to make the mouse squeak and scuttle away.

****

The first few weeks passed without incident. As soon as he heard the word freshman he ticked Nate from the list and walked back down the stairs, but his eyes stayed on Nate’s cell door.

The word freshman stirred something in Alfie’s chest, but he quickly fled the cell door before his cheeks pulsed red and his body got jittery. Marie always noticed his change in skin tone and offered him a sympathetic smile.

“Just ignore Nate and be thankful we don’t work days.”

She thought the redness to his face was out of fear, and she was half right.

Nate terrified him, but not for the obvious reason. After a week, he trusted the door not to fall under Nate’s whisper. He was safe from the triple murderer, but his heart still jumped into his throat, and his skin still tingled at the sound of his voice. That was the effect of his alluring speech pattern. The soft wisp of ‘Freshman’ through the seams of the door.

Alfie scrolled through every inmate on the computer, and although Queenie’s appearance surprised him, it was Nate that made the biggest impression. Alfie found himself staring at the front page of his file at least once a night, but never clicked down for the next page.

Nate looked younger in the photo, by ten years to be exact, but age hadn’t depleted his good looks, it had enhanced them. It was the most uncomfortable realization, but Alfie found Nate attractive.

If Nate weren’t a criminal and they’d met in a bar, Alfie would’ve relished in the attention. He would’ve salivated at the crotch and offered himself up for the taking. He would’ve gone home with him and stayed for the breakfast like Nate had joked about.

But Nate was a criminal, and although Alfie wasn’t ready to read the details of his crime, he felt the energy freeze in the prison guards when he was mentioned. There were other murderers on the wing, but whatever Nate did stuck in the mind of all that read his file. They were afraid of him for the right reasons, not Alfie’s messed up ones.

Nate’s blue eyes pierced the camera lens, and his lips were pressed in a serious line. The hair on his head was a few shades brighter than the stubble of his face, and even though it was a head and shoulders shot, the muscles of his neck highlighted just how huge the man was.

“Ah, you finally read it then. Evil, through and through,” Henry mumbled.

Alfie didn’t answer. He glared at the screen into the suffocating eyes of Nate.

The gates opened and closed in the distance, and footsteps came close, but Alfie continued his staring contest with the photo.

“Not my best shot.”

Alfie flew from his chair at the voice, whipping around with his hands up, balled into fists.

Nate stood with his arms behind his back and a huge smile on his lips. The t-shirt he wore clung to his pectorals, and the black color deepened the intensity of his eyes. The image on the computer had nothing on the real Nate. Two prison guards stood either side of him, both shifting and breathing erratically.

“Come on, Nate. Let’s get you back on the wing.”

He didn’t move, and the guards didn’t try to lead him away from the office. Without taking his eyes off Alfie, Nate spoke to them in his gravelly slow voice.

“You’ve both had a long shift. Why don’t you clock off now, get these two to take me up?”

The two guards flanking Nate immediately nodded, and Alfie turned to Henry who shrugged. Marie and Glen had sneaked off, and it wasn’t Henry’s job to help with H-wing, but he nodded anyway.

“Yeah okay. Me and the fish can handle him.”

Nate’s eyes left Alfie for the briefest of seconds and attached to Henry. The old man’s throat bobbed with a dry swallow, and he immediately glanced away.

The two officers rushed away, and the gates clunked behind them.

Alfie heard laughs of relief as they faded down the corridor to freedom.

Henry flicked his chin out for Alfie to go out first. Nate didn’t move to allow him passage, so he was forced to squeeze through the doorway, and Nate snorted in amusement.

As soon as the gate was open to H-wing, Nate rushed through, marching with a fierce pace up to the top walkway.

“Hey, slow down,” Alfie growled.

Nate ignored him and continued his fast stride. Alfie half-jogged behind, matching his brisk pace. It was only when they were outside the cell door that Alfie realized the mistake he had made. He glanced over the railing to find Henry.

He huffed and puffed on the first set of stairs, too far away to help if something happened.

“You know it’s unfair,” Nate said slowly.

“What is?”

A devouring smile spread across Nate’s face. “You get to keep a picture of me, but I don’t get one of you.”

Nate took a step closer, and Alfie backed up until the railing pressed into his spine. Nate looked down at him, smile still on his face, but softer than before. His attention dropped to Alfie’s lips, and he felt them stir like Nate had brushed them.

Nate didn’t touch him; their bodies were still apart, but there wasn’t enough air between them. Alfie wanted to gulp for it, pant, but he didn’t want to show Nate any weakness. Alfie flicked his chin out toward the cell, but no words formed in his head or flowed from his mouth.

“The way you dress, it drives me crazy.”

Alfie frowned. He dressed the same as everyone else, standard white shirt and black trousers. Nate seemed to read the confusion on his face and laughed softly.

“The way you have your tie, the fact your top button’s done up, and your shirts tucked in. The tightness of your trousers around your arse, and then there’s your face.” Nate trailed off and sunk his teeth into his bottom lip before releasing the flesh with a hum. “You have such a pretty face, pretty eyes, pretty lips, and a smile to kill for…”

Alfie couldn’t speak, but he could shake his head.

“You do, Freshman.”

Alfie forced himself to swallow. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

Nate tilted his head back and groaned in ecstasy. The sudden noise made Alfie jump and shuffle along the railing.

“You tease me with your words, Freshman.”

Alfie had freed himself from the crushing bubble and regained his voice. “I’m prison officer Alfie. Now get in your cell.”

Henry wheezed into view, his hand pressed to his chest as he stumbled along. He stopped and panted for breath then cleared his phlegmy throat into a tissue.

“There goes any notion of hard,” Nate muttered.

Henry shoved the tissue back into his pocket. “Pat down.”

Nate raised his eyebrow and turned to Alfie with a coy smile. “Got to pat me down.”

Alfie cocked his jaw. “Show me how it’s done, Henry.”

Nate’s smile vanished, and the eyebrow dropped back into position. “You what?”

Let’s get it over with,” Henry muttered. “You know the drill. Turn around and put your hands on the wall.”

Nate breathed heavily through his nose then did as he was told.

Henry creaked and groaned as he leaned to pat both of Nate’s legs. He ran his frail hands up Nate’s sides, then nodded to himself. “Done.”

Alfie unlocked Nate’s cell and moved aside for him to go inside. Henry followed him and unlocked the cuffs from his wrists. Once Henry locked the door, Alfie rushed past him, desperate to get away.

Henry was surprisingly fast coming down the stairs compared to going up them. He kept close to Alfie the whole way back to the lobby and only spoke in the office out of the earshot of the prisoners. “You handled yourself well. Thought I’d get up there and you’d be a fish laid out to dry.”

Alfie scratched the back of his head. “Why was he out his cell anyway?”

“He has a skype call with his nana Doris once a month. She lives in Canada, so the timing can be erratic. Did Ryan not tell you?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“And have you still not read Nate’s file?”

Alfie shook his head. “I haven’t got around to it.”

“Well you should. Not only does it tell you what he did, but it says about family and visitors too. The only family he’s got is his nana Doris who barely remembers her own name and his sister who thinks he’s evil like we all do.”

“She doesn’t visit him them?”

“No. No actual visitors in the ten years he’s been here, but don’t start feeling sorry for him. He doesn’t deserve a molecule of sympathy.”

Henry settled into his chair and slid his glasses over his eyes. There was no clearer gesture for ‘don’t talk to me’.

Alfie sighed and turned back to the computer. Nate’s face flashed on screen, and he quickly closed the file.

Roll call arrived and Alfie refused to walk the top corridor.

Marie rubbed his shoulder in sympathy, and it took all his determination not to shrug the hand away.

Glen moved sheepishly up the stairs, darting worried looks back at Marie.

Alfie rolled his eyes and went along the bottom cells, ticking off names. He glanced up to catch Glen at the farthest end, outside of Nate’s cell. The door thumped, and Glen jumped back in fright. Then every cell began drumming in unison. The sound reverberated deep in Alfie’s chest, and he looked to Marie who was backing away from the cells fast.

It sounded like the boom of a bomb, over and over. The concrete floor even tremored with the war drums. The twins inside G-wing moved into the communal lobby and gestured for Alfie and Marie to get over to their side of the gate. Glen bounded down the stairs, and the three of them rushed into the lobby, securing the gate behind them.

The thump woke Henry from his slumber, and he stumbled out the office. “What the hell is that?”

Glen gestured to the terrifying speaker of noise. “I asked for his name. He gave me it, then he started hitting the door. They all joined in.”

“Who?” Henry grumbled.

“Nate, Nate Mathews.”

Henry shook his head, then rubbed his thumb on his temple. “Well we won’t get anything done with this racket.”

By ‘anything done’, Alfie could only assume Henry meant sleep. Henry dusted his hands together, then unlocked the gate. The rest of them watched for an agonizing ten minutes as Henry wheezed and spluttered up the stairs. The boom didn’t stop, it continued. A strike, followed by a two second silence, then another strike. If nothing else, they were consistent.

The door drumming didn’t stop, and Henry returned shaking his head and muttering.

“Bunch of hooligans, told them breakfast will be delayed, and they continued to drum. If there not gonna stop for food, there not gonna stop.”

Glen ran his hands into his hair with a whine. “The boss will be angry if we can’t get them under control.”

Henry craned his neck back. “They are under control. They’re just being a nuisance.”

Marie turned to the twins and lifted her shoulders. “Why they doing that?”

They glanced at each other, then the one Alfie thought was Dan stepped forward. “Something or someone’s pissed them off.”

Henry nodded, then wagged his finger at Glen. “What did you say to Nate? He started this.”

Glen shook his head. “Nothing, I swear. I just asked for his name. He even gave it to me with no aggro.”

Alfie sighed through his nose and pressed his face into the bars. “I’ll go, see if I can get them to shut it.”

“Fish,” Henry scoffed. “You don’t stand a chance.”

Alfie shrugged, then tugged his keys up to unlock the gate. The metal walkways shook ten times worse than the floor. Alfie slid his hand along the rail to steady himself, and when he finally got to Nate’s door, he pushed his mouth against the gap around the door.

“Okay, stop this.”

Nate struck the door fast twice, and the prison fell silent.

Alfie cursed under his breath and shook his head. “What was that all about?” he asked.

“I told you. I like our conversations—”

“I ask for your name, you say freshman and I walk off. Not much of a conversation.”

Nate laughed lightly. “No matter how brief they may be, I enjoy them, and you tried to take them away.”

“You were acting inappropriate.”

Nate clacked his tongue, then hummed. “I haven’t acted inappropriate. All I’ve done is called you pretty. Is that really so bad?”

“Yes, it is.”

“So, if I stop calling you pretty will you do my roll call again?”

Alfie huffed and narrowed his eyes at the hinge. “Fine.”

“Good night, Freshman.”

He heard Nate move away from the door and did the same.

Shocked expressions greeted him, and Henry rushed him into the office, telling the others to wait outside.

“You didn’t do anything dodgy right?”

Alfie shrugged. “Depends on your definition of dodgy … is waving your flaccid penis at Nate dodgy?”

Henry’s jaw dropped, and his eye’s bugged from his face.

Alfie shook his head and pinched the top of his nose. “It was a joke.”

Henry reclaimed his jaw, but his eyes kept trying to escape his face. “Not funny, fish. And how did you get them to shut it?”

Alfie swallowed awkwardly, then the computer screen caught his eye. Nate’s face was gone, but the memory of him and his file remained.

“I said I’d cancel his next call to Doris.”

Henry smacked his lips together, then stretched them into a grin. “That’s clever. I should have thought of that. Nice one.”

Alfie fidgeted at the undeserved praise, then scratched the back of his head.

“Coffee?” he said loudly, and Marie, Glen, and the twins joined them in the office.