DISCLAIMER: Bad Girls is the property of Shed productions, this story depicts a loving/sexual relationship between women...okay, disclaimer done.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Slugging down the last of his whisky Jim struggled to his feet and to the door of the officers mess, slurring goodnight to Mike as he closed the door after him. At the bottom of the stairs Jim stopped to do up his jacket, following the progress of the zip with his eyes. When the coat was fully done up his eyes slipped off to the top row of windows of the prison wing, automatically going to the window of Shells cell. “Bitch ... It’s time you got yours” He muttered before heading back towards the prison. The alcohol in his systems surging him on.

As he hadn’t gone out of the prison gates he still had his keys on him so he made his way to the wing and up to the threes. There was only two guards on of a night time and Jim could see them both in the officers room with their feet up and eyes closed. “Idiots!” he thought to himself carry on up the metal staircases as quietly as he could. Stopping outside the cell he thought about what he was about to do for a few seconds. Shaking his head he put the key in the lock and turned it, then entered.

Hearing the door close Shell sat up. “What the ...? Jim what are you doing here?” She said managing to hide the tremor in her voice.

“You think your so clever don’t you?” Jim slurred “Swaning back in here with your smug face, rubbing my nose in it. You think you are better than me don’t you sweetheart? well I got news for you, your nothing but trash.” Jim had steadily moved closer to Shell as he said all this and finally reached down and grabbed her around the neck, pulling her up to her feet. “I’m going to show you whose in charge here.”

“No Jim please you don’t want to do this. Please don’t” Shell begged, one hand going up to wrap around the wrist at her neck the other going to the other hand that had made it’s way to her skirt roughly pushing it up. She could smell the alcohol on his breath, feel the strength in his body as it pushed against hers. “Jim don’t do this ... you’ll regret it”

Jim slackened his hold and started to laugh at this. Shell saw this as her opportunity and brought her knee up to slam into his groin. Jim staggered back. “You bitch” Jim squealed holding both hands over his throbbing crotch.

“Get out Jim ... now before I scream this place down and the officers in charge come running.” Shell threatened.

“Aww you cow” Jim continued to moan as he stumbled out of the cell and locked the door. Shell could hear him shuffling down the floor and down the wing. Making her way back to her bunk she sat down on it and drew her knees up under her chin. Rocking back and forth, she went over what had just happened. Better record it, she thought and reached for her Dictaphone hidden in the false bottom of her bed side cabinet. Shakily she pressed the record button and started.

Nikki slowly got out of bed. Today should have been a happy day but with everything that happened yesterday she wasn’t. Glancing around the room her gaze fell on her copy of Sophie’s World just peeking out from under her bunk. Picking it up she opened the cover to the inscription inside. Running a finger over Helen’s handwriting she felt the tears well in her eyes again. “Oh Helen, I‘m so sorry” she sobbed, letting the tears fall.

Twenty minutes later Nikki put the book back into her cupboard and went to get ready for the day ahead. She needed to be her most professional today. When it was all over then she would sort out her life and Helen, hopefully together.

Out in the canteen women were already beginning to gather, waiting for their breakfast. Not fancying anything to eat Nikki grabbed her plastic mug and went to wait in the queue for a cup of tea. As it was early there wasn’t too many people about so she got to the serving hatch without too long a wait and was sat at a table facing the gate when Shell walked through. Shell made her way straight to Nikki and sat down at the table, not caring that there were others around.

“Jesus Mich you look like hell!” Nikki whispered “are you alright?”

“No ... I was so scared Nikki. I’m so glad this is nearly over” shakily Mich told Nikki what had happened the night before with Fenner. “He was so strong Nikki I nearly couldn’t stop him. He’s totally lost it. The sooner he’s out of the service the better”

“You don’t have to worry about that, after today the only time he’ll be in a prison is as an inmate.” glancing around at the filling canteen she quickly leant in to give Mich’s hand a squeeze and a comforting smile, then got up from the table and made her way to her cell. Barbara wasn’t in there so she let vent her frustration over Helen and her anger at Fenner and threw her mug of tea across the room. Unfortunately Sylvia Hollamby was walking past just at that moment and the plastic mug went bouncing off the bed post closest to the door and hit her square in the backside. Nikki didn’t know what was funnier - Sylvia’s expression or the big patch of wetness slowly spreading its way across the back of her skirt, either way Nikki burst out laughing.

“Right madam that’s it, your on report” Sylvia bustled, this just made Nikki laugh harder, causing Sylvia’s indignation to rise. “Oh you think it’s funny do you, well you won’t be laughing for long on the block will you. Di give me a hand will you taking the clown down to segregation.”

“Huh! you can’t do this it was an accident” Nikki said shocked as Di came to the cell doorway. “Miss Barker, please it was just an accident” she appealed to the other warder, who looked confused as to what was happening.

“Accident my eye” Sylvia said

“I think it was your arse actually” Nikki laughed, unfortunately this didn’t do her case any good and a previously torn Di took hold of her arm and escorted her out of the wing down to the block as the other inmates looked on wondering what Nikki had done this time and why she was so happy about it.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Karen put her finger and thumb up to the bridge of her nose and squeezed. She could feel a headache coming, and she had only been at work an hour. She had arrived at work to find Jim asleep in her office after worrying about his whereabouts half the night. When she had woken him up to find out what had happened the phone had rang and when she had hung up Jim hadn’t been in the office. The phone call was from Max Hart saying she wanted a meeting with herself, Helen Stewart and the staff of G wing this morning after morning report. Having little choice but to agree she had made her way down to the wing for morning report which was where she was now.

“Let me get this straight” Karen said exasperatingly, once again addressing Sylvia Hollamby. “you put Nikki Wade on the block after she dropped her mug of tea and some landed on you”

“I believe ma’am she deliberately threw it at me” Sylvia whined trying to get out of it, knowing now that it was a farcical situation. Glancing around the room she noticed that everyone was trying to hold their laughter in. All except Helen Stewart. was who was just sat there staring into space.

“Right well straight after our meeting this morning with Max Hart you can go straight down to the block and remove Ms Wade.” Sylvia’s face fell at this instruction. “and you can give her a full apology” Karen decided on the spur to rub Sylvia’s nose in it. The sight of Sylvia’s indignation was enough for the rest of the group. They couldn’t keep it in anymore and one by one they all burst out laughing.

The laughter brought Helen out of her reverie. Frowning she was wondering what was going on when the door opened and Max Hart walked in. Pulling her shoulders up she held herself rigid. The time had come that she had been dreading. By the end of this meeting everyone would know about her and Nikki and she would be out of a job, and to top it all of she wouldn’t even have Nikki. The only consolation was that the smug bastard sitting to her left was also going to get his. Glancing at Fenner she noticed that he looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks but he still oozed smarm when he caught her looking at him. That smile of his made her feel sick. She couldn’t wait to see it get wiped off and almost smiled herself at the thought ... almost.

Max walked in to the officers room and glanced around. She had heard the laughter before even getting to the wing and wondered what had caused it. If she had to guess she would say they were laughing at something that Sylvia had done, seen as she was the only one in the room not laughing. Except Helen but then Max knew that Helen didn’t have anything to smile about let alone laugh. Nodding in her direction she wasn’t surprised to see Helen totally blank her, while sitting up straighter.

“Good Morning everyone” Max said raising her voice over the din. Gradually one by one everyone slowly stopped laughing and turned to face her.

“Ah Max, what’s this all about then?” Karen asked once she had got herself under control.

“It’s confessional time” replied Max cryptically. At that point three men and a woman walked into the office, two were prison officers and the other two were dressed in suits. Turning Max addressed the two PO’s. “Right you two, out on the wing, keep everything controlled and orderly, this shouldn’t take too long but I don’t want to be interrupted by anything that happens out there.” Nodding the two officers left, those left started whispering amongst themselves trying to work out what was going on.

“What’s going on Max?” Karen asked once again, then turned to Helen with a confused expression. “Helen? What’s going on? Is this something to do with the lifers programme?”

“I know as much as you do Karen. Max called this meeting without telling me what it was about, so lets just let her say what she has to say then we can all get back to work” Helen replied.

“Well we have a wing to run Max so if you could get on with it” Karen spoke to Max.

“Don’t worry about the wing Miss Betts, Gary and Luke are experienced officers from C wing, they’ll be able to handle anything that comes along. I think it’s about time I introduced myself properly to you all” leaning against the desk Max looked around the room taking in the confused expressions of nearly everyone. There were only two who didn’t look confused. Helen Stewart - who was staring straight at her and ... “Gina could you go and get our friends please” Max asked of the dark Prison Officer.

“Sure thing boss” Gina replied waltzing out of the office.

Suddenly everyone in the room was talking, either to the person sat next to them or to Max who was still reclining against the desk.

“Boss?”

“Friends?”

“Gina Rossi?”

“What is going on here?”

“Please everyone if you’ll all stop, then I’ll explain everything.” Max asked raising her hand to stop all the questions. Waiting till she once again had everyone’s attention she began again.

“My name is Max Hart and I work for the Home Office, which you all know. But I don’t work on the lifers programme for the Home Office, I am in fact Chief Inspector Max Hart of the Prison Professionals Audit Department, commonly called Internal Affairs ....” Max stopped letting the news sink in to those in front of her. At first everyone was quiet, just staring open mouthed at her. Max looked around at the key players.

Sylvia’s mouth was working as she was trying to say something, no doubt caustic.

Di was just sat there looking at Max as if she had just said the moon was made of cheese.

Fenner was sat there giving Max his undivided attention.

Karen had a confused frown marring her face.

Helen was still sat in the same position as before her gaze not wavering from Max.

Others in the room just looked confused as to what was going on. Finally they all turned to look at Karen, silently nominating her as their spokesperson.

“What? You work for Internal Affairs?” Karen asked still thinking that maybe she had just imagined Max saying she was a Chief Inspector with the PPAD.

“Yes, that’s right. We’ve been investigating G wing now for quite some time”

“How long is quite some time?” Karen asked still shocked to find that Max wasn’t who she said she was and then she realised something else. “What do you mean we?”

“There have been three agents on G wing over the course of the last eight months. One prison officer - Gina Rossi - and two inmates. Ah here she is now with them” Max said just as the door opened and Gina walked in with Michele Dockley. Everyone looked at the new entrants to the room. All were once again shocked but Max who had been watching Jim Fenner noticed how his face fell and for the first time since she had met him he looked truly scared and unsure of himself.

Turning back to the two women who had just entered she looked behind Mich.

“Where’s Nikki?” she asked to the pair.

Looking at each other they started to smile, “that one put her on the block this morning” Mich said pointing to Sylvia. “Seems she attacked officer Hollamby with a dangerous item” unable to contain her laughter anymore both Mich and Gina started to laugh. Looking around the room Max noticed that some of the others were also smirking.

“Sounds interesting, you can tell me all about it later but firstly will you go and get Nikki off the block so that we can get this over with and get out of here. We have a lot of work to do.” Max said motioning them both to go. Turning back she noticed that Fenner had managed to get himself under control. “Right any questions so far?”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Jim sat quietly not listening to anything that was being said in the lounge. Shit he was in trouble! Shell Dockley was an IA agent! Damn! This was going to ruin everything. Everyone was going to know the truth, he wouldn’t be able to hide it anymore. There was no way out of this now but if he was going down then he was going to take a few people with him and he wasn’t going down for anything as “small” as corruption either.

Everyone sat stunned looking at Max then looking towards Karen waited for her to take the lead.

“Ques.... questions! of course we have questions” she finally stuttered. “Why were you here? for starters”

“We were originally here to investigate an allegation made against one of your officers.”

“Who?”

“Officer Hollamby”

“Me?” squeaked Sylvia form her chair. Both Max and Karen turned to look at her.

“Yes. Two agents were sent in to investigate whether or not the allegation was true. Their assignment was due to last two weeks, within a week they had determined that the allegation was false, however they had discovered something else that merited investigation and although my team only does short term investigations it was decided to keep them here as they had already settled in” Sylvia was looking relieved now. “I can’t tell you anything about that part of the investigation”

At that point the door opened and Nikki walked in followed by Mich and Gina.

“Nice visit?”

“Yeah fantastic” Nikki replied ironically looking over to where Sylvia was sat squirming in her chair.

“You know if your going to miss the place that much, there’s a cupboard at the office I’m sure we could convert.”

“Funny” Nikki answered wryly while the two behind her started to laugh. Looking around the room Nikki noticed that all of the officers of G wing were here and so was Helen. She willed Helen to look at her but she didn’t. “Right well we better go and pack then we’ll be ready to leave” Nikki said before turning round and leaving the lounge with Mich and Gina following her. It hurt that Helen wouldn’t even look at her but she supposed she could understand it really. Vowing to win Helen back whatever it took Nikki went into what had been her “home” for the last eight months and stripped every trace of herself from the box.

Max turned back to the ensemble in front of her after watching the trio retreat. “Right where were we?”

“You were about to tell us what you had been investigating” Karen answered.

“Nice try Karen but I already told you I can’t go into details. Now do you have anymore questions before we finish up here”

“Yeah ... You’ve been here eight months but Gina’s only been here for a little under two months?”

“There are always two agents undercover, so when Mich ... sorry Shell, went on her little holiday we needed to get someone in here fast, and it was decided to put someone in who could interact with the officers instead of seeing things from an inmates point of view.”

“Did you know where Shell was while she was on the run?”

“All the time” Max answered while glancing at Fenner, he was starting to sweat again and looking uncomfortable over the current discussion. “Anything else”

“What’s going to happen now?” Helen asked quietly from her chair. Max and Karen both looked in her direction, both thinking perhaps they had imagined the quietly spoken words.

“Now we collate all our evidence and reports, hand it over to the CPS and let them decide whether to press charges or not. We’re very confident that they will. The officers involved will be suspended from duty while the investigation concludes. This may take a while after all we do have eight months worth of tapes to listen to and videos to watch.”

“Tapes and Videos?” Karen asked.

“Both agents were issued with a Dictaphone to report anything noteworthy that had happened and each cell they were in had a small camera installed which relayed images back to us at head office. Oh and there was also one installed in here from the original investigation of Sylvia Hollamby which we didn’t remove when that case was over.” Every one in the room starting to crane there necks trying to figure out where the camera was. Seeing there confused faces as they tried to find the device Max took pity and pointed to the wall opposite the filing cabinets at a small crucifix. “Never even noticed when it went up most of you, bet you all never even noticed that both Nikki and Shell had one in their cells, when both of them aren’t particularly religious.”

Max didn’t fail to notice Fenner’s paleness as he looked from the crucifix to Helen Stewart to the filing cabinets and back to crucifix. Helen noticed this too and for the first time started to smile as she realised the significance of Fenner’s shocked gazing.

Max looked out the window and noticed that her colleagues had left the wing. “Right well looks like they are finished so we’ll wrap this up now. These two with me” Max said pointing to the man and woman who had entered with her. “are here to escort the two suspended officers off the premises, after we have completed a search of lockers and offices for any additional evidence.”

“You haven’t said yet who you’re suspending” Karen said thinking she could do with a break from Sylvia’s backstabbing for a while, but she probably couldn’t be that lucky. Looking around the room at her officers she still couldn’t figure out who it could have been that they were investigating.

Reaching into her suit jacket Max removed two envelopes. “These explain your rights and privileges while on suspension, please read them carefully. I would also insist that you consult your solicitor as soon as you can.” and walking over to Helen Stewart and Jim Fenner, Max handed them the envelopes while everyone looked on stunned and a little relieved that they weren‘t one of the suspended officers. Nonetheless most of them could see Jim Fenner at a push being corrupt, after all he had been investigated by his own wing governor on may occasions, but Helen Stewart! There must be some mistake, she had always seemed so straight.

Jim was also stunned, he had known since he had seen Shell first walk into the lounge that he was one of the officers they had investigated but Helen Stewart was a total surprise to him. A good surprise none the less and the one shining star on this dreadful day as far as he was concerned. Mentally rubbing his hands together in glee he thought to himself how this was going to make it easier for him to take his revenge.