Bonded by Blood Read Online Free Page B

‘injured’ back was a member of staff he had in his pocket. ‘Some of the screws I worked with in the gym let me do anything I wanted,’ Tate said. ‘When the officer came in the cell, I told him I needed him to say I had a bad back. The officer just laughed and said no problem.’
    On the way to Highpoint prison, the van transporting Tate and John broke down. A piece of debris on the carriageway caught the brake pipes and tore them off. The driver was forced to pull over and inform the police of the situation. Although Tate and John were handcuffed together, while they waited for assistance the officers agreed to take the cuffs off as it was dangerous for them to sit manacled together in the van on the side of a busy main road. The only safe place to wait was on a grass bank on the other side of the carriageway. Tate and John scrambled to the top and sat in the sunshine eating fruit Tate had brought with him in a bag. When a police car arrived, the officers sat and talked with Tate and John while they waited for a replacement van. Tate kept asking one of the prison officers if he could read his confidential prison file because he was concerned his latest outburst would affect his chances of parole. At first, the officer was reluctant to do so, but then one of the police officers said, ‘Go on, let him, he seems an OK lad.’
    The file was handed over and Tate spent the rest of his time waiting reading it. When the replacement van arrived, everybody helped transfer Tate’s and John’s possessions from one vehicle to the other. Tate had ten boxes, John had one. When they arrived at Highpoint prison, Tate was given a trolley on which to put his boxes. He looked at the officer who had brought it to him, said he was unable to bend because of his bad back and walked off towards the reception with John. The officer loaded Tate and John’s boxes onto the trolley and pulled it along himself. When they entered the reception area, the officers present looked from John and Tate to the officer transporting their stuff as if to say, ‘Who the hell are these two guys?’ They were then told all of the boxes would have to be searched before they would be allowed into the prison. Tate replied that that wouldn’t be possible.
    ‘What do you mean that won’t be possible?’ the officer asked.
    ‘If you leave our possessions alone, I won’t play up,’ Tate said. ‘If you touch our possessions, I will.’
    The officer looked at Tate then addressed his colleague, the one who had pulled the trolley into reception. ‘Take these two and that trolley to unit four.’
    Tate and John walked out of reception following the officer pulling the trolley. On the unit, John and Tate were locked up together in the same cell. As soon as they were alone, Tate emptied one of his boxes onto the bed. It appeared to contain cartons of All-Bran, Alpen and other breakfast cereals. Tate cut along the side of one of the boxes and tipped out a handful of muesli. He then shook the carton and a large bar of cannabis resin fell out. Tate opened up several other cartons, which contained heroin, cocaine and steroids; soon there was a large pile of illegal drugs heaped up on the bed. Tate then cut the cannabis into eighths and quarters. The following morning, his ‘shop’ opened. In no time at all, the prison was flooded with drugs.
    After a few days, Tate heard that the north wing was the best one to be on because the inmates there had jobs outside the prison. John and Tate applied to be moved. John waited two months before his request was granted; Tate went the following day.
    John was given a job working with disabled people at a centre in Haverhill while Tate was employed on a car-boot sale adjacent to the prison – an ideal job to keep his business running in prison. Friends and associates would visit his stall and leave items full of concealed drugs, and Tate would pass them any money he had earned and wanted spirited out of the prison.
    John,