The Woman Before Me Read Online Free Page B

scared stiff, poor cow.”
    “You said she’d be shipped out. Where to?”
    “Anywhere that’s not here. It’s standard to send cons to another prison after they’ve been roughed up. Gets ’em out of the way.”
    Callahan led her out of the hospital wing and into the fresh air, where seagulls screeched, begging for scraps. They walked across an unkempt grass area, where empty cigarette packs and other litter had been discarded.
    “Animals. They just chuck the rubbish out of their cell windows.” Cate looked up at the cells, where two arms from adjacent windows were reaching across, to each other, finally managing to grasp fingers. Callahan shouted, “Oy!” and they dropped their hold.
    “This is the Reception Unit.” Callahan lead her to an area near the entrance to the prison. “Let’s go see Wimpy Wayne.”
    In the room there was a long table with several empty plastic trays lined up, a few medical screens and, in the corner, a gormless-looking man in black-rimmed spectacles huddled over a pile of paperwork. When Callahan shouted, “Oy!” again, he jumped and a fly that had been resting on his head buzzed into the air. He pushed the glasses further up his nose, still holding the pen, a smudge of red ink marking his forehead.
    “Come over here,” Callahan ordered, and Wayne slid from his chair and obediently shuffled over, shoulders hunched. He still held the red biro, the end of which was chewed to pieces.
    Cate offered a hand, which Wayne looked at with surprise before grasping. “Cate Austin. The new probation officer.”
    He bobbed his head enthusiastically. “Wayne Bugg. I do the processing for the induction procedures.”
    She looked around and nodded at the plastic trays on the long table. “What are those for?”
    “When a girl – sorry – woman arrives we have to take away her possessions: jewellery, purse, belt, anything like that. They do get some of it back later but to start with they can’t have any item that would make them vulnerable.”
    “Vulnerable to what?”
    “Well, bullying, for one.” Wayne sneaked a sidelong glance at Callahan who had been distracted by the fly, and was swatting it with his beefy hand. “Any jewellery could make them a target. But suicide is the biggest worry so belts and shoelaces are always removed. You’d be surprised how crafty someone can be when they want to hurt themselves.”
    “Wayne, you bloody bleeding heart,” said Callahan, “you should have been a probation officer.”
    Wayne ducked his head, mumbled something about not getting good enough grades, and then looked back at Cate. “Most of the girls who arrive here are frightened. Even the ones who seem tough will cry when they’re alone. It can upset them. The searching, the medical. Not that I do any of that – it has to be a female officer.”
    Cate smiled at Wayne.
    Callahan scowled. “Fucking Care Bear.”
    They left the induction unit and turned into a narrow dim corridor, which led up to the security office. Cate suddenly felt tight pressure around her wrist and, looking down, she saw that Callahan had attached a handcuff and was sniggering like a school boy. As she struggled to free her hand, the cuff tightened. She felt her legs quake and stumbled, only to be wrenched upright by Callahan. “Good job I had this on ya, missy!”
    Callahan’s face was in hers, a wide smile, all teeth, red lips wet and eyes narrowed. He was getting off on her fear. “Nifty, aren’t they?” he crowed, a thrill sparkling in his reptilian eyes.
    “Get this fucking cuff off me!” she spat. In a second he had released her, still finding it amusing. She rubbed her twisted shoulder, fighting back hot tears that threatened to betray her. Callahan laughed and gobbed his used gum onto the floor.
    As her heart slowed, she wondered why she wasn’t marching to the Governor’s office to make a formal complaint. She was silent, shocked at how powerless she felt in this place.
    Callahan said Senior