Deceit. Kerry Barnes

to their wings, some to their allotted jobs. Kara, of course, was on remand and didn’t have a job right away. Just as she followed the last of the inmates back inside, Barbara, the tall officer, pulled her back. ‘Bannon, I have moved you to another cell.’

      ‘Oh, why is that?’ Her voice aired confidence.

      Barbara looked her over. ‘We have turned over yours and found illegal substances, and I’m assuming they ain’t yours. Connor is down the block and you are in with Julie Meadows.’

      ‘The block?’ asked Kara with her head tilted to the side.

      ‘Solitary confinement, for now. We don’t like drugs in this prison. Oh, just so you know, she said they were yours. She tried to rat you out, she did.’

      Taking a deep breath, Kara responded, ‘So how do you know they aren’t mine?’

      ‘Because you’ve only been here two days and you haven’t had a visit. You were also searched on arrival. We ain’t stupid, love!’

      ‘And Cole would have known that, so why would she even attempt to blame me? It makes no sense.’ Kara had sussed her out. Colette may be mouthy and hard-faced, but she wasn’t a grass. Vic was right: her personal officer was a real shit-stirrer.

      Barbara shuffled uneasily. She wasn’t used to listening to a smarty-pants or being spoken to in such a manner. Normally, the prisoners were bolshie, brash, and foul-mouthed, but they didn’t have the intelligence to tie someone like her up in knots and make her look thick.

      ‘I dunno, but get a move on. Your transit box is in ya new cell and so is Julie Meadows,’ she jeered.

      Her tone was ugly, like her face, and Kara sensed that the officer was trying to have the last laugh. Kara wondered who Julie Meadows was, apart from being Vic’s sister. Her heart sank, and she just hoped that Julie wasn’t about to throw her weight around as well. Begrudgingly, she followed Barbara along the corridor and past her previous cell, which was now completely bare, and on to the last cell on the left.

      ‘This is it, Bannon, your new home.’ She chuckled.

      Gritting her teeth, Kara entered. She was mortified when she saw the woman sitting on the bed with a face like thunder. There was Julie. If it wasn’t for the fact that the young woman’s jaw was clenched so tightly and those eyes, which were narrowed to a furrowed frown, the girl would be very pretty. She was slim enough and had an attractive figure. But Kara could tell that despite being in her thirties, Julie had already lived a harder life than most women her age.

      She still had that same ugly tone as she had the day Kara met her on the estate when she’d screamed, ‘What are you fucking gawping at? Ya fucking snob!’ Kara had been scared of the woman then, and now, the mouthy madam was going to be sharing a cell with her.

      ‘Oi, I said I want to bunk in wiv me sister!’ she hollered at the officer, totally dismissing Kara.

      ‘Tough, Meadows. Ya sister don’t want ya, don’t like ya, so you’re on ya own. Get on with it.’

      Before Julie had a chance to say another word, Barbara shot off.

      ‘What are you fucking looking at?’ spat Julie, in a temper.

      Kara stared for a few more seconds. It was obvious that Julie didn’t recognise her, but then she was in prison issues, wearing a bruised nose and a fat lip.

      It was a case of putting on a very brave front, so Kara replied, ‘Don’t take it out on me. And for the record, your sister, Vic, never said she didn’t like you at all. I was there. That screw is a shit-stirrer.’ She was even getting used to the lingo.

      ‘Know her, do ya?’

      Kara nodded. ‘Yes, she’s a decent woman, your sister.’

      ‘Yeah, well, not decent enough to have me bunk in wiv her.’ Her pitch softened.

      ‘Look, I’m not so bad, honestly. I’ll keep myself to myself.’

      ‘So what ya in for?’

      This was it. As soon as Kara told her, she would know who she was. But there was no point in lying. The word would go around soon enough. ‘I burned my house down and almost killed the neighbour.’ She was plagued with guilt every time those words left her mouth.

      Julie put her hand to her mouth and cocked her head to the side. ‘Fuck me, I know you. You live up the road from me. I’ve seen ya walking about, on the bus, and …’

      Kara overfilled her lungs with air. ‘Yes, you did.’

      A sudden laugh almost made Kara jump. ‘Well, ya fell flat on ya fucking arse ending up in ’ere. That’ll teach ya for being such a snobby bitch.’

      Kara sat tentatively on the bed opposite with her head down in shame. ‘Is that what I looked like to you, a snob?’

      Julie nibbled her lip. ‘You are stuck-up, walking around with ya nose in the air, in all ya fucking designer clothes, not even saying hello to anyone. And me sister Angie cleans for ya. She said you and ya ol’ man think ya shit don’t stink.’

      There was a long pause before Kara looked up and sighed. ‘I suppose to you and Angie, I did look like that, but you’ve formed the wrong impression of me, you know. I wasn’t stuck-up, I was scared.’

      ‘Of what?’ Julie sounded narky.

      ‘Of you and the people on the estate. You all seemed to shout at each other, and I saw a few nasty rows where people threw bricks at each other. I wasn’t looking down my nose at all, and as for Angie, I was never horrible to her, I just kept out of her way, usually with my head in a book. I was always busy studying. So, she thought I was stuck-up as well, then?’

      Julie was taken aback; she thought perhaps she’d got the woman all wrong. ‘Yeah, well, I dunno about that. I remember the way you were looking at me on the bus, like I was dog turd.’

      Kara waved her hands. ‘No, no, you’re mistaken. I wasn’t looking at you like that. It’s hard to explain … You are worlds apart from me. I was being nosy. Yes, I admit it, but I was thinking how hard you had it, jumping on the bus with no money. I wasn’t being a snob, I felt for you, that’s all. Oh, and I was looking at your beautiful baby, thinking how sweet she was.’

      ‘Um, well, we ain’t all got a good job and a posh house, ya know.’

      ‘I know, and by the way, neither have I now. I fucking burned it down. My boyfriend has gone off with another woman, I got fired from my job, and now I’m in prison for how long, I don’t even know.’ She laughed. ‘So, Julie Meadows, I’m in your shoes now, and I’m still bloody scared.’

      Julie sat back, raised her eyebrows, and smiled. ‘Guess you are, then. So, what’s ya name? Karen or something, ain’t it?’

      ‘No, it’s Kara, but I seem to have been given the nickname Posh.’

      Julie’s face turned from a harsh, tight-lipped expression to a young fresher-looking appearance. ‘Stands to reason. Posh, eh?’

      ‘May I ask what you’re in for?’

      ‘I stabbed me sister, the lying, cheating cunt. I knew she was ’aving it away with me ol’ man, the lazy fat bastard, he is.’ Kara gathered this was the fourth sister she hadn’t met, rather than Angie.

      Kara noticed Julie’s eyes fill up, but she instantly sniffed back the tears.

      ‘But he was my lazy fat bastard, not hers. Me own frigging sister, what a fucking skank. I should have stabbed her in the face instead of her leg. Then, she might think twice about going after my ol’ man again. S’pose it don’t matter now. I’m in ’ere and they are out there, probably fucking as we speak.’

      ‘I doubt that, if you stabbed her in the leg.’ Kara smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

      With an unexpected childish giggle, Julie went on, ‘Yeah, I should have knifed her