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unfinished business; Bad Girls / Judge John Deed trilogy
Topic Started: Jun 22 2008, 10:39 AM (19,811 Views)
richard
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Interesting point this, Emtsue, which I really need to think about. Fenner’s contacts are within the prison service but he would be certainly capable of blabbing to the press. I get the feeling that he sees the news through the tabloid eye. He used Nikki’s escape as a blackmail weapon to threaten Helen with internal disciplinery action and to threaten to sabotage Nikki’s appeal. It’s quite another thing to tell the press something he would know Area Management would come down on like a ton of bricks as that points the finger at prison security on the night of Bodybag’s wedding anniversary which Fenner was involved with. What I haven’t written is about any tie up between Sir Ian and that crowd and Fenner. After encountering John Deed, Fenner might think to lie low and hope that Karen is convicted through the court. Now you mention it, Fenner does waver between bending the rules and criminality on the one hand and lieing low to be out of harms way on the other.

Hope this helps- feel free to come back on any of this.
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emtsue
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Was it not Helen who did the intial investigation into the stabbing ,telling Simon that they were not going to be to happy to find out that inmates were serving at the party?And the the fact that Shell was able to smuggle out a broken glass,which would also point to the lack of security.If thats the case,Area already knows and Fenner telling the tabloids may put them under scrutiny as well as possibly the brethern if they're involved.I can understand Fenner laying low,but on the other hand his behavior has been so erratic ,that he may be of the mind that if he's going down,so is everyone concerned.
What do you think Richard?
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richard
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Very good points, Emtsue- everything factually correct. I’d put your scenario down as a ‘possible.’ You are certainly right in saying that Fenner is very erratic or, put another way, over time he edges further into the realms of criminality- Fenner BG series 1 is a lazy PO who wants his cushy status and his ‘bits on the side’. I’ve deployed Fenner BG series 5 who has been guilty of murder, rape and violence yet is careful not to stick his neck out if it’s not safe. Area know everything that happened that night (except Nikki’s escape) but would be livid if this was grassed up to the tabloids. On balance, he’d keep quiet as he can control himself if he feels that he’d be endangered but is uncontrolled if he thinks he can get away with it. Your scenario is more possible in the situation you describe of taking everyone down with him. Does this make sense?
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emtsue
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Yup,makes sense.I find it amazing how many different scenarios can be played out here and still be plausible.

Richard I've been meaning to ask you for the longest time if you have ever seen the 1983 movie with Michael Douglass called "The Star Chamber"?It's about a young incoming judge who is being aggressively recruited by a group of senior judges to join them in getting rid of criminals (permanently) who were able through their lawyers to get acquitted by finding loopholes in the law.My thought being that if Fenner is somehow involved with Sir Ian and his clan,that he may also have something to hold over them(for that's his MO,is it not?)in which case it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they decided he was too much of a liability.Just a thought!
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Andliv2laf
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You know, you two are almost as entertaining as the story! Some very interesting points there Richard and Emtsue! I am enjoying the debate very much! LOL!
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emtsue
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Hey!AL2L you don't get away that easy,I wanna hear what you have to say! Didn't think I'd reply so quick ,did you?
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emtsue
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Come on AL2L,hurry up!I gotta go to work!!!! I know you're out there! :tongueout
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Andliv2laf
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LIke I said before Emtsue...I think Fenner is backed by more important people...he isn't one just to lash out without having his back covered! I think you make an excellent point about his connections...but, just where are they? As you say...there are just so many options...where will Richard go? Do Nikki and Helen have an advantage...does Fenner have the advantage...who has whom where? It is all head scatching crazy really!
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richard
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Sorry to say, Emtsue that I hadn’t seen the film you mentioned but it does sounds very interesting. Your general point certainly applies. One Judge John Deed story did have a story along these lines where mortgage fraud was discovered and acquittals took place through a chain of conspiracy through the solicitors concerned through to a judge being a crony of the solicitors. Their phrase ‘victimless crime’ has even more resonance in these days. To begin with, John didn’t want to face this possibility as the judge was one of the brethren who had been to the same schools and universities, John included.

Both you and Andlif2laf pose the very interesting storyline of Fenner gaining similar connections to Sir Ian, etc and this has grabbed my interest. In Bad Girls (the TV version) his connections upwards extend firstly to Stubberfield and later uses Grayling (as much as Grayling uses him). You don’t really see his connections really extending beyond Larkhall but this isn’t to say that it isn’t possible. All this goes to say that though a story can be written, alternative storylines are possible. I was thinking of posting the next scene today but will hold off a few hours to let this highly interesting debate run further.
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richard
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In posting this next scene, it casts an interesting light on the convoluted mind of the establishment as John is totally honest with them about his involvement with Fenner. They just have to look for some devious element behind it and totally miss the picture. By contrast is a romantic scene where Helen and Nikki gently talk through their own fears and difficulties in facing the police. The final segmnt features the tense dynamics at Larkhall which reflects what’s going on in the outside world.
By the way, I ought to explain that any unbetaed scenes on this fic will be replaced by betaed versions as and when I get them. Enjoy. :D


....................................................................................................................


Scene Twenty-Four


Through his ever-resourceful PA, Coope, John had heard that the Karen Betts case was nearing the time when it would be heard in court. His retentive memory had alerted him to the possibility that his punch up with Fenner made him far too dangerously placed to hear the case. True, there was no obvious connection between this altercation and a former wing governor up on trial for a hit and run accident. His recent experiences had made him far more attuned to strange possibilities than he had been in the past. Very unusually, he sought out Sir Ian in the corridors of power.

“Ah, John, I don’t see you so much these days. Your presence is most welcome,” he said in his heartiest tone of voice. Only his suspicious eyes, flitting over the other man’s features belied his apparent hospitality.
“I wanted to have a quiet word with you, Ian on a personal matter,” John offered in his meekest tones.” I wanted to have a word about the Karen Betts case. I gather it is due to be hard soon.”
“Ah, you interest me,” Sir Ian said, his fingers wrapped tightly around his biro and squeezing it hard.
“I wanted to ask to be recused from hearing the case if there ever was a suggestion of it coming my way.”
Sir Ian let out a long breath of air as he heard the totally unexpected news. He was positive that the man would want to stick his interfering nose into the case and was psyching himself to argue the point.
“This is very unexpected news, John. You surprise me. If you don’t mind me saying, you have had the reputation of seeking out contentious cases. Might I ask you for your reasons in case I, myself am asked for them?”
“That is easily answered. I got involved in a physical altercation with a prison officer who broke into a friend’s house where I was stopping the night. His name is James Fenner and I understand from my sources of information that he is a prosecution witness and on the worst of terms with the accused.”
“Is that all? He is surely a random stranger. He’s surely unlikely to feature in this case.”
“I’m just being careful, Ian,” John murmured.
Again, Sir Ian wondered if his hearing was playing tricks on him. He squinted at John’s immobile face and wondered what the devil this man was playing at. It surely couldn’t be as easy as all that.
“I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me, John. Your views, of course will be noted,” the other man said in stiff tones.” You will join me in a cup of tea unless you are busy?”
John pretended to study his watch. Sir Ian took that as a sign that the other man wished to go. He wasn’t displeased at the response.

************


“Let’s look at this logically,” Helen said quietly as her fingers gently smoothed a lock of Nikki’s hair as it curled over her forehead.” I’m just trying to work this through in my own mind and I can do it best if I talk through you. If you’d been asked a few years ago, about getting advice from the legal profession, how would you have felt?”
“Before I got sent down, they had nothing to say about my life. Afterwards, well my feelings would have been unprintable.”
“Since you’ve come to know quite a few of them, now how do you feel?”
“I know they’re human beings and they are for real. If I ask a question, I’ll get a straight answer.”
“So why are the police any different?”
“That’s a good question,” Nikki mused as they lay in bed one evening. She lay on her back and felt at her most relaxed while Helen’s body was wrapped around hers. As she stroked Helen’s back in a meditative fashion, their freshly washed bodies felt cleansed. They’d both been obsessing about the whole idea of battering at the gates of the police force and they both felt worn out. Lying next to each other seemed the obvious way of
taking the stress out of their situation.

“I guess I still can’t get away from some of those screws at Larkhall who work the rules and regulations against me. It’s a case of heads they win, tails we lose if we make a formal charge. This is a criminal matter and we need to work through them.”
“What about Sally Anne? She was a policewoman once.”
“Yeah, that’s the problem in a way,” Nikki muttered. Sally Anne Howe had taken them to the cleaners for ninety thousand pounds. Sneakily, she couldn’t help but think that Gossard would be seen as the martyred victim in their eyes , first at Sally’s hands and next at her own. Her own name would bound to be remembered by some obsessive, vindictive copper.
“You know, Helen, I can’t get my head round that one,” Nikki said in a bemused tone of voice. “She seems too nice and gentle to be a policewoman. I can’t see her sticking a pair of handcuffs on someone.”
“What about those two policewomen in the club, Ros and Jenny? They were nice enough and I could imagine them in uniforms, acting all tough and macho.”
“Shirley phoned up earlier on and advised us in her inimitable way that, ‘there must be some female coppers who go to that dyke club of yours. Couldn’t they give you inside information of your chances of getting the bastard done for breaking and entering?’ She’s right of course, but I still feel on tenterhooks about waiting to get to talk to them and wishing that you hadn’t heard the bad news.”

Helen had to smile affectionately at the way Nikki put it and at the way that very helpful private investigator was on the ball and missed nothing. She had the feeling that if she could only think laterally enough, they might chance upon an answer and it nagged at her like a migraine headache.

“It means that we’d get advice without necessarily committing ourselves. I’m sure that’s really been bothered us. Once you make it official, you can’t take it back.”

Nikki’s hands reached up for Helen’s face and gently drew her down to give her a soft, lingering kiss. She’d expressed exactly the fears that had been gnawing at her for days and had blocked her normal thinking. At least they knew how each other felt with their part solution. Her heart went out to the dearest friend she could ever hope to have who was also her lover. She kissed Helen again, only with more sensuality and not just gratitude and the smaller woman began to caress Nikki. Their bodies began to move together in rhythms of their own which would ease the stress of the last few days.



********

The next day, Sir Ian’s had an appointment with Sir Alan Peasemarsh, the Attorney General. The older man wore his cold patrician air like a suit of armour, exhibiting his disdain for emotional scenes. His mannerism of carefully combing his white hair backwards along his scalp betrayed his nervousness as Sir Ian told him his story.
“You puzzle me, Ian. I would have thought that Deed would have jumped at the opportunity. Perhaps he knows something that we don’t?”
“He seemed very obliging.”
“You mean suspiciously so?”
“It sounds like you want him to be actively mischievous.”
“At least I know where I stand with him in such moments,” confessed the older man frankly, dropping his veneer of aristocratic calmness.” Right now, he worries me.”
“You mean that this is a plain single bluff as opposed to a double or triple bluff.”

Both men fell into deep silence as they thought of the endless permutations. This sounded like a three-dimensional game of chess where the rules of the game changed in a random fashion. Finally, the older man made an impatient gesture and cut through the endless possibilities.

“I’ve made up my mind, Ian. If Deed wants something, the soundest course of action is to refuse him. The two barristers involved are George Channing and Brian Cantwell, quite a fiery combination for Deed to handle. Additionally, there are signs that George and Deed are becoming close and that will give him plenty to think about without giving legitimate grounds for him to back out. It will test the situation and hopefully the trial will drive a wedge between the two of them. You know how volatile George is and what a troubled history they have.”
“The reasoning appears sound.”
“Oh yes, that wing governor is guilty as charged, isn’t she?”
“The CPS can’t see a crack in the case. Even Deed couldn’t steer the case in an unforeseen direction to god knows where,” Sir Ian commented sarcastically.

The two men were much cheered by their plans. Whatever happened, they had to win.

**********


These days, Yvonne had learned to take things carefully. At the best of times, Fenner was a nasty bastard but he was on a particularly short fuse, not helped by Kris blabbing her mouth off. If there was one thing she was sure of, it was the knowledge to take things easy. She clung to the assurance that Nikki was operating behind the scenes, in the outside world where her Lauren couldn’t operate.

She had never forgotten the feeling of sheer jubilation as Nikki appeared twice on TV laying into those bastards and she could have sworn that she’d seen her in the group scene when that female ex copper did the same about the very same copper who Nikki took out. The trouble was that the screws hadn’t forgotten it either and her visit had given them the jitters.

Somehow, they didn’t quite have the swagger the way they used to straight after Karen Betts had been arrested. For all that, the atmosphere was jumpy and anyone who pushed it, got a shit time of it. While the spiteful but ineffective Mad Dog Barker periodically stomping petulantly round the wing, Fenner posing the greater threat. These days, Fenner didn’t offer the double-edged favouritism that Dockley used to lord it over other prisoners. He hated everyone equally. In the background, Grayling glowered as he walked around the wing Only Hedges tried to soften the edges and there was only so much he could do as he was definitely not the flavour of the month of Fenner, Barker or Grayling. Thinking about what Nikki had said, she had accepted that Fenner would have to be nailed the legit way.


One thing she was sure of was that Kris was no replacement for Nikki. Despite her tough manner, she wasn’t street smart and she hadn’t had that sense of tactics. In any case, she kept herself to herself except that that new screw Geeson was seeing a lot of her. She shrugged her shoulders as she had personal business to take care of. Denny was being given a chance of a transfer to an open prison and both women had mixed feelings. From Denny’s point of view, it was a step closer to freedom even as Yvonne’s own sentence hadn’t got too much longer to run. The trouble was that they’d be separated from each other for many months. Denny felt strange about the idea of the privilege, as she’s spent a vital chunk of her life at Larkhall. She’d changed so much since she’d been here and the place felt peculiarly like home.

As he hesitated in the PO room, Fenner was bricking it and doing his best to conceal it before he came out on the wing. He had grazes on his face where he had collided with the steps outside the flat after John Deed had thrown him out. To his alpha male mentality, he was totally humiliated by being beaten up by this old man. Worse still was that his attempts to put the frighteners on those two bitches had backfired badly.

“Can’t you walk without falling over your own feet, Fenner?” Kris taunted. Yvonne cringed at her lousy sense of tactics. She really hadn’t the knack of when not to needle someone or when to pull back.
“A word with you in your cell, Yates- now,” he snapped, pushing her up the flight of steps, making her stumble and curse. Finally, he threw the cell door open, grabbed hold of her arm, twisted it behind her back and forced her face against the rough painted brickwork of the cell.
“One more word from that fat lezzer gob of yours and you’re down the block. I’m God on this wing and no shit-stirring bitch inside or outside will do anything about it. You’re on report, got it,” he snarled into her ear, gripping her arm with manic tightness.

“OK I get it,” Kris shouted. She didn’t want to be scared of this screw but he really was an unpredictable head-case. Both Selena and Yvonne had separately urged her to control her anger. She knew they were both right but it made no sodding difference as something in his arrogance got her goat every time.
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emtsue
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:rofl UNREAL! Don't Sir Ian and Peasemarsh know when something has been handed to them on a silver platter?!.Do they really think they can keep him at bay by giving him the case? Its never worked in the past ,why should it work now? Here's the problem...these guys are so used to not meaning what they say,and have been corrupting the justice system for so long ,that they are unable to recognize when someone is being up front and honest.John said what needed to be said, and if he chooses not to argue the point,it will be to their detriment and they'll have to deal with the consequences if the case does not turn out in their favor,which hope to god, it does not!

Ah Richard,more attention being given to how Nikki and Helen have come to deal with uncomfortable but important issues that once again have intruded upon their life after Larkhall.Helen... always methodical in how she phrases her questions and statements.Nikki....absorbing everything Helen asks and says,is able to contemplate her answers but at the same time,is not afraid to show and say how she truley feels. Not always the case in the past, when there was absolutely no "escape" from Larkhall.The ease with which they now communicate is a wonderous thing and spans the spectrum of emotions,from loving and heart felt ,to pretty damn funny!Such as Nikki's re-telling of the tactless but affectionate way investigator Shirley says,"there must be some female coppers that go to that dyke bar fo yours".If she only knew!!! Although Helen and Nikki are a bit nervous in picking Ros and Jenny's brains,they don't seem to be too concerned whether the night of the escape will be remembered.Even if it was,what could be done at this point?One less thing to worry about for now,I guess.

I've got to go to work ,so I'll finish up with Yvonne,Kris ,and fenner later on.
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JAM
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:rofl Those two idiots are going to hand karen's case over to John!! Brilliant Richard :D
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Andliv2laf
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Richard, I am so glad you put Emtsue in a good mood before she went to work! It amazes me how Sir Ian and Co don't see the changes going on around them. They don't seem to be too much aware of the new George, they really don't understand John, his relationship with George...his honesty...they just kind of stay in their little closed world of mishandled justice. The fact that they think the case is as well as settled makes me think a little harder that they may have some inside information...just a feeling I get! I hope that Yvonne and Kris can find something out on the inside to put Fenner a little more in it! One would think with this many hands in all these cookie jars...someone should come out with a nice sized crumb! This is a very intelligent group of dedicated friends Fenner is up against...I just have the feeling he won't get off this time! Thanks again Richard...I'll check first thing in the morning to see what my friend has added...should make interesting reading with my coffee! :girlygiggle
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emtsue
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AL2L, It is now 2:45am and I would feel dead guilty if this wasn't ready and waiting for you as you drink your cuppa joe.Enjoy!

Poor Yvonne ,she must feel like Kris's babysitter!Kris may not be a Nikki Wade,but the one thing she does almost as well, is wind Fenner up!Which in all honesty might not be such a bad thing.If she's smart enough,she might be able to get something out of him.It would all depend on how much Yvonne is letting her in on.Being that Fenner's mind set of late is bending towards that of one Tessa Spall,Yvonne and Kris would have to be extremely careful.No problem for Yvonne, Kris is another story.But the idea does have potential.Even if Kris(with Yvonnne overseeing of course) were able to get him to do something in which an investigation were necessary.The prosecution for Karen's case might have to think twice before putting Fenner on the stand as a witness.This idea might be all for naught as its already possible that Yvonne ,Shirley,Claire,etc...have everything they need inorder to bring him down.In which case Kris might go and muck it all up if she's not careful.I am wondering whether Nikki will be going back to Larkhall for work before the trial.What a scene that would be!! Well, there you go Richard and AL2L,let me know what you think.AL2L thanks for remembering George !! I knew you had my back!
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Andliv2laf
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Thank you for you promptness my dear friend! Very nicely put Emtsue, sometimes I begin to ponder what goes thru Kris's head. Yvonne constantly pulling her aside and warning her about her death wish with Fenner. Like Yvonne said, she's good at it...she just doesn't have the timing! But, then I think this could be just what the girls need...someone on the inside that will push him into doing something really stupid because Kris has wound him so tight...and as the days of the trial get closer he may just get a wee bit paranoid. Just a thought! I'm with you Emt, I think Yvonne is growing quite tired and anxious about her dealing with Kris, but what can she do? The comment about Fenner and Tessa was priceless! I do hope that Nikki gets to go back to LH before the trial...I would like to see her get a really goood shot at Fenner...just enough to keep him shaken up a bit! Well then...now that both eyes are officially open, I am off to start my day! I am looking forward to Richard's follow up! Hiya Richard! Emt, hope you had a nice nap! :girlygiggle
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