Vigilante

This story is for persons of eighteen years or over. All comments, good or bad, are welcome and all will be answered.

Part Eight

I was kept in that ward for four months before they decided that I could be returned to prison. But before I was, I had been allowed to have my solicitor in to see me.

`Well you've stirred up a proper hornets' nest in the legal profession,' were his first words to me. Then he remembered his manners and asked how was I, health wise.

As well as can be expected under the circumstances,' I replied. Thank you for coming and now explain about this hornets' nest?'

`Well,' he started, and then went on to tell me all about it, trying to keep it in some sort of chronological order. The country knew that I had been arrested with Lucy on the charge of murdering Edward Drew with it all being front page news. Then without, or before going to trial, made a prison break with some others. This again made the headlines and was kept going for over a week because of the other two getting caught so easily.

Then one newspaper brought up the fact that the vigilante was back in my neighbourhood with the crime rate almost disappearing with my disappearance from the prison and made the implication that it was me that was the vigilante. `We've grounds to sue them on this,' he added, but I laughed and said we would see about that later.

Then as it seemed that we were an almost crime free zone, the drug dealers thought they could move in, but this particular gang had been under police observation at the time and made their plans to move in, knowing that they were armed and dangerous. I wish I'd known they were armed, I told him bitterly, knowing it was me that had caused Lucy to lose her life.

Then of course we hit the headlines again by getting caught in the crossfire as the police fired back at the pushers. This then brought up the Drew case again and the fact that I was being labelled as the vigilante, battling against drug dealers, pushers, thieves and muggers in my part of London.

Well this caught the imagination of the nation and there were many letters written to the newspapers praising your efforts to bring order where the police were failing. They were even quoting statistics that when you were not around, the crime rate rose. When you were there, they went down to almost nothing, now if that didn't get people going I don't know what. Mind you, there were also a lot of letters condemning the actions of the vigilante when we had such an efficient police force, not my words, but some people actually wrote that.

But that was what caused and created the situation that the law enforcement agency now finds itself in. As the indictment read, it was both Lucy and yourself that were in prison awaiting trial for the murder of Edward Drew. Now with Lucy dead, oh please forgive me,' he said contritely as he saw the tears come to my eyes and start to flow at the mention of her name. I'm sorry. So sorry. I should have said this earlier, please forgive me, for I know you were both very close together.' Saying in other words that he knew we were lesbians and loved each other in that way.

He gave me time to dry my eyes and regain some kind of composure. I'm afraid,' he then continued, that I'm going to have to mention her name now again, so please forgive me. Now with the charge being against two persons, we have successfully argued that this first charge be quashed. But they insisted that you should then still be charged for his murder and issued the order. Now comes the nest I was talking about. With you having become so prominent in the newspapers, pictures being published as well as what is claimed to be your actions, some of the witnesses have withdrawn their statements. The charge was brought, without proof, but on association, and this is what they were bringing the charge on. You were identified from photos by sales people as having bought a plastic mac in one shop and rubber surgical gloves in another. Then a witness gave your car registration as being outside Drew's workshop the day he was killed.

Since your escape and the subsequent news of what you, I beg your pardon, what the vigilante has been doing for the safety of her, sorry, the vigilantes neighbours, coupled with the fact that it has since been reported in print about Drew's previous conviction for rape, well. Both shop assistants withdrew their statements as to now after a passage of time, are not sure that it was you who'd purchased these items. The witness of the car's registration claimed that he'd been shown the registration first and said that it might be the one, but he too has withdrawn his statement saying that he hadn't been wearing his glasses at the time and now wasn't sure, having seen the number on a piece of paper before actually signing. So the nest is that you are still in prison on a charge that they know that they cannot win and are wondering how to get out of it.'

That was it for that session with him and he left me feeling a bit more happier than I was or how I felt after him bringing up Lucy's name to bring on the tears again that night as I tried to go asleep. I was still getting those nightmares of her lying there in my arms with the two blood stains that started off as small spots getting larger and larger till they became one huge mass of blood and the pleading look in her eyes and me, holding her knowing that it was I that had brought her to be there and suffer this ignominious death. I would wake up screaming her name and be given as sedative to calm me back down, but I still get them, though not so bad, but they come and haunt me as I suppose they will for the rest of my life. Hers was the only death that I felt remorse over for she didn't deserve it, it should have been me.

The next visit by my solicitor was just before I was released from the hospital.

`How are you today, not forgetting my manners this time?'

`Very well thank you, and looking forward to going home.'

Ah! I'm afraid that you will not be going home yet. You remember me talking about the hornets' nest?' I nodded. Well they found a way out of that, but, I'm afraid they are still going to keep hold of you for awhile yet.'

`Shit!' I exclaimed.

`Er, exactly. The good news is that they have rescinded the murder charge.'

`Great!' I said, a sudden weight being lifted from my mind.

`But they have brought others, lesser ones, but ones that I'm afraid will stick.'

`Such as?'

`Well you were under arrest and in prison awaiting trial when you made an escape. Irrespective that that charge has now been dropped, you were there in lawful custody at that time. So that is the first charge. The second, well they could have made more, but because of the publicity have made it one. That is that at the time of your wounding, did resist arrest and in this act, did cause bodily harm to more than one officer in the execution of their lawful duties in attempting to recapture an escapee from prison. If you were a man, I'd say that they had you by the balls on that count.'

Well I suppose with me you'd have to say,' as I lifted my breasts up, that I've been tittered,' and laughed. He laughed with me but blushed and as I looked down, I saw that I was actually showing more than I had intended to with one breast nipple clearly exposed above the top of the hospital gown. He then left with the promise he would be with me in the prison where I would be again charged as he said I would be.

So a few days later, a couple of prison guards turned up to escort me back from whence I came, which I was grateful that that statement didn't finish as it used to do in a court room. I said goodbye to the one occupant left, the other having been transferred two weeks before. I was given a nondescript piece of clothing to wear that was nearly two sizes too small for my upper works, so I looked a right slut when my picture was taken outside with my tits half out of that dress. Though I did find out that it was pinned up with many a playboy picture in many garages and locker rooms around the country.

Shackled to one heavy beast of a woman guard that even King Kong would have had second thoughts about tackling while the other one, petite in comparison, signed me out of the hospital. Between little and large, I was taken downstairs where a few photographers were waiting, to be ushered into a van and driven off back to prison.

I didn't really expect the welcome I got when I was taken back inside by the inmates there. I was a hero that had evaded the law for over a year and also had got a murder charge squashed. Back in the drab prison dress I was released into the mess hall as it was lunchtime. There were cheers, hand clapping, stamping of feet and a loud banging of eating utensils on the tables at my arrival. I was pushed along by them to the front of the waiting queue and given my tin tray with the usual mess they called food and walked down between the tables and I saw some scuffling at the one I used to sit at. The poor girl at the far end being pushed off her seat so that all could shuffle down to give me my old seat.

I sat down to see that all of them without exception had smiles on their faces as they looked up the table at me.

`You know who used to sit there,' I said to the fresh faced young girl now sitting opposite me.

Yes,' she said softly. It was Lucy and I wish to say straight away, that we are all sorry, very sorry to hear what had happened. She was a lovely girl as well as a person.'

`Hear, hear,' were the cries from all at the table and tears came to my eyes.

`Thank you, one and all. I miss her dearly and I thank you for your thoughts. But do you also know why she sat there?' I asked of this young girl who now sat where Lucy used to sit.

Yes,' she said, again very softly, her eyes bright, with, what, expectancy? She was your woman. I'll be yours if you would have me?' I couldn't quite read what were in her eyes as I looked into them, hope, desire, lust, I couldn't be sure which it was.

`What's your name?' I asked.

`Nancy.'

`Well I'm glad you're a girl with that name. It's a bit embarrassing for a boy.' This brought howls of laughter from the table and they then knew that the Queen now had a new consort, and it was to the same cell that she came with me that night at lights out, and I had the pleasure of having another woman, the first and only one since Lucy, go down on me and bring me the delight and release that I had been denied for the past four months.

She too was pleased that I went down on her and from that night on, she was my bitch and saw to my every needs, and I mean everything. I was in there for a month before I was called out to see my solicitor for him to tell me of the date of my court appearance and I made it quite clear to him what clothes he should find for me to wear. I didn't want to appear as the slut they made me look when I left the hospital, but more of a lady that was more befitting, but still look as though I might, just might be the vigilante of South London.

So came my day in court, suitably dressed and carefully made-up with only subtle touches, and was led up to sit in my isolation as the charges were read out, to which I pleaded not guilty. The start was a farce to begin with as they were charging me under the name of my step-father, so when asked if this was my name I said no.

Goodchild was the name of my step-father who didn't marry my mother, therefore my name is Salome Driscoll,' this called for feverish writing in the press gallery, but I've always been known as Sally Driscoll.' Then I was asked if I resided in the address of my own home to which I denied, and gave them the address of the prison and then got told off by the judge for being flippant.

So the prosecutor went on about the prison break, to which I admitted and it wasn't until my Q.C., yes, I paid the extra for one to defend me, asked me why I escaped. It was because I was being held against my will with charges that were false and unfounded and which had subsequently been dropped. The prosecutor, in cross examining said that I was still in prison on that charge at the time of the escape. I countered by trying to argue that it was a moot point as I wasn't guilty.

It was hard to read what the jury were thinking, seeing that mixed bunch of men and women. I knew that they would have read the papers, but I wasn't sure how it would go down with my being a lesbian and having relations with Lucy when it came up. But the prison escape was one charge that they had to think about before the prosecutor started on the second charge of resisting arrest and wounding and causing bodily harm to those doing their duty.

Now I knew it was here that I could put my case and I had gone into great detail over this with my Q.C. and it was only when he came on after the prosecution could he ask me to propound on my statement as to why I did what I did. With the prodding of a question could I then tell them, the jury the whys and wherefores.

The prosecutor started with asking me if I had attacked the police officers in the course of their duties. I countered that how could it be construed that I attacked them, when I was lying on the ground with a girl who had just died in my arms from wounds suffered from a police officer's gun? But when the girl was taken from me, did I not attack them? I don't know, I replied. I had a bullet lodged in my pelvis, my friend who they had shot had been torn from my arms as she died, I didn't know what I was doing. Isn't it true that you are a lesbian and that your friend was also one and your lover? To this I said yes, to some intakes of breath from the public gallery and my Q.C. stepped in here saying that my sexual orientation was not the point of issue and his objection was sustained, but it was now out in the open for me to counter attack when my time came.

The prosecutor then went onto describe the fight as seen through the eyes of the policemen there, the trouble and damage they suffered in subduing an escaped convict.

Objection! My Q.C. was straight up and went on at great length that the fact I had absconded from prison without coming to court did not make me a convict, and more along those lines to have the objection sustained. The prosecutor got a warning for that. Then he came up with the label of my being the vigilante while on the run. To this I denied that I was the vigilante, but he kept on quoting cases of men being maimed, drug dealers having amputations and so on, to which I kept adding my denial. He finally gave up and rested the case for the prosecution and let my Q.C. begin to ask me questions in my defence.

I admitted to escaping from prison with Lucy because I had been placed there under false pretences after a false arrest, which has since been dropped, he added for the benefit of the jury.

`What did you do after you escaped from this incarceration for which should never have taken place?'

`Hid out among friends who knew I was innocent.'

`They believed in your innocence and kept you concealed for over a year?'

`Yes. They were true friends.' He went on a bit more that I won't bother you with at this time.

`Now let's come to what I know is a painful part of this terrible ordeal you have gone through, but my learned friend brought up the subject which didn't really have anything to do with it being made public knowledge, but did account for your actions after the police shoot out with the drug dealers. So let's clear the air and bring it out into the open. Are you a lesbian and did you love Lucy?'

`Yes,' and this brought more gasps from the gallery and I could see out of the corner of my eye that the press section were busy scribbling away at their pads.

`I never had any affection shown to me as a child. I never knew my father as he died when I was quite young. My mother didn't seem to care one way or another and when she died, I was left with my step-father. When he died in a tragic accident I was left all alone and was taken into care and in this home I met Lucy and her mother, She too lost her father soon after we had met and I think we clung to each more for mutual strength than anything else. That we came to love each other was just a by product of our both needing someone that we could hold and feel comforted by.'

`She had her mother,' the prosecutor interrupted.

`Yes, but I didn't! That was the difference. She gave me the love and understanding that life still had to go on when you have lost all of your family. She was kindness itself and we came to love each other. It wasn't a sordid affair as some people think it might have been. It was love. People talk of lesbians and homosexuals in a whisper but talk loud when speaking of heterosexuals. It's not the body that counts! It's what's in the heart and in the mind. It's when two minds have the same idea and the hearts that have love to give. A father loves his child. A mother loves her child too. Does that make then man a homosexual because he loves his son or a woman a lesbian because she loves her daughter, no! It is love from the heart!

A man meets a woman and falls in love. Yes, he might covet her body but it is the heart that love comes from and when you find another heart that is beating in time to yours, what do you do? Join a nunnery or a monastery? No! You go where your heart leads you and as in my case, I came to love Lucy and I have ever since prayed to God that the bullets that struck her should have struck me instead.' I broke down and cried at this point and had to been given some water to drink and a handkerchief to dry my tears.

I'm sorry about that,' I said to all at large, it is still a great burden on my heart that the only person who ever loved me and I came to love is not here today. I know we were on the run because of escaping from prison and it was my fault that I said that we should go out for air as it was still like being in prison, hiding from the law knowing that we were innocent but being punished for this very innocence. I said we should go out, only to suddenly walk into a planned, yes I say planned ambush that the police had set up for these drug dealers.

That I was hit by one of the first bullets was nothing compared to the anguish of seeing the one who brought me out of the depths of my despair a few years earlier. To see the one you love take two bullets to the chest and then lie in your arms, bleeding and dying and not staying alive long enough for you tell her that you loved her.' Again I broke off in tears and sobbing and had to have a few more minutes to get myself together again.

`You were saying that you lay there holding your dying friend in your arms, what happened then?' my Q.C. asked in a soft voice. He didn't have to speak up because the whole court was as quiet as a tomb, except for the scratching of pens on paper as the press tried to take down as much as they could of what I was saying.

Im asking you, my jury, How would you feel to be sitting down with a bullet inside you and be holding the one you loved in your arms as they died? If you could understand how that feels, you will know how it felt to have strange hands groping you, trying to tear the one you loved from your grasp as they died. What I did, or they say I did, I cannot argue against, for I do not know in God's name what I did. I was just trying to protect the most cherished thing I have ever had on this earth and I'm not ashamed to say so.' Then I sat down with tears running down my face and my Q.C. stood up and said that that was the defence. The judge asked the prosecutor if he wished to cross examine but he declined. The judge then concluded the case for the day and they would have the summing up next morning, and I was helped downstairs to my awaiting van when my solicitor came rushing up to tell me how magnificent I was and I don't think he took it too well when I told him to fuck off, tears still in my eyes as I let myself be led into the van to go back to prison for the night.

Next day, back in the dock, we sat and listened to the two closing arguments which lasted half the morning. Then the judge spent another hour on his summing up of the case and I could see notes being passed backwards and forwards amongst the jury which gave me heart. At length, the judge finished and said that the jury should retire to consider their verdicts.

If you please m'lord,' one said standing up, as foreman of the jury, may I ask on our behalf a few points of law before we retire?'

`Can I have the court cleared please,' the judge asked of a bailiff, and so, me and the press, the public gallery where told to leave the court. The only people staying were the judge, court officials, the jury and the prosecutor and staff and those on my side. I was told later what happened.

My lord,' the foreman began when told to do so. This is the first time all of us have sat in a court as members of a jury and are not quite sure what is expected in the case of saying guilty or not guilty. We have already come to conclusions, but we are unable to agree on the finer points unless mitigating circumstances are allowed.'

Stop there!' the judge ordered. I will see the foreman of the jury in my chambers. You may all stay here till we return.' With that, the judge and foreman disappeared. It is only conjecture of what was said in the judge's chambers, but that will come out in a minute. They came back out and the judge then sent the jury out for their deliberations and the rest of us were let back, or in my case, led back into court. But as the clock ticked on the judge ordered it to be lunch time, so it was back downstairs to be fed. Two o'clock and we were back up there waiting as we watched the jury file back in and take their seats.

`Have you reached a verdict?' the judge asked of the foreman who had risen.

`Yes, m'lord,' and passed a folded piece of paper to an usher who passed it to the judge who opened it and sat looking at it for several moments before speaking.

`Is this the judgement of you all?' he asked.

`Yes m'lord,' said the foreman.

`Well I must say I agree with the jury. Will the defendant please rise.' I slowly got to my feet and face the judge.

`On the first count, that being that you escaped from confinement while being held at her Majesty's pleasure while awaiting trial, you have been found guilty.' My heart sank at that and now I held my breath for the other verdict.

`On the second count of resisting arrest and causing physical harm to those who were going about their lawful duty, you have also been found guilty.'

`No, No!' came cries from the gallery and I felt my knees go weak and I only just managed to stay upright by holding onto the rail in front me with hands that were turning white at the knuckles.

But under mitigating circumstances,' he finished when the hubbub quietened down. I say again that I agree with the jury that the circumstances go a long way in being the cause of the result and therefore I will be as lenient as I can be. Salome Driscoll, having been found guilty on both counts, I hereby pronounce the sentence that you be sent you to prison for three years and that this case is now closed,' and he banged his gavel as I fell back into my seat. I didn't even hear the order for all to rise as the judge left the court. Three Years! Three years for protecting my darling from their hands. This wasn't justice!

I raved at my counsel who seemed quite pleased that it was only three years. We'll put in an appeal was all he could say. You've already spent a third of it inside already he pointed out, which was true. Three months the first time and then four months in hospital, so I was really only looking at two years.

The only person who seemed pleased at this verdict was Nancy who flew into my arms when I was back inside, kissing me and begging me to go to bed as soon as possible. It turned out that she would coming up for release then at the same time as me. I took some consolation at her mouth and tongue and knew that I could be worse off, so I set myself the task of training her to be as close as I could to my darling Lucy who I will never, ever forget.

Epilogue.

Sally served her full two years in that prison, training Nancy as it were, and as far as we know, went and lived together when they were released. But while Sally was inside, and we have the statistics to hand here, the crime rate in her neighbourhood jumped alarmingly. In the two years she wasn't there. Three abductions of children occurred, only one found alive. There were nearly three hundred muggings of old and young alike, whether it was for money or of a possession that was coveted, we don't exactly know. Seven deaths happened from drug abuse and one pub was forced to close down by orders of the police for violence. Theft and robberies from the shops increased, though the exact figures were not correlated to say exactly how many were involved.

Now when Sally was released from prison, the neighbourhood had clubbed together and hired a limousine to be waiting outside for her. Not only did she take Nancy home, but took two other girls with her too. They all moved into Sally's home to live as a family. But a family with a difference.

Men, or we should really say boy's, began to appear in the streets limping. Several men became noticed in the pubs by the fact that the thumb of their right hand was missing. The Social Services began getting less calls from battered wives and children began playing out in the streets again. The word vigilante was never spoken, or if it was, it was in whispers.

The crime rate more than halved in six months and after a year was almost at zero, and there always seemed to be a small queue outside one house where people could go for advice or help at where it was known that the Godmother lived.

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