Read Online The Escape by Lynda La Plante - Free Book Online

sleep from worry. She needed her mother’s help and decided to move back in with her parents.
    Soon, the small flat she and Colin had rented was taken over by another young couple. Karen had moved all her possessions over to her parents’ house and the couple bought what little
furniture was left.
    Karen wrote to Colin only once, and her father read the letter before she sent it. He suggested that it would be best for Karen and the baby to make no visits and to have no further contact with
Colin. Also, it must be clear that there was no longer a job open to him on his release.

Chapter Sixteen
    Colin received Karen’s letter on his first day back on the new wing. He shared a cell with a tough illiterate prisoner, serving eight years for armed robbery and grievous
bodily harm.
    Barry Marsden appeared at the magistrates’ Court four weeks after Colin’s escape. He was persuaded by his solicitor to plead guilty. His months on remand counted as time served
against his sentence and he was released from prison. The magistrate arranged for Barry to be placed on a twelve-week care-in-the-community programme, where he would be monitored, but could go on
studying and having therapy. Once he got out, Barry had applied for visiting rights to see Colin, but had been turned down.
    Eleven months passed before he was given permission to visit Colin. Barry now wore contact lenses, had lost a lot of weight and was dressed in a smart suit. He looked healthy
and felt good. Thanks to Social Services and various charities that found work for ex-offenders, he was an apprentice plumber. He sat in the waiting room at Barfield, looking forward to seeing his
friend, scanning the faces of the inmates as they were let into the visiting section.
    He was not the only one whose looks had changed. Barry was shocked to see how poorly Colin looked. His dark hair was greasy, his face gaunt and unshaven, and he had a hollow look in his eyes. He
seemed to shuffle rather than walk, and his prison-issue denims looked filthy and crumpled. At first, Colin didn’t recognise his friend without his glasses. Then, when Colin sat down opposite
him, Barry noticed how Colin sort of crouched and darted frightened glances around the room.
    ‘I have been trying to come and see you for months,’ Barry said.
    Colin did not reply and Barry patted his suit lapel. ‘I got a job and bought this so I’d look respectable. I’m working as a trainee plumber and I really love it. I’ll
work with a qualified bloke when I finish my training.’
    Colin still said nothing, and Barry began to feel nervous.
    ‘I wanted to come and say that I never meant to make out that you threatened me. They slapped me about and sort of put words into my mouth. Truth was, when everyone got to hear about the
escape, it give me a lot of respect. I’d never been so popular. Everyone wanted to be my friend.’
    Colin still stayed silent, and Barry was finding the one-sided conversation difficult. He blurted out that he had passed his driving test.
    ‘On the second attempt. I failed the first one ’cos I didn’t indicate I was turning left and I got a couple of the road-safety questions wrong. Where can you park on a motorway
was one. I said that I could park on the hard shoulder, but that’s wrong. You are not allowed to park anywhere on motorways. Did you know that?’
    Colin stayed mute.
    ‘What I should have said was, in an emergency you can stay on the hard shoulder to call for help. It was a trick question.’
    As Barry looked at Colin, he noticed beads of sweat running down his forehead. It was awful, and he couldn’t understand why Colin wouldn’t talk to him. He was certain that his friend
blamed him for his arrest and capture, but he had only been trying to help.
    ‘Listen, Colin, I’d do anything for you. I’d even swap places with you again, if it would help.’
    The bell to signal the visiting time was over was going to ring at any moment. Barry was almost in