Spiral Staircase by John Wainwright

Author:John Wainwright [Wainwright, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The end and the beginning…

“Lock a civilised man behind bars—especially an educated man, especially a man who held the responsibility of a detective chief superintendent—and the spiral staircase analogy becomes even more emphasised. He’s disorientated almost beyond belief. He doesn’t know up from down. He doesn’t know right from wrong. He needs easing gently, very gently, back to normality.”

“There was a good job waiting for him,” Tallboy said. “Somewhere to live. Comfort a lot of people would give their eyeteeth for.”

“The operative word is gently.” The guy in the white coat scowled his annoyance at Tallboy’s inability to understand. “Three years inside, then that? It was like a pauper being handed a million pounds and being expected to adjust, without help. It was crazy.”

“The intentions were good.” Tallboy sounded miserable.

“They always are. My God! The number of people who need treatment because of ‘good intentions’. He didn’t expect it. He wasn’t prepared for it. So, it knocked him sideways, what else?”

“Are you saying he’s mad?” muttered Tallboy.

“We’re all mad, don’t you know that?” He looked almost as sad as Tallboy. “My profession seeks normality, knowing it can never be found. Sub-normal. Abnormal. The two divisions of mankind. But no middle ground. Superior. Inferior. The ‘average’ man doesn’t exist, and yet we’re expected to use him as a yardstick. The man without hang-ups. Without guilt complexes. Without over-enthusiasms. Without illogical likes or dislikes. I tell you…” He paused and sighed. “Lennox is no more mad than you or I. A different madness, perhaps. A madness we can’t understand. The yearning to get back to prison, for example. Why?”

“Is that what he wants?”

“He’s admitted everything. Not just to me. To Badger. To at least four senior detective officers. Everything! He’s refused Legal Aid. He’s already pleaded guilty on all counts at the committal court. He seems almost eager to get back inside. To Armley Prison, Leeds.”

“Armley?”

“It’s the only prison he ever mentions. Perhaps he has friends there.”

“That’s only a short-stay prison,” said Tallboy. “Committals. A Reception Prison. He’ll stay there maybe six months, till they decide where to send him for the rest of his sentence. He can’t have friends there. Great Heavens, man! Lennox can’t have friends in any prison.”

“All right.” He waved his hands in an empty, helpless gesture. “I’m only telling you what I know. What I’ve gleaned from his talk. Armley. Maybe he looks upon it as a womb-substitute. I’ve come across stranger things.”

“The hell with that for an explanation.”

“All right, I’m wrong. It won’t be the first time. The only thing I do know. He’s like the rest of us. On his own spiral staircase. And rightly or wrongly—up or down—he’s determined to move.”

And that was it. They talked a little longer, but got no farther. Other than confirming Tallboy’s original opinion, that he didn’t like the guy in the white coat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.