Cages by David Mark (reading fiction TXT) 📗

and nights are filled with the raucous cacophony of countless men cat-calling and wailing, crying and pleading; hooted laughter and the crash of metal on metal; metal on brick, skin and metal and brick upon skin.

That is why Griffin Cox has decided that he has served sufficient time. Griffin Cox is going to release himself from incarceration. He does not like the word ‘escape’. It implies some frantic, desperate flight: all chaos and baying dogs, searchlights and shots. He has simply decided to remove himself from this place. He’s been here long enough. And of late, he has more pressing matters to attend to than marking time.

‘… fucking nonce, Cox! Gonna cut it off! Mail it to the mum of that lass!’

‘… do it, Suggs. I’ll hold him down for ya!’

‘Don’t deserve to live, Cox! Don’t deserve to breathe the same air as us!’

‘That’ll do, Suggs. Off the landing. Back to your floor.’

Cox pays no attention to the sudden eruption of noise. Does not allow any glimpse of dissatisfaction to show. He is well used to such threats. People have tried and failed to dish out their own punishments for his so-called crimes. All have learned the error of their ways. He would prefer them to come for him and try some brute physicality, rather than continuing to fill the still air of his cell with their crashing consonants and guttural threats. He has already spent seven years inside. Moved between jails four times: on each occasion bringing with him the wisdom hard won at the last. He knows now that to ask for something is to guarantee its opposite. Knows that those whose manner seems kindest are the ones to be distrusted. Knows that to tell a secret is to place oneself in another person’s debt. Knows that boiling water and sugar form a syrup which can cause the skin to hiss and bubble: that peeling it off takes with it so much epidermis that a handsome face can be reduced to gristle, blood and bone.

He closes his eyes. Allows himself to see.

Cox’s recall is uncanny. His memory is more than photographic. Cox can spot details in his recollections that he did not know he was a party to. He can remember a landscape and return to it later, picking out individual birds; the movements of trees; the shape and passage of the clouds. He can open a book, glance at it as if taking a mental picture, and read it later in the comfort of his own solitude. He has never consented to an IQ test and has deliberately refused to answer honestly when questioned by police, prison officers and countless psychiatrists. He does not want anybody to feel they know him. He prefers to be constantly underestimated. It has served him well. Behind his veiled eyes, his pupils contract, eyes twitching left and right as he scans the text of the newspaper article that has led to his recent change in circumstances. Led him here, to HMP Holderness.

MURDER SQUAD VISIT CAT-A PRISON TO QUIZ CONVICTED KIDNAPPER

By Weardale Times Senior Reporter, Val Aitchison

September 23, 2019

DETECTIVES probing the 2005 disappearance of Melanie Grazia have travelled to a maximum security prison to question a convicted sex offender.

Melanie, 14, disappeared from an elite boarding school in the middle of the afternoon. A mystery man left a voicemail telling staff at the boarding house she was going home with parents. She has not been seen since.

Serious Crime officers within Durham Constabulary have conducted a Cold Case review and believe there are sufficient similarities between Melanie’s disappearance, and the abduction of a teenage girl from a busy street in York in 2013.

Although the identity of the inmate has not been revealed by police, this newspaper understands that police questioned Griffin Cox, 51, who was pulled over by police for a motoring offence and discovered to have a terrified schoolgirl in the boot of his hire car.

Cox was given an indefinite sentence following his trial at York Crown Court, when detectives described him as an ‘evil man’ whom they feared may well have struck before.

Police yesterday refused to comment on the outcome of the interview, but it is understood that the new developments are a direct result of work carried out by charity organization Missing People. Staff at the respected charity have been posing on internet forums and conspiracy sites to try and make contact with any one of the 300,000 teenagers who disappear from home each year. They found evidence that connected Cox to several missing persons cases.

A spokeswoman for the charity said: ‘It’s difficult to go into too much detail without adding to the pain of the families involved, but we’ve discovered several cases with similar circumstances and feel it is only right that the police take this seriously and ask Cox to account for himself.’

Cox’s arrest stunned establishment friends who believed the ‘gifted, intelligent’ man innocent of the abduction and offered up character references to spare him jail. A former Cabinet member said Cox had been ‘a victim of bullying’ in his formative years but was a kind, gentle person who would never have intended to cause harm.

The unmarried childless Cox lived a life of luxury having inherited his mother’s property upon her death, and spent much of his time in Italy purchasing antique furniture. It is understood that authorities in Italy are also looking into Cox’s activities while staying in luxurious accommodation on the Amalfi coast.

Cox knows that he is not many steps ahead of those who would ensure he is never released. He has a few black marks on his prison record but release is still within his grasp – provided no more crimes are pinned to his name. And Cox has reason to believe that if he does not secure a very swift release and an opportunity to tidy up loose ends, that evidence will soon be dragged into the light.

Cox considers himself, and more, as he lies on the floor of his cell, still as