Thursday arrived, and there had been no message from Mr Pruitt. To both Dido and Trish, this was a sign that Dido’s father didn’t care about getting out of jail the next day.

Trish rented a car from a ‘rent-a-wreck’ place off the strip for the trip northwest up Route 95 to the state penitentiary where Dido’s father was being held. There was a tension between the two that magically disappeared once they saw the sign stating that they were leaving Las Vegas. The place was not their cup of tea by any means. London, while busy and bustling, was more real than a plastic, fake place like Las Vegas.

[High Desert State Prison, Nevada]

When they arrived at the jail, they found Mr Pruitt waiting for them in the parking lot.

“I am so glad that you came. I met with your father yesterday, and he now accepts that you were once his son, and he will meet with you. I’m here because, as his lawyer and with a parole board hearing tomorrow, we can meet in private and not behind a plexiglass screen.”

Dido smiled.
“Will he have anything to tell us?”

“He will. I have a statement already typed up and waiting for his signature, but he wants to tell you himself. I agree with that. Coming from him directly is always better than just a written statement.”

Then he looked at Trish.
“I’m afraid that you can’t be present as you are not family, and with you being a cop, your safety can’t be guaranteed.”

Trish looked disappointed. It was clear from her body language.

“I’ll go and wait in the car,” said a slightly dejected Trish.

Mr Pruitt shook his head.
“There is a place to sit with AC just on the left. Keep cool; it is going to be a hot one today.”

To Trish and Dido, every day was a ‘hot one’ in Vegas.

Mr Pruitt led Dido through the torturous security process. That alone took almost 15 minutes. She had to lie when asked why her last name was not the same as her father’s. She said that she’d been adopted at age 9. It was sort of the truth, but it satisfied the prison people, and that was all that mattered.

They were shown to a small room. The first thing Dido noted was that there was a camera.

Pruit saw the concern on her face and said,
“It is not working. If it is, it is a clear breach of the 4th Amendment, and I’ll sue the state for everything that they have. Conferences between a lawyer and their client are confidential.”

“Except when made in the planning or execution of a crime, commonly called the ‘Crime Fraud Exception’,” said Dido confidently.

Pruit glared at her. He didn’t like being told the law by a foreigner.

“We aren’t here to plan a crime, rather to clear up some that took place in another country, so we are safe,” said Pruit.

Dido wasn’t sure. She’d looked up Pruitt on the Nevada State Bar list. He’d obtained his law degree at night classes in Reno while working as a car detailer, and had been admitted to the bar after his work on a case of multiple attempts to extort money from the Nevada State Bar itself. That didn’t give Dido a lot of confidence, but he was all they had, so…

A few minutes later, Dido’s father was led into the room. He was dressed in an orange one-piece suit with NDOC in large letters on the back and smaller ones on the front. He was shackled with his hands chained to a waist belt and chains around his ankles that would limit his stride.

“Can you release his right hand, please? The prisoner has some documents to sign,” said Pruitt.

The guard reluctantly released his right hand.
“I will be outside the door. Knock, and I’ll return to take 45034 back to his cell.”

Dido saw the number ‘45034’ printed on the orange suit. That must be his prison number. It was so impersonal. That was by design, and that worried Dido. She was glad that she’d never been arrested during her time as a pickpocket.

No one said a thing until the guard had retreated and locked the door. There was no way out for any of them. For Dido, it brought back some horrible memories. She closed her eyes and counted to ten backwards three times before the feeling faded.

“Hello, Dad,” said Dido.

He remained passive.
“Pruitt here told me about this scar. Show me?”

Dido rolled up her sleeve. The scar was visible for all to see.

“Ok, I believe you,” he said. Once again, there was no real recognition that she was his kin.

He turned to Pruitt.
“Do you have the statement?”

“I do. Here it is,” he replied, opening a folder on his desk. Pruitt gave it to Dido’s father.

“Do you want me to read this out loud?”

“That was what we agreed,” said the lawyer.

Her father took the sheet and spent well over a minute reading it. Dido resisted the urge to show her impatience.

“That is as I dictated it,” said her father.

“I, Ronald George Day, do honestly declare that this statement is the whole truth as far as it concerns the crimes that I committed or was involved in the execution of in the UK and how I paid for those mistakes with the sacrifice of my son. If I had not agreed to that deal, all of our family would have been killed.”

He took a deep breath.

“It all began when my son was six. I’d already been training him to become like me, a good pickpocket. One May Day weekend, he’d lifted more than twenty wallets and purses from people travelling on the train out to the end of Southend Pier. But… But as they say, greed begets greed. I wanted more, so I made the biggest mistake of my life and hooked up with a bunch of East Londoners. I didn’t know it at the time, but they were connected to an OCG, Organised Crime Gang, who were spreading their wings from their base in the Liverpool and Manchester areas and joining up with local gangs to form a large crime syndicate. They funded three robberies or, as we call them here, ‘stickups’. The first went very well, and we got away with more than sixteen grand. As I said before, greed begets greed, and we aimed our next hit to be a lot bigger. This time, things went wrong, and the Post Office changed its delivery schedule. We only just managed to get away, and with less than two grand to show for our efforts. Our bosses were not happy, but they gave me one more chance.

We went over to Kent and targeted a place in Gravesend. It went pear-shaped after our getaway vehicle got boxed in by a delivery van. We all escaped from the area, but with nothing to show for it. By now, I’d run out of lives with the OGC people, and they wanted their investment back with interest at 100%. I could not pay that, so I had to sell up and run. That meant leaving my son behind. They told me that I could escape with my life if they had him. I ran… Well, my wife and I ran for the hills. We came to the USA and started again. Getting here, what with flights and everything, took the last of my cash, so I ‘dipped’ our way to Vegas and have been here ever since.

The vehicles we used for our jobs came from a place in East London near the old Ford plant in Dagenham. That was just a depot for distributing cars and vans used by the OCG mob. It shared premises with a real used car lot, which was a front for the OCG operation. They were all cleaned before and after the job. I mean, they had the life detailed out of them. Every inch, inside and out, was wiped clean of prints and DNA. The plates were cloned from real vehicles that looked just like the ones we used. I mean, right down to any stickers like a GB plate or a football team logo and even a dealer sticker. The attention to detail would fool anyone but the CSI teams. That level of detail costs a lot of money. Money that I could not pay back.

I am sorry for what happened to you. My Lawyer gave me a briefing about what you did in the witness box at the Bailey. You turned out good. I will never forgive myself for letting them mutilate you like that. At the time, I was panicking. I have given Mr Pruitt a list of all the names and addresses I can remember that are related to the OCG mob and those who went on the jobs with me. One of them is a rat. I didn’t hang around to find out, but one of them is. I don’t know if they are still walking around or have been dealt with. I don’t care.

If you think that this admission is enough for the parole board and also to stop the UK government from extraditing me, then thank you. I do know that I would probably never last a week in a UK Jail. Those bastards have tentacles everywhere. In this place, I’m protected by some people back in Sin City. I did a few favours for them. I won’t name names for obvious reasons. Your mother knows nothing of this confession. Please spare her the hurt of knowing what I let happen to you.
“

He had read the document without emotion. That brought back a lot of memories of him from before their lives changed. Her everlasting memory of that period was of him being a cold bastard. The experience of witnessing him reading this confession did nothing to change that. Then the smell of the prison, one of Urine, Sweat and Cholorx was starting to give Dido a headache.

Mr Pruitt provided a pen for Dido’s father to sign the papers. They were witnessed by Mr Pruitt and then handed over to Dido. Pruit then gave Dido the list of people. She looked at it and briefly smiled.

“Will you be trying to get me sent back to the UK? Asked her father.

“I don’t know. I’m going to sleep on it. I will call Mr Pruitt before the parole board meeting tomorrow. He gave me the time of the hearing when we arrived here today,” replied Dido without a hint of emotion in her voice. If her father could do it, then so could she.

Dido did not say goodbye to the man who had sold her to the traffickers. He was not worth it. Now that he knew what had happened to his son, she hoped that he’d have nightmares about it for the rest of his miserable life.

Once her father had been taken back to his part of the prison, Mr Pruitt said,
“You are a cold person, aren’t you?”

Dido knew what he meant.
“I am frigid when it comes to those who have wronged me. If you had read the transcript of my testimony, then I gave him nothing more than he deserved. I hope what he did to me stays with him for the rest of his life. No one deserves to have done to them what was done to me, especially when they are a child. I will tell you this, Mr Pruitt. If I come across him on the outside, I will end his life, and that is a promise. Before today, I was a bit ambivalent, but to hear him read that statement without emotion made me change my mind. You are lucky that my flight home leaves tomorrow evening, if you get my message?”

Mr Pruitt went white in the face. He nodded his understanding.

“How did it go?” asked Trish when they emerged from the Prison.

“Let’s get away from here right now,” said Dido.
She tossed Trish the keys to the car.
“I’ll probably crash into something if I drive it, given how I’m feeling.”

Trish saw a steely, cold look in Dido’s eyes. Something had happened inside the prison. Whatever it was had hit her hard.

Half an hour later, Trish pulled the car into the lot of a large Walmart. It was somewhere quiet, which was perfect for her. Dido had spent the journey staring straight ahead and gripping the door handle as if it were about to come loose.

“Right, Darling, what the hell happened inside that caused you to change into Miss Grumpy?”

Dido didn’t say anything for well over a minute, but Trish had seen Dido like this before. She knew that letting her work out whatever it was in her mind was the only way forward.

Dido slowly relaxed her grip on the door handle. Then she managed a smile.

“Sorry about that. He… He made me want to kill him right there and then inside the prison.”

“I take it that it didn’t go well then?”

“He read a statement in a way that told me that he didn’t give two fucks what had happened to me. His remorse was as fake as it could be.”

“What’s next?”

“Already done. I sent all the data off to the parole board and the state department. That’s why that idiot of a lawyer came out of the jail building before me. I made an excuse about needing the bathroom and sent it all from there.”

“Did you get what you came for?”

“I did. His list of old contacts has two names on it that I know, but we have something to do right now.”

“Don’t tell me that you are going to confront your Mum?”

“I am even though he said that I should not involve her. I want her to suffer as well. She knew what he was doing. When he was speaking about what he’d done, I remembered her last words to me. ‘We have a surprise for you in the morning, now go to sleep. ’ The next thing I knew was waking up with boobs and no dick. Yeah, some surprise.”

“Was it something he said?”

Dido shook her head.
“No, it was just hearing his voice again after all these years. Now I want to tell her to her face what she did to me, and I don’t care who hears. When he was talking, I remembered that she’d known that I’d be taken that night. She never used to kiss me goodnight, but that last night, she did.”

Trish smiled and took Dido’s hand. Dido sat there staring into space for several minutes.

Trish knew that this was her working through her way of avoiding a PTSD attack.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” said Trish when Dido relaxed.

Dido managed a small smile.
“Sorry, but the memories got the better of me. I just had to handle it in the only way I know how.”

Trish reached over and gave Dido a brief kiss.
“I’m beginning to read your moods. I don’t want any more of these. Got it?”

Dido kissed Trish.
“I’ll try, darling. I’m sorry for that. I meant what I said. I would have killed him on the spot if I hadn’t done that. The last thing I would want to risk is spending any time in a US jail. For starters, I’d be put in the male population because of my DNA. That would be a certain death sentence. I told Pruitt that if I ever came upon him on the outside, that I’d kill him in a flash.”

Trish hugged Dido as best they could in the car. The mere thought of Dido going to jail in the USA was not something she wanted to see.

Dido directed Trish to the fast-food outlet where Dido’s mother worked. When she’d parked their car, Trish started to open the door, but Dido put her hand on Trish’s leg.

Trish turned to face Dido.
“I’m not letting you do this on your own. This time, I will be there at your side as I should be. Got it!”

Dido slowly nodded her head.

“I’ll do a walk past just to check to see if she is there,” said Trish as they walked across the parking lot towards the Fast-Food joint.

As it turned out, that wasn’t needed as Dido’s mother came hurrying out of the building and almost ran right into them.

“Hello, Mum!” said Dido.

The woman did a double-take and tried to run away, but Trish stopped her. Trish flashed her warrant card and said,
“Trying to flee won’t get you anywhere. The State Department will be receiving a request for your extradition if you don’t stop and listen to what your daughter has to say.”

Trish’s words seemed to have an effect.

“He contacted you then?” said Dido.

Her mother shook her head. She could not look at Dido.
“His lawyer,” she muttered in a voice barely above a whisper.

“It does not matter. Look at me, damm you!” said Dido.

Slowly, she looked at Dido.

After a brief shake of her head, Dido said,
“You sold me to people who cut my dick off and gave me these! I wasn’t even ten years old, for Christ’s sake. Then they sold me to a bastard and his son, who abused me for years. Can… Can you imagine what that was like for me? They kept me locked in a cell and sold me to men who fucked me up my anus. I’m glad that he’s serving time. Now, he knows what it is like to be locked up like an animal. Do you want to follow him to jail?”

“What do you mean?”

“You have a simple choice. Tell me everything about his crimes and the people he worked for, or I will make it my sole purpose in life to get you convicted for being a party to my trafficking into prostitution at age 9. That won’t go down very well inside any jail in the world. A mother selling her son as a sex slave! Just imagine it. It won’t end well for you.”

Dido’s mother looked for help from Trish.

Trish shook her head.
“Dido means what she says. She has spent six years tracking down the people who abused her. She will do what she promises, believe me.”

“But… But you are a cop?” said the mother.

“True, but here, I am just another visitor to the country. I witnessed your quite remarkable daughter destroy someone who was regarded as the top defence barrister in the UK at the Old Bailey. It was a sight that will live with me forever and made legal history. Dido means what she says.”

It was a lie, but she wasn’t to know that.

“I… I can’t. They’ll kill both of us. He’s in jail because we were thinking of coming back to the UK. Suddenly, his protection went away, and the cops arrested him. We were told that it was a warning and that we were to stay here. Extraditing us would be a death sentence for both of us. You have no idea who you are dealing with!”

“Tell us. You disappeared once. You can do it again,” said Dido.

“I can’t. They have people watching even here. The year before he… he was jailed, we went to Cancun for a long weekend, and they… they made it clear that leaving Nevada was just not allowed. See… we are prisoners here.”

Trish shook her head when Dido glanced in her direction.

“They will know that you went to visit him in jail today. Pruitt is in their pay. He’ll make sure that parole is refused just to teach us a lesson for talking to you.”

“Who is this ‘they’ that you keep talking about?”

“I have to go, and don’t try to stop me!”

She ran to her car and took off, leaving Trish and Dido standing like fools in the middle of a parking lot in the midday sun of Vegas.

Dido and Trish were left stunned by her revelations. Neither of them had expected anything like that. Still reeling from her claims, they retreated to the cool of their hotel room.

[to be continued]