Justice Delayed: a tale of reform school discipline Page 4

  "Please, have a seat," Donald gestured and Victoria eased herself into one of several armchairs that filled the room well away from the Governor's large desk. Oddly there did not seem to be any chairs at the desk itself other than his own. Was that where naughty delinquents had to stand when facing the music?

  It was nice to sit so comfortably while Linda stood with her arms clasped behind her back. The girl definitely looked nervous; she must have known something was up. The way she had flinched at the sight of Victoria was a bit odd. They had never been friends but Victoria had been completely hands off when it came to Linda's punishment. She had got all the pleasure she needed from watching. Why would she be afraid of her? She did not like her prey to be afraid, complacency and trust from her intended victims made her life so much easier.

  "Ms Evens." Donald called her to stand in front of them. "I believe that there was some incident in your final year at school, an incident involving drugs. I would like your version of events."

  For some reason she did not look at all shocked or surprised and Victoria began to frown. Had someone given her a heads up? She had expected the girl to be confronted by her omission and forced to give an explanation on the spot. With that sort of surprise, even the best of speakers could easily get flustered and give an unconvincing account.

  "I was made Head Girl at the beginning of the year," Linda began. There was emotion in her voice but there was a strength there that Victoria could not remember. "It was the proudest moment of my life when the Headmistress pinned on my badge."

  She nodded briefly to, but did not look directly at, Victoria. "Ms Harris was my deputy. Around four weeks into term the Headmistress received a tip-off that led to a search of my locker. A quantity of cocaine was found there."

  Linda closed her eyes for a moment and when she finally was able to continue Victoria was pleased to see that she could still feel the agony of her downfall.

  "I was very nearly expelled but... the school agreed that I would be disciplined internally with no police and I could stay. I had to agree to the terms of the Head's punishment or I would face expulsion. They took away ..." for a second her voice cracked and her face crumpled with emotion. Victoria could see the other woman's eyes moisten at the memory despite the intervening years. "They took away my Head Girl badge and I was caned in front of the entire school at Assembly. In addition I had to agree to attend every Friday evening for that term with Miss Lynch my Form Mistress and receive six strokes of her cane delivered on my bare bottom." Strangely from her voice the pain of the caning did not appear to hurt her as much as the loss of her badge and position.

  Victoria blinked in surprise. She had not known about that last bit. She had been certain that once Linda had received her stripes in Assembly the matter had ended. Just thinking about all those Friday nights when Linda must have been squealing under the cane was enough to send throbbing waves of very pleasant heat up from her groin.

  "I think the Friday night canings were to make me to leave, but I refused. So every weekend I nearly cried every time I sat down and even when the welts began to fade I knew that as soon as I was healed I had to call on Ms Lynch for another set and another and another."

  Again emotion appeared to overcome Linda, and Victoria kept her face very calm. It was the girl's own fault. If she had never put herself forward as a rival for the position of Head Girl, if she had not tried to stop Victoria's little games with the younger girls, none of this need have happened. All she had to do was to step aside in favour of Victoria who was far more suited for the position anyway.

  "Ms Lynch had been so kind to me when I first came to the school. It was my first time away from home and I was so lonely but she was always there with a shoulder to cry on. I think the thought that she might believe I was capable of such a thing hurt more than her cane. Whoever did this to me took away my position as Head Girl, and tried to take away my education. They nearly took away my mentor but every Friday evening I told Ms Lynch that I was innocent. I told her I had never even seen cocaine before let alone used it. I told her she could cane me as much as she wanted every day if she felt like it but that I had to know she believed me."

  "And what happened?" Donald asked carefully.

  "After the third week she told me that there was nothing she could do about the punishment. It had been directed by the Board of Governors itself and it had been all she could do to stop my expulsion but she made sure that every Friday evening after she caned me she would rub on some cream that helped with the pain. She believed me. That meant more to me than..."

  With that Linda swallowed and there was no hiding the tears that trickled silently down her cheek.

  The girl in the tee shirt moved over to her and wrapped her arm around Linda's shoulders and guided her back to her seat.

  "And you deny that the drugs belonged to you?" Sir Morgan asked. Victoria glanced in his direction. He had his arms folded across his chest and while he did not look angry, neither did he look convinced by her story. Before standing for election he had practiced as a Barrister and he would have heard enough sob stories from criminals that a few tears would not be enough to impress him.

  "I have never used drugs." Even amid the tears her reply was laced with anger at the accusation.

  "So tell me Miss Victoria," Donald began. "You have heard Ms Evens' account. Do you still think that the proper course of action is to have her confined here as a delinquent? As a former member of staff, albeit an Intern, she would face an extremely hard time from both the other delinquents and the staff."

  Victoria made a show of looking concerned as if she was struggling with a terrible agonising decision. "I would not like to see anyone sent here, especially Linda, but she had her chance already. The school did not expel her. They gave her a second chance."

  Inwardly Victoria could not understand that. Ms Lynch had intervened on her behalf? Ms Lynch was one of the most feared teachers at the school. She wielded the power and authority of Form Mistress and would think nothing of having a girl over her knee to receive an impressive spanking for infractions of the rules that other teachers might let one off with a warning. Why, Victoria herself had had to tread very carefully around the woman. Linda's version of the woman did not sound at all like the martinet Victoria remembered.

  She shook her head and sighed as she looked down to the floor before giving Linda a sympathetic look. "I think that you can't keep on giving her chance after chance. Eventually her actions have to catch up with her."

  Linda opened her mouth to say something but stopped when Donald raised his hand. "She denies the charges."

  "And yet she failed to disclose this when you accepted her as an Intern," Sir Morgan pointed out. "Hardly the actions of a truthful person."

  "Actually she told me everything when I first interviewed her," Sir Morgan said. "She came highly recommended by Ms Lynch who is known to me. We share ... certain hobbies but neither Ms Lynch or more importantly Ms Evens tried to hide what had happened."

  Victoria felt her own mouth drop and from the corner of her eye she could see her father was equally surprised. Hadn't he said...? She could not remember the exact words Donald had used but the implication had been clear... or had it?

  "I was never talking about Ms Evens," he said calmly as if he was completely unaware of the confusion he was causing. "I was always talking about Victoria."

  ---oOo---

  Two weeks earlier

  Donald suppressed a sigh as he admired the park around him. It was pleasant enough with a large pond surrounded by weeping willows and everywhere he turned he could see families playing or walking their dogs or simply enjoying a picnic. It seemed everyone was taking advantage of the good weather to come out. Still, sedate as it was, it could not quite compare to a stroll through the reformatory athletics grounds with a class of delinquents being put through their paces in the adorable little tunics they were given that gave complete freedom of movement and left just enough to the imagination to tantalise anyo
ne with his particular tastes.

  Still it could not be helped. There were far too many cameras and sensors at the reformatory, and today he could not risk anything being logged by the security computers. The young woman at his side helped lift his mood a bit. Her naturally blond hair still bore the raven black dye from when she had been the supposed victim of a computer error and had her status changed from Visitor to Inmate when he was taking her on a tour of the reformatory of which he was the Governor.

  Her blue eyes were bright and attentive and he found that he quite liked her company and conversation. Either her short stay under reformatory discipline had turned her around or as he suspected, now that she had got what she wanted and no longer had to play the annoying brat, she was actually quite engaging to be around.

  "I am a bit surprised that you spend so much time at the reformatory," he began. The topic that brought him here today was a delicate one; he would have to build up to it. And he found it enjoyable to verbally spar with her. He would miss her when she returned home to America.

  "Given what happened, being forced into a delinquent uniform, repeatedly slippered and strapped on your bare behind, well most young women would want to forget such a terrible ordeal and put some distance between them and the place that had happened. You, on the other hand, show up day after day to help our administrative staff improve their computer systems."

  His niece, Amanda Howard looked at him as if butter would not melt in her mouth. "Well your computers are so unreliable, look what happened to me? And I don't hold any grudges, Uncle Donald; I am sure you moved heaven and earth to get the mistake rectified and get me released as soon as you could."

  It was his turn to hold back a smile. She knew as well as he did that all it would have taken was a quick phone call on his part to put her processing on hold, but by the rules of the game that had grown up between them neither ever accused the other of anything they could not prove. Hint yes but accuse no. And everyone knew that his knowledge of computers and what to do if they went wrong was limited to say the least.

  "I have been speaking with our IT people. Whoever hacked the system that caused your unexpected detention left a number of safeguards in place. It seems that your bio chip would have reverted to visitor status the day after you were released. I wanted to know if someone else could hack the system, it would be dreadfully embarrassing if you were to visit again and have your bio chip change to inmate again. Why with all those safeguards removed, there is no telling how long it might take us to fix the mistake a second time."

  She went very still as the meaning of his words sank in. It might be one thing to get oneself admitted to the reformatory just to experience a thrill of living the life of a delinquent and all that it entailed, while confident of when you were getting out. What might she think if she found herself accidentally admitted again and this time with no way out except by his whim?

  Amanda hid her emotions better than nearly anyone he knew. After all, if he was right she had manipulated him and he hoped that this was not something easily done. All the same he thought he detected a hint of conflicting emotions. If he was right about her, she would be enthralled at the idea of a return to reformatory discipline, but without a safety net there would have to be an element of fear as well. What if he decided to keep her as a delinquent for a few weeks, perhaps even a few months? Oh there would be fear but he had heard it said that fear only made the pleasure more exquisite.

  "You mean that I might be forced back in to that terrible uniform and have my poor bare bottom thrashed by that dreadful strap?" she asked in her very best frightened little girl voice.

  Dreadful the strap might be but when she had been released he had seen to it that she had been given her old uniform and a tawse. Hardly a night passed that he did not catch her oiling or polishing the leather. She looked after it like a little girl given her very first doll.

  Then her delicious lips curled up in a faint smile and she looked him directly in the eye. "You think your IT tech got rid of all the safeguards?" She put a particular emphasis on the word 'all'. "Is he really that good?"

  It was his turn to look uncertain. They claimed that all the safeguards the hacker had put in had been removed but they still were not sure how the system had been penetrated in the first place and when he had pressed they reluctantly admitted that there could be any number of things still lurking in the system that they could not find.

  The hacker had been very subtle and very clever. A set of commands might well still lurk in the hard drive of the system waiting for predefined circumstances to arise. There was no way to be certain.

  He did enjoy these conversations; they were like chess matches with move and countermove. She had won the first game because he had underestimated her but there was always time for a rematch. Except that today a glance at his watch told him that he would have to wrap this up soon.

  Without a word he reached into the inside jacket pocket of his suit and took out the carefully folded pages of hand writing. "Did you meet Linda Evens?" he asked carefully.

  He was straying onto dangerous territory now. All the same he was reasonably sure that behind the various masks and veils that Amanda showed to the world they had certain things in common. They might be on either side of the coin in the way they derived pleasure but at the core he hoped she was not so different.

  She had to think for a minute but then she nodded. "An intern?"

  "Yes," he confirmed and handed over the pages.

  At the sight of hard copy as she would call it, Amanda's lips curled into a faint frown. What did she have against paper, everything had to be digital with her. All the same he could see her eyes move back and forth as she started to read. Amanda paused in her study only long enough to finger a smudge that had dried out on one side of a page. A small drop of water had fallen there, a tear stain from the writer.

  When she finished, she looked up at him and there was a dangerous gleam in those blue eyes. "Is this accurate?"

  All hint of playfulness had gone from her voice now. In fact Donald was forced to once again reassess his young niece. She had an air of danger about her. A hyper intelligent, computer science undergraduate that made most of her professors look like cavemen. No, if her anger was aroused this was not a young woman to cross.

  "That is the question. I believe so, but I need proof." Taking a deep breath and very much aware that a wrong word from Amanda could see him up on charges, perhaps even doing jail time if he kept going.

  "Getting the proof could be illegal, possibly dangerous. If a person was caught I would make sure that the buck stopped with me." If she did this for him and it went wrong he was not sure how he would protect her from the ramifications that came with being caught, but somehow he would.

  The glint in her eyes was still there but now it was balanced by an amused smile. "Caught," she snorted. "I could not possibly help, but if some anonymous programmer was to help I seriously doubt if he or she would be so incompetent as to get caught."

  With anyone else he would have said it was the cocky arrogance that came so often with youth. With Amanda it was simply confidence in her abilities.

  "Leave it with me."

  ---oOo---

  The Present

  Victoria felt as if someone had just thrown a bucketful of cold water in her face. She gasped, but carefully honed instincts had her on her feet in an instant. The outrage on her face did not have to be feigned but she knew that it was vital that she react quickly. Take too long to reply and people could think you were concocting a lie.

  "I don't know what you are talking about. And I resent the implication that I have somehow been involved in some sort of wrongdoing."

  "What exactly are you saying?" Sir Morgan demanded. He was on his feet as well and there was a dangerous edge in his voice that made her feel immediately safer. She had never had to rely directly on her father's influence but having it there if needed was like having a warm blanket on a cold night.

  "I am sayi
ng that Victoria Harris is a drug user, a manipulator, a thief and a blackmailer of the highest order. The whole purpose of the tour was to give her every chance to do the right thing. She saw at first hand what life is like for a delinquent here, and at every step she was happy to go along with having a woman she knew to be innocent detained here as a delinquent." The Governor's words came almost like a slap across the face.

  "How dare you!" Sir Morgan looked furious and was trying very hard to control his anger. "I do not appreciate these unfounded accusations. I want Justine returned to me and we will leave." Her father nodded to himself grimly. "I try not to make threats, but I assure you that you have earned yourself an enemy today one that you will regret making."

  Sir Morgan might not be his direct superior but his position in government penal reform ensured that he had considerable influence on the prison and reform systems. Donald Shepard would be very, very sorry for ever crossing Victoria Harris. And they had been getting on so swimmingly.

  If the obvious threat to his position frightened Donald he gave no sign. "Your defence of our daughter is understandable, however I assure you I can back up everything I have said. Would you care to see my evidence?"

  The door to his office opened and instinctively Victoria looked around to see who was intruding. It was Justine but ... why was she not in her uniform? She was dressed in that boring conservative outfit she had worn on arrival. She should have been dressed as a delinquent, in class probably in the middle of getting a scalding hot bottom. What was she doing back?"

  Her appearance did not go unnoticed by Sir Morgan. Victoria could almost see the confusion forming and with it his anger and outrage was dulled. This was bad, Victoria decided. She did not know what evidence Donald could possibly have. She had covered her tracks. No one would talk. No one except Justine, and the girl knew the consequences of that.