CHAPTER 37 - OH SO THAT’S HOW AND THAT’S WHY 

SCI ALBION, WORK OUT YARD - THREE DAYS LATER

LUTHER

I shake my head and take the far-too-heavy weight off Archie’s chest. “Just why?” I snigger.

“Because.” He gasps. “One day I am gonna do it!” I stare at him. “I will!”

“Keep on dreaming, Kingsman.” A fellow prisoner snickers as he walks on by, but there is no malice in it, Archie has been trying to lift 250 since we met. With his noodle arms and legs, this is not going to happen. He may be wiry, but he's never ever gonna lift more than 175!

“You believe in me, don’t you, Lute?”

“Where this is concerned? Nope.”

“Hey, you are supposed to be my friend!” Archie scoffs before accepting my helping hand. “I would be offended if what you said wasn’t true!” We head back to the administration block. We need to work on his appeal. “Lute?”

“Yeah.”

“If this...if this works, what am I looking at really?” I have been prepared for this conversation; Mel has been very thorough. I made her double check because I felt sure that what my Pitbull said was wrong, and I was proved right. “Please be honest.”

“Well, if you had been allowed to explain, realistically, you should’ve gotten at best ten, so with parole, seven.” I wait for that realisation to hit.

“But...but, I have served eight.”

“Keep walking.” I order. “We will talk in the room.”

MEETING ROOM - FIVE MINUTES LATER

ARCHIE

Lute helps me with water. “But Jenny said…”

“She got it wrong. If this works…”

“I could be freed.” He gives a very small smile. ”I am not building up my hopes though, gotta be focused and realistic, so what are we working on today?”

“Your…” He is interrupted by the clang of the visitor's bell. “...come on!” He orders in a tone I know all too well. Some shit is about to go down!

GUARD SWIFT

I watch for Sapperstein. According to sources, he’s kept a pretty low profile for the last six years he’s been here. When Faal told me about him and his connections to the Taylor-Kinneys, I have to admit I was surprised, but the more intel I got on him, the more I worked it out. Sapperstein and Vance were never in the same block, so he most likely didn't know that he was there. However, Sapperstein is a proud but also a resourceful man. Now he’s in this block, where there is access to media. Yeah, rapists, attempted or otherwise, don't get media privileges until they can prove they are rehabilitated. He is now in the soft wing, in a single cell, but something is making him very happy. I check the visitor’s list before heading to the warden’s office.

SAPPERSTEIN

I smile as I spot my long-time-no-see friend, Gardner Vance. “Hi!” I smirk at him. Whilst he smiles as he approaches the table with two glasses of water, he doesn’t look pleased to be here, bad memories I guess. “How is life on the outside?”

“Okay I guess, how are you?”

“That depends on you and our mutual attorney, now doesn’t it?”

“Our mutual attorney? What does that mean?” Vance frowns.

“Your attorney was my attorney, and I would like him to be that again, but obviously I can’t reach out to him. You can and you will.”

“Why would I do that?” 

“Come now, Vanny boy, I know you and what you like. How long’s it been since you’ve had it? I know some people that can make you more than happy. I give you a name, you give him a call. Win-win for both of us.” 

Now he is smiling properly. “Have some water, then let’s talk, shall we?”

TREEHOUSE - A DAY LATER

GUN ROOM

FAAL

“What the hell is happening?!” I throw my hands up and pace.

Everyone is here, but nobody says a word. Although we are supposed to be rejoicing, we are too stunned to do so. Sapperstein is dead. He had a heart attack soon after his visit from Vance, but, unfortunately, neither Luther, Swift, nor Archie could get there to hear their conversation.

“He's dead.” Mel mutters.

“We know, and not sorry, but thank God!” Blake states.

“No, not just Sapperstein. Vance’s former attorney, he hung himself. He was most likely going to go to jail, took the easy way out, at least in his mind.” 

“Can I spitball?” Zee asks as she sits. I nod and sit opposite her. “Supposing we have been looking at this wrong? Supposing it was his plan all along?”

“Zay?”

“Zeus...shush!” Cyn orders as she drags a chair next to me. “My turn to spitball, maybe he wanted to speak to just Brian!”

“I got nothing, but, what?” Zeus sits next to her.

“It was Justin who said no to them helping him.” Cyn continues. “Then they went back to the loft.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said I was going to do.” Justin rubs his chin. “But then Brian decided to thank me for standing up for him.”

JUSTIN

We all go quiet when Faal’s phone rings. He talks for a long time, and when he hangs up he looks stunned. “Faal?” I prompt, whilst getting myself into a Brian, Drew, and Ben triple decker sandwich. 

“They are sending me the feed now.” He mutters. We all gather around the screen.

“Why is there no sound?” Gus frowns.

“Prisoners have rights.” Mel explains. “They can only be recorded in interviews.”

“Hang on. Hey, Dad...say that again? How?!” 

“Lig, what is it?”

“Said that Sapperstein had only recently been returned to general pop, seems that he had a parole hearing scheduled for next week. If they agreed, then he could’ve been released in six months. Can you rewind that?”

We watch Vance and Sapperstein chatting away, then Vance leaving. “Have I missed something?” I look up at Brian.

“He was not happy. Vance wasn’t when he got there, but his body language on his way out was more than relief.” Zee scowls at the screen. “Anything, can you read anything?”

“Nope.” Faal sighs whilst Jenny and Matt also look frustrated.

“Hold a second. He didn’t drink, Vance brought over two glasses, but never drank. Why not? It seems odd to me.” Ted mutters. 

“And?” Faal prompts.

“Is there anything that Sapperstein could’ve used to come at you with, Justin?”

“Nothing. I mean, apart from that party, which dumps him back in shit.” I cringe as I remember something else. “Well, there was also the blowjob I let him give me when I first started working for him as a dancer.” Everyone gags. “Yeah, not my finest five minutes. I just don’t get why he would go to see Sapperstein after all this time.” I scowl. “Can’t we pick him up anyway?”

“The evidence is less than circumstantial.” Carl sighs. “No way would a warrant be issued.”

“Two people who he knows are dead. One he visited, and…” Gus trails off. “...his previous attorney, did he represent Sapperstein as well?” 

“Not sure, but why are you asking?” Mel frowns.

“Why else would he know him?” Gus scratches his head. “Vance and Sapperstein don’t seem like they would run in the same circles. What was he in for?”

“Attempted rape of a minor.” Mel shudders. “Let me call a friend.”

“Maybe he and Vance were lovers?” Ems suggests.

“How did you even get there?!” Zeph looks repulsed. 

“Besides, he’s very homophobic.” Blake points out. 

“You know what they say about the person who doth protest too much.” Ems replies.

“True, but…” Blake begins.

“He did. He represented Sapperstein.” Mel sighs. “But that is still not enough for a warrant. Also, his previous attorney had a restraining order out against Vance. He would’ve been arrested immediately.”

“Zeph? What’s that face for?” Faal asks. 

“Maybe Vance killed him.”

“Who and how?” Faal grumbles.

“He didn’t drink, like Ted said, and…“ Zeph pauses as Brutus comes, having been in the other office. He is looking very chipper. “...what?”

“Think I have the ties that bind them. After he met with Sapperstein, he asked me to take him to see an Iggy Woolley. Having done some DD, he and Sapperstein shared a cell, got out about two years ago. He’s a drug dealer but a one man chop shop, small amounts, nit worth the police time.”

“Vance is on drugs?!” I gasp. 

VANCE’S HOME - SAME TIME

LOUNGE

VANCE

I smile lazily as the cocaine takes effect. It’s been so long since I had the good stuff. Speaking to Sapperstein yesterday, after we came to an arrangement, I was surprised when he said he had been clean for over three years. I carefully put my stash away and make my way to bed. That's the thing with coke, it helps me to think clearly. Some of my best ideas have come when I have been blazing up, as I believe they say these days! 

I am still smarting from the duping of me by Joe, but at least I got to keep this apartment. As I drift off, I take heart in that.

NEXT MORNING

I lean against the counter as I wait for the kettle to boil, it wasn’t until Sapperstein and I were talking about times past, and how he was looking forward to getting out and reconnecting with old friends, that it came to me. It was a long time before I took over at Ryder. I was at one of the ‘coke and cock’ parties, as one of my late friends would call them. I only went for the coke. I would just take my stash and leave, but that was the first time I saw him.

Luckily, Sapperstein didn't recognise me from there. I had hair for a start. We met up years later at another party. One of my clients dragged me along, and that’s when I got my first hit of ‘proper snow’. I am not a habitual user, I am not an addict, I just like it, and now that I am free and know a good guy, I can get it whenever I like. It was expensive then, not so much now. 

I head to the safe and check the contents. Yes, there’s enough in there, and plenty of nick-nacks I can hock to keep me happy. 

Speaking of happy...I think a placating call to Charles is called for. Yes, that press conference was a mess, but once he finds out that the First Man associated with and took cocaine with a now dead paedophile, then that should get him back on my side. 

Sapperstein learned the hard way, through that glass of digitalis...had the pills from long before, specifically during the Stockwell incident. Not sure why I took them, just glad that I did...that I do not like being summoned or subject to veiled threats. 

I sip my coffee and still wonder where it came from, this attraction for Taylor. I’ve never been remotely interested in a guy. I was so turned on when Stockwell and I found them like that in the apartment, but managed to keep it under control. But that night...he was so full of passion and fire, but only for Kinney, and taunting me like that, I could not stand it. That’s why I did the loft, I wasn’t that drunk. I figured that with him gone, I would forget about it, no temptation, but the bonus would be that with Kinney also dead, I could sweep up his clients. Alas, it was not to be, and when I saw them at the press conference, my feelings for him came flooding back...but my desire to destroy him overpowers it for now.