The vegetarian lasagne was of a remarkably good quality – creamy béchamel sauce, a tender aubergine filling and a crispy brown cheese topping.
Today the lunch choice had been between that and chicken tikka masala. Bailey had never been a big curry fan, so she’d opted for the lasagne.
Sitting there by herself, her tray of food in front of her, with little else to occupy her attention, she idly observed the other inmates in the canteen as they ate their lunch. The various cliques sat at their tables, hunched conspiratorially over their food, gossiping furiously amongst themselves, no doubt speculating about Natalie’s murder. From what Bailey had eavesdropped, it appeared to be the sole topic of conversation at the moment. The demise of yet another inmate had inevitably cranked up the general sense of paranoia among the prison’s population.
Over in the queue, she noticed the three stoners – Kay, Seema and Mel – debating over the menu options, all of them eventually going for the chicken tikka masala. She watched them walk to a table holding their trays, Mel limping along behind the other two, her tangled afro bobbing up and down. Bailey had noticed on previous occasions that Mel had a gimpy leg which gave her a distinctive lopsided gait.
They had hardly sat down at the table before Kay began teasing Mel. Bailey was sitting a bit too far away to make out what she was saying, but the subject was quite clear – Kay was making exaggerated gesticulations miming the action of scalping and making horrible faces. Mel was twitching nervously, her eyes rolling, shaking her head and giving out sporadic low moans.
Bailey felt a twinge of pity for her. It was quite evident that she was mentally unhinged. She was what was referred to in here as a ‘fraggle’ – a headcase. Crazy Mel.
As for the cause of her mental health issues, who knew? Perhaps Doctor Bodie did. But all the drugs she smoked probably didn’t help.
Mel suddenly emitted a loud shriek and stood up sharply, her chair falling over behind her. She stormed out of the canteen, limping furiously to the exit and pushing the swing doors open so hard that they banged violently against the wall.
Everyone fell quiet to watch the scene, which was over almost as soon as it had started. Conversation drifted back to normal with shakes of the head, indicating that this was nothing to be particularly surprised about when it came to Mel.
Her tray of chicken tikka masala lay untouched on the table. Kay was shrugging innocently as if to say ‘what did I do wrong?’
Reflecting on the scene, Bailey wondered if she herself wasn’t too far off becoming a fraggle. After all, hadn’t Kay said that you had to be a bit crazy to want to be an undercover cop, let alone one who’d agreed to infiltrate a prison?