Free Saving Gary McKinnon by Janis Sharp Page B

worked in London for a charity five days a week. She and Gary started to see each other. They had a lot in common, including a love of children, cats, music and cooking. Eventually Gary told Lucy about the US indictment just in case it ever reared its head again, although by then more than three years had passed since Gary’s arrest in 2002, so we were sure it was going to be dropped. I mean, they couldn’t just decide to try to extradite him more than three years after his arrest, could they?
    Suddenly, on 7 June 2005 the phone rang: it was Gary.
    ‘Mum, I’ve been arrested.’
    ‘Oh no, Gary, no!’ I screamed. ‘Where are you?’
    ‘I’m in Brixton Prison.’
    I could hear the fear in his voice.
    ‘What’s wrong, Janis, what’s happened?’ said Wilson anxiously.
    My voice was breaking and I could hardly speak. I was trying to hold it together as absolute terror struck my heart.
    ‘Gary’s been arrested, he’s in Brixton Prison.’
    Saying the words out loud made it worse somehow, as though an invisible veil shielding me had been ripped away, forcing me into a stark reality I wasn’t ready to face.
    It reminded me of when, months after my mum died, I had to fill out a form that involved writing down that my mum was ‘deceased’ and I couldn’t do it. I mean obviously I knew my mum was dead, but somehow having to write down that word was the most traumatic thing, as the finality of her death hit me and I was forced to accept the painful reality I thought I had faced but hadn’t.
    Actually saying the words ‘he’s in Brixton Prison’ tore through my heart. I couldn’t even voice the thought of the word ‘extradition’ as that would make it real and my mind couldn’t deal with it right now.
    I could hear Gary’s voice in the distance.
    ‘Two men jumped out of a car when I was walking along the road and asked if I was Gary McKinnon. When I said yes they arrested me and bundled me into a car. They said they were the extradition squad and brought me to Brixton Prison. The guards are taking me to court in the morning.’
    Gary was trapped; I wanted him out. I wanted to run with him to safety but they had him, he wasn’t free anymore.
    ‘When the extradition squad stopped you, you should have said no you weren’t Gary McKinnon. Why didn’t you ring me? I could have done something!’ I screamed.
    ‘You couldn’t, Mum.’
    ‘Are you in a cell on your own?’
    ‘No, I’m with a Scottish man.’
    ‘What is he in prison for?’
    Gary fell silent.
    ‘What is he in prison for, Gary?!’
    ‘He’s accused of murdering someone but I’ve told him my mum and dad are Scottish.’
    ‘Oh, that’s all right then.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I’m being sarcastic, Gary, ignore me. How did they know your address? Surely they should have contacted Karen, your solicitor, first and arranged for you to go into the police station instead of pouncing on you in the street and bundling you into a car?’
    ‘I’m sorry, Mum.’
    ‘It’s not your fault. How can they be allowed to arrest you three and a half years after the fact? How can they?!’
    Wilson took the phone.
    ‘It’ll be OK, Gary. We’ll see you in court tomorrow and your lawyer will sort it out.’
    ‘Someone else wants the phone. I have to go in a minute.’
    ‘OK. Take care, Gary, we love you.’
    ‘Love you too.’
    I couldn’t move. This deep, dark, pervading fear was invading the hollow space in my heart at an unsafe speed, ruthlessly forcing happiness to eject without my heart having a chance to prepare for the effects of being plunged into darkness.
    ‘Oh Wilson, how will Gary survive in Brixton Prison? What if he’s extradited? This can’t be happening.’ I was stifling the sobs that were rising to my throat. ‘Are we suddenly living in Nazi Germany? He’s a computer geek, for God’s sake, a computer geek! If he’d rung us we could have done something.’
    ‘We couldn’t, Janis, what could we have done?’
    ‘We could