### JON *He clears his throat.* Statement resumes. ### JON (STATEMENT) *[[Person of interest/The Magnus Institute/The Magnus Archives/Archive staff/Sims, Jonathan|JON]] resumes reading aloud from the archived witness statement of [[Brown, Philip|PHILIP BROWN]].* It was in [[1998-01-01 - 1998-12-31|1998]] that I next came into regular contact with [[Montauk, Robert|Robert Montauk]]. The government had commissioned the construction of [[Close Supervision Center|Close Supervision Centers]] in prisons all over the country, and [[Her Majesty’s Prison Wakefield|Wakefield]] was one of the flagship initiatives. A good portion of F-wing was given over to our own [[Close Supervision Center|CSC]], soon to be known as the [[Exceptional Risk Unit]]. It could only hold eight prisoners, but they were to be the worst of the worst, kept under constant scrutiny and given no chance to harm anyone. I was picked to be one of the officers transferred into the new unit. I don’t know if it was specifically because I had more inmate altercations on my record than any other prison officer at [[Her Majesty’s Prison Wakefield|Wakefield]], but given the intensity of the setup, I’m sure it didn’t hurt my application. [[Montauk, Robert|Robert Montauk]] was an obvious choice for the [[Exceptional Risk Unit]]. During his time in [[Her Majesty’s Prison Wakefield|Wakefield]], he had been involved in several further violent incidents, and though he hadn’t yet killed anyone inside the prison, the higher-ups reckoned it was only a matter of time, so in he went. The [[Close Supervision Center|CSC]] was not a nice place. [[Her Majesty’s Prison Wakefield|Wakefield]] had had the budget to make it secure, but not to make it anything less than starkly-utilitarian. The individual cells were cramped and claustrophobic, with almost no natural light filtering in from the outside. Oh, they still got their exercise, but it was in bare metal cages. We kept them separated from each other almost as much as we kept them from the rest of the prison. You must never underestimate how violent and desperate a trapped animal can become. We were cruel to them – I’m not ashamed of that. If I were to tell you all the crimes of those monsters we kept in the [[Exceptional Risk Unit|ERU]], you’d probably lose your lunch before I was halfway through the list. Keeping them beat down was the only way to make sure they behaved. And besides, atonement is important. I’ll admit though, I always had a soft spot for [[Montauk, Robert|Robert Montauk]]. He never gave us any trouble. Away from the other prisoners he seemed too docile, almost eerily so sometimes. Also – and it’s a small thing – but he never denied his crimes. [[Her Majesty’s Prison Wakefield|Wakefield]] is one of those prisons where everyone is innocent, and it gets so dull to hear their whining protestations day after day. Anyone who fully owned their crimes always went up in my estimation. I mean, we still beat him down on occasion, but not as bad as the others. After a year or two, I kind of started to forget who he was, you know? The mystique of being [[England|Britain]]’s most successful serial killer just didn’t hold up when you have someone in your power like that. You forget any respect you might have had for them. And he never gave us any trouble. In [[Timeline/Canon/2001-01-01 - 2001-12-31|2001]] he started to get visitors – his [[Montauk, Julia|daughter]], mostly. Given that she hadn’t visited before, I’d guess she’d just turned 18. You get that a lot. Unaccompanied visits aren’t allowed under that age, and plenty of inmates have kids living with overprotective guardians who refused to take them. So I assumed she was similar. The visitor rooms in the main prison are quite nice – not so much in the [[Exceptional Risk Unit]]. The dark, bare room, like all of them, cut down the middle with a reinforced window. There were plenty of lights in there, but somehow it always seemed gloomy. I was on observation for a few of their father-daughter visits. She would talk about her life like her dad wasn’t a murderer, he would lie about how it wasn’t too bad in the prison. It was all very touching, I’m sure. Aside from his daughter, there was only [[2002-03-01 - 2002-03-31|one other time]] that he had a visitor. It was six months before he died, late [[2002-03-01 - 2002-03-31|March 2002]]. He was an older guy, I’d guess late fifties, wearing a well-tailored black suit and an expression of disgust. When I brought [[Montauk, Robert|Montauk]] in, his face fell and he went very pale. I’d helped folks beat [[Montauk, Robert|Robert Montauk]] a dozen times or more, but I had never seen him look scared. He sat down opposite [[Rayner, Maxwell|the old man]], and they looked each other in the eye through the thick glass. I think [[Rayner, Maxwell|the visitor]] might have been blind. His eyes were cloudy, but he had no cane or dog, and it didn’t seem to affect how he looked at [[Montauk, Robert|Montauk]]. Neither of them spoke. The seconds turned into minutes and still they didn’t say a word. They just sat there, staring. Given where I work, it’s really something to be able to say that I’ve never seen two people who hated each other as much as [[Montauk, Robert|Robert Montauk]] and that old man. After a few minutes, I was all but ready to drag him out, but as I stepped forward, the lights blew, all of them at once, leaving us in the dark. I heard [[Gordo, Peter|Pete Gordo]], the warden with me on visitor duty, fumbling for the handle on the door, to get help or torches. I was tense, ready to fight off [[Montauk, Robert|Montauk]] if he decided to make a move, but instead a soft voice came from out of the darkness. I didn’t recognize it, but I thought it sounded like it came from the old man. I don’t think he was talking to me. “You didn’t think you could kill it for long, did you?” That’s what it said. Then [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]] got the door open, and a shaft of light poured in from the corridor. I could once again see [[Montauk, Robert|Montauk]] and the old man, sat there, motionless. It didn’t seem like they’d moved an inch. Though, as I went to take [[Montauk, Robert|Montauk]] back to his cell, I noticed that he was crying. I didn’t mention it. I’ll be honest, I was kind of freaked out by the whole thing. The next few months were quiet. [[Montauk, Robert|Montauk]] seemed even more subdued than normal, and often had to be goaded into exercising during his allotted time. The only point where he seemed normal was when his daughter came for her visits, and maybe that was just because he was already so used to lying to her. That was the summer we had all the plumbing problems in the [[Exceptional Risk Unit|ERU]], and the water kept going foul, so we were all kind of on edge. But nothing really happened until it turned to autumn and November rolled around. It was [[2002-11-01|November the 1st]]. I remember because the date was read out so many damn times at the assorted disciplinaries that followed. The worst part of it is, I wasn’t even doing anything wrong that day. I was working the late shift with [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]], and we were having coffee in the break room. At least, I was having coffee. [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]] was swearing at the taps, because the plumbing problem we had all had been assured was fixed was back and worse than ever. The taps were disgorging a jet of foul-smelling, stagnant water. I was laughing at him, sipping my own perfectly adequate drink, when all the lights went off. It was more widespread than last time, though. It seemed like the electricity had gone off altogether. We stood there in the pitch-black, waiting for the generator to kick in, or for whatever power problem this was to be fixed. But after a few minutes of silence and darkness, it became clear that that wasn’t happening anytime soon. In the distance, we could hear the prisoners of the [[Exceptional Risk Unit]] start to shout and holler. Their cells were locked, of course – there was nothing a power cut could do about that. But it was still up to us to keep order until the lights came back. I had hoped that the other prison officers on shift would have come by to pick us up, but they were clearly busy elsewhere. I called out to [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]], making sure he was still nearby as I fumbled in the locker for my torch. I finally found it and turned it on. The beam was so bright in the oppressive darkness that I had to blink away tears. Using the light from mine, [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]] found his own flashlight, and together we headed out into the [[Close Supervision Center|CSC]]. We checked each cell in turn, lying to the prisoners inside about when the power would be back and sending them back to their beds with threats of violence. I didn’t see any of the other wardens around, and was starting to get really nervous. When we had checked all the other cells, we went towards [[Montauk, Robert|Robert Montauk]]’s. The torch beams shot out in front of us, but as they fell upon the door to his cell, something was wrong. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at for a second, and then I realized that his cell door was open, but the torch light wasn’t reaching the inside. As it hit the threshold, it just stopped, a clear and distinct line of darkness beyond which nothing could be seen. From inside there came the wet sound of tearing and a low moan of pain. I wanted to run, but instead I took a step forward. My torch died. [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]]’s went off as well, and we just stood there, terrified, unable to see a thing. The sounds were no longer coming from inside the cell, and that didn’t really as much as it might have. About fifteen feet behind me, I heard [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]] fumbling around, calling out my name. I was about to reply, tell him to stay where he was, when I heard something that froze my blood. [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]] said, “There you are.” He was not touching me. Almost immediately, there was [[The Still and Silent Beast|a growl from the darkness]]. It was throaty in a roar, but at the same time sounded almost musical. He screamed. I heard him fall to the floor. It was at that moment that the lights came back on. We were alone. I ran to do a quick circuit of the [[Close Supervision Center|CSC]] that the other prison officers arrived, but there was no one else there. Apparently, there’d been some problems with the doors, and they hadn’t been able to get to the main [[Exceptional Risk Unit|ERU]] cells. [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]] was on the ground when I returned, though he seemed physically unharmed. It was one of the other wardens that found what was left of [[Montauk, Robert|Robert Montauk]]. I took the fall for it. They didn’t try to make out like I had killed him, just that it had happened on my watch and due to my negligence. They’d been trying to push me out ever since the Prison Inspector had written the [[Close Supervision Center|CSC]] up for excessive use of force the year before. They really threw the book at me. “Gross incompetence.” It’s a bitter phrase to say out loud. What was I supposed to tell them, [[The Still and Silent Beast|a monster made of darkness]] murdered him? [[Gordo, Peter|Pete]] was no help. He handed in his notice two hours after the lights came back on. I didn’t even get a chance to speak to him, ask what had happened – he was just gone. I don’t really have anything more to say about it. It was a clearly-paranormal incident that led to the end of my career and it’s not fair. ### JON Statement ends.