by Aaron Gales
He dropped to the floor. Nausea overcame him and the pain from what was clearly a gunshot was excruciating. As his vision went blurry he was aware of six armed policeman running in through the door.
Two of them ran to the tables and released his hostages. Two walked towards him with their guns pointed straight at him. One kicked the knife aggressively out of his hand and they pinned him to the floor.
One called for medical assistance while the others searched the rooms in his house.
“All clear.”
He couldn’t understand what was happening. The last thing he remembered before he passed out was the paramedic standing over him.
Chapter Eleven
He woke up a few hours later in a darkened room. He was in a hospital. He could see two policeman posted outside his bedroom door.
The pain in his shoulder was excruciating. He tried to move his left hand to examine the wound but heard the dull clink of metal as the handcuff prevented him moving. He certainly wasn’t going anywhere fast.
He resigned himself to his fate. He had always been good at keeping a cool head in these sort of situations. He knew he would need his rest if he was going to try and get out of the situation he found himself in.
He couldn’t believe he had been outsmarted by those two lunatics. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
He was woken a few hours later by the sound of two nurses moving quietly around his room. He stirred and they gave him some water, which they had to pour in his mouth, which he found humiliating.
Two hours later he was visited by a police officer whom he hadn’t met before.
They discussed his options, and what he was likely to be charged with but it wasn’t him he was interested in seeing.
He wanted to see the person who he had been determined to kill. He wasn’t going to let them get away with what they had done.
Four hours later he got his wish. He knew that they weren’t going to be able to stay away. He was in full police uniform and was clearly visiting in an official capacity.
He sat down in the chair at the side of the bed and neither of them spoke for a few moments.
The policeman clearly had no interest in talking first so he eventually broke the silence.
“How did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Don’t play dumb with me like you did when I had you on my table. We both know what you and your girlfriend did to my brother. Yet it’s me chained to this bed.”
The man hesitated before speaking quietly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Fuck you,” he spat back at him.
“You and your girlfriend killed my brother.”
The man hesitated, lost in thought. Then a smile spread slowly across his face.
“Yes we did,” he said quietly.
“What did you say to me?”
“Yes we did,” he replied, more forcefully now.
“Why did you do it?”
“Because I love her. It’s all her fault. I didn’t want any of this. But I don’t regret anything I have done.”
“So it’s the girl who likes killing?”
“Yes, when I met her she had just murdered her boyfriend. I covered for her and we’ve been together ever since.”
“What were you doing there that night you murdered my brother?”
“We had got wind of people disappearing in the forests. Two women had disappeared in the last six months and everyone suspected foul play but nobody had any proof. It was like these people just disappeared.”
The man paused, took a breath and then carried on.
“I was asked to investigate what was going on. I told Madeline about it and she agreed to come with me. We decided to head up there on a camping trip. We both knew that we could look after ourselves and if we couldn’t find anything we could just enjoy a weekend alone together.”
“After we arrived Madeline quickly spotted your brother lurking in the trees. She has a sixth sense for that sort of thing. She knows when she is being watched.”
“She didn’t know I was watching her when she fucked those guys outside of that bar.”
The man shook his head.
“She would have known. She enjoys that. She loves living dangerously. Life is nothing without risks for her. It will eventually be her undoing but I think she knows that and accepts it.”
“She knew something was off about your brother. Nobody hides away like he was attempting to unless they have bad intentions. He came out pretending to be struggling to put a tent up. I went to help him. It was obvious he only had eyes for Madeline. He could barely concentrate on our conversation. I invited him to join us for a drink later that evening. We hatched a plan. Madeline would pretend to drug me, seduce your brother, then I would kill him. I think you know the rest.”
“What were the police doing there when I had you on my table?”
“When we got your note we knew we were in deep trouble, and that you could make life very difficult for us with what you knew. We decided to tell my boss that we had identified who we thought was the killer in the woods and that we would act as bait to lure you out. The plan worked brilliantly as you can see.”
“Thank you for telling me the truth.” His nod signalled to the policeman that he was dismissed. Before the man left the room he called him back.
“I know nobody will believe me if I tell them what you’ve told me, but I could make life very difficult for you and have people ask you some difficult questions. It would certainly have an adverse effect on your future career.”
The man sighed in response.
“What do you want?”
“Just one thing. There’s a burger place about 15 minutes’ drive from here. Run by an old guy called Harry. Go grab me a burger from there. Tell him Jack says hello. Would you ask him to come visit me? Just tell him where I am. Can you bring it by about midnight?”
“I won’t be able to get in at that time, the nurses won’t let me through.”
“I’m sure a man of your intelligence can come up with a suitable story.”
Chapter Twelve
Harry wiped the bar. It had been another quiet night. It always was at this time of year. He wasn’t worried. Business always picked up eventually and he had a steady stream of regulars that kept the cash flow ticking over.
A policeman walked in, probably at the end of a long shift. He asked for a beer and Harry poured him one.
The man picked up the menu.
“No food now, I’m afraid. Chef’s gone home.”
“It’s not for me. It’s for a guy called Jack. He says he’s a friend of yours.”
Harry’s ears pricked up. He moved back into the kitchen and turned the grill back on, getting a burger out of the fridge. He chucked it on the grill and moved back out to the bar.
“Did he say anything else?”
“He just said to say hello.”
Harry moved back to the kitchen, put the burger in a thick white bun and took it out to the policeman.
“Where is Jack?” he asked as he handed over the food.
“In the hospital about ten minutes away.” Harry nodded.
The policeman left. Harry watched him drive away before springing into action.
Chapter Thirteen
The man was still sitting up in bed when James returned with the burger. He accepted it and took a huge bite. As the man turned to leave he spoke quietly.
“Just wait one second there.”
“I brought you the food that you asked for. We’re done.”
“No we’re not.”
He fumbled under the sheets and the man looked on in horror as he pulled out a small recording device from under the sheets. He clicked a button and watched the reaction of the man standing in the doorway as he realised that their entire earlier conversation had been recorded.
“So you now have one option. You’re going to help me leave. Before you even think about attacking me all I have to do i
s push this button here and this file gets sent to every national news corporation in the country. Do you really want to risk that? I don’t think so.”
“How the hell I am going to get you out of here. There’s a copper at the end of the corridor.”
“You better go and deal with him first then.”
James left the room and walked along the corridor. There were no nurses around at this time of night and only one policeman stationed at the end of the corridor. He looked around carefully for cameras and couldn’t see any sign of one. He picked up a paperweight from behind the nurses station and held it in his hand. He crept up on his fellow policeman who never had time to turn before he was cracked over the head. Although the injury wouldn’t kill him it would leave him unable to talk to his wife and kids for the next six months.
He searched his colleague’s pockets frantically where he found the keys he needed to unlock the prisoner. He hurried back down the corridor and entered the room. He reluctantly unlocked the handcuffs and released the man.
“I need you to knock me out. Give me a real kicking. People have seen me here. I need to have some sort of credible story for how you escaped.”
“How will you explain taking off my handcuffs?”
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Please just do this for me.”
“No problem,” Jack replied, before punching him so hard in the face that his cheek and eye socket smashed into pieces. He grabbed some clothes, pulled a hat down low over his face and walked out into the cool night air, where Harry was waiting to meet him.
Three weeks later
His face was just starting to heal now. He had faced some extremely difficult questions at work, and it was very clear that many of them still suspected him of some wrongdoing in the escape of the prisoner, who had seemingly gone to ground, never to be found. However the severity of his injuries seemed to be getting him slowly off the hook, and although his career would now be dogged with suspicion, he at least thought he would now have a career to go back to.
Things were tough with him and Madeline. They hadn’t had sex in over a week which was unheard of for them. She would disappear in the day and come back at all hours of the night. He suspected that she was probably on the verge of leaving him for good but at this point he no longer cared too much. No matter how much he loved her, at least if she was out of his life he might be able to find some semblance of normality again.
As he moved around the house he was distracted by the sounds of sirens. On their way to the latest break in probably. There had been a lot of them around this part of town lately. As he walked into his living room he could see what looked like a news van parked up just down the street. Whatever was happening must be nearby. He saw the glamourous presenter doing some last minute make up before going live on air.
As he looked out the window he could hear the sounds of the sirens getting louder. They were getting closer. That was when he realised. They were coming for him.
He felt a stab of blind panic, before calm passed over him. He deserved this, he would take his punishment. He turned the TV on and was greeted by the sound of his own voice. The recording was out there.
The blue flashing lights were now outside his house. There was a loud shot and then a bang as they crashed through the front door. He wouldn’t cause a scene.
He dropped to his knees with his hands in the air and breathed his last breath as a free man.
The End
About the Author
Aaron Gales is an author from Newcastle, England. He currently lives near Manchester where he works as a Communications Officer for British Cycling. ‘The Watchers’ is his second short story. He published ‘The Sinner’ in 2014.
