Chapter Fourteen #2
“Keep it respectful Mr. Conner.” I sat and set down a notepad and pen. “What’s happened?”
I knew what had happened. The officer had told me. Conner had attacked another prisoner that morning by stealing bleach from the cleaning trolley and throwing it in his face. He was currently in the prison medical wing being treated for eye damage.
“Cunt tried to do me over.”
“Do you mean Terry Belton?”
“Terry Bell-End, yeah, he’s a twat.”
“He’s currently an injured twat, because of you,” I said. “And you’ve also likely added time to your sentence unless we can prove you were provoked.”
“What’s an extra few months if wiping the smug smile off a dickhead’s face brings me a moment’s joy?”
“That’s not helpful. Why did you do it? What was your motive?”
“He nicked a packet of fags from me.”
“Can you prove that?”
“No, that’s what I need you for, sexy lady.”
“Please don’t refer to me that way.” I stared him down. His eyes were full of hate and misogyny. “And I’ll need more than that to go to a judge with. You may well have blinded him.”
He laughed. “Blind, really? That’s a result, will stop the sick fuck perving over nude kids, won’t it. You know he’s a pedo, right?”
“Mr. Conner.” I tried to stay calm. This wasn’t how I’d wanted my Sunday to go. “What’s the real reason you attacked him? We’ll need to explain that to a judge. Did you feel threatened by him in any way?”
“That loser? Nah.” He sat back as far as he could being attached to the table. “I was just bored, couldn’t find my fags, needed someone to blame, and the bleach was there and so was he.”
“So that’s your defense. You were bored and took an opportunity.”
He shrugged. “I guess so.”
I nodded at the officer. “We’re done here.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I stood. “Enjoy the rest of you day, Mr. Conner.”
“I will, and tell me.” His eyes flashed with a new, strange kind of madness. “What are you doing with the rest of your day? On the outside. As a free woman?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“I know, you’re off to get fucked good and proper? Up the ass. I bet you’ll love that, won’t you. Kinky fucking bitch.”
“You really do know how to endear someone to work their hardest for you, Mr. Conner.” I left the room. What an asshole. What a waste of my time. Everyone’s time. Let’s hope he hadn’t actually blinded Terry Belton.
I signed out and stepped into the warm day again, breathing deep and enjoying the sun on my shoulders. I called an Uber then glanced around. The prison was set away from the suburbs and the road running in front of it was quiet and lined with a hedgerow.
To my left butterflies danced on a wild buddleia that was growing bravely from a crack between the road and curb.
Suddenly, a screech tore through the air. A puff of dust plumed before me, and a rush of energy came to an abrupt stop.
A white car, blacked-out windows.
“What the…?” I stepped back. Did the driver have a problem with his brakes? Was there some kind of emergency?
And then my stomach clenched in fear. A tall dark-haired guy with heavy stubble and a black beanie leaped out the car and lunged for me. His hands were covered in thick gold signet rings, and his eyes flared with hate.
Reg Jacks.
“Come quietly and I won’t hurt you…yet.” He grabbed me, moving fast and predatory.
“Get the hell off me.” I struggled wildly against his hold, but it was no good. He was much bigger and stronger than me.
He hurled me into the backseat then loomed over me, pressing his heavy body over mine. He’d pinned me down, and his sickening stench surrounded me.
“Get off!” I writhed and twisted, went for his eyes and tried to knee him in his groin. And then a flash of a needle, a sting in my neck and it was as if the life drained from my body, the lights went out. All I could do was listen in the dark, terrified, to his manic chuckle.
A grip of nausea took hold in my stomach.
“Got you now, bitch.” He lifted off me. “You’re mine, all fucking mine, and it’s payback time.”
The car door slammed. I was trapped, helpless on the backseat. My arms were not responding to the instructions from my brain. I wasn’t even sure if my legs were still there. I couldn’t make my eyes open.
Within seconds the engine revved, and I was shunted back on the seat, my spine bashing into it helplessly.
“Thought you could get away with not giving me a fair trial, huh,” he shouted. “That I’d shrug my shoulders and forget. Well, you’re wrong, bitch. I’m like a bloody elephant, I never forget, and I’ve been waiting for this moment for four shitty locked-up years.”
Holy shit. I’d been taken, kidnapped, stolen by the man I now knew was the asshole stalking me.
I swallowed, even that was an effort, and there was a strange metallic taste in my mouth. Flashes of vivid pink and purple were dominating my vision.
I tried to speak, but no words came out, heck, my mouth didn’t even move. I was trapped in my own body and my mind was quickly following. The flashes of color were growing darker, shadowed, and a thick syrupy sensation curled over my scalp.
But I didn’t lose consciousness completely. I fought it, tried to straighten out my thoughts. They were like a tangle of spaghetti, but I knew I had to see each strand, keep hold of each strand.
There would be CCTV outside the prison, I was sure of it. So someone should have seen the entire incident. Perhaps we were being followed right now, the police pursuing already.
Images of Cillian and Finn popped into my befuddled brain. They would be furious that I’d slipped out of the house. They’d search for me as soon as they knew I’d gone. They’d hunt Reg Jacks down and kill him for this…I knew that for sure. This man was dead meat.
“Mmmpf…” I managed.
Reg laughed, a mean, manic sound that grated on my ears.
“Give up trying to fight, you’ll be out of it for a while but paralyzed for hours, so don’t worry, you’ll still feel all of the fucked-up things I have planned for you later.
You’ll be right there in the moment getting screwed up in ways you can’t even imagine right now but will understand, experience, soon enough. ”
My stomach clenched. He’d had four years to think up this scenario, four years to let his twisted, devilish mind plan his revenge on me.
It was a struggle, as the car sped along, to keep my thoughts alive. I didn’t want them to fade or let blackness take me. It was a battle I didn’t want to lose.
Paralyzed for hours? What poison had he given me?
After a while, I sensed the city had been completely left behind; the other traffic noises had faded. We were well and truly in the countryside.
And then my phone rang. A sharp trill that pierced my eardrums.
“What the fuck?”
The car slammed to a stop. I was tossed forward, one of my arms and one leg falling into the footwell. There was nothing I could do about it. I was still paralyzed.
“Bitch.” He was over me, rooting in my handbag. “Fuck. Stupid. Stupid.”
The sound of the ringing phone faded into the distance, thrown, and then door shut with a bang. My best chance of calling for help had gone .