C.T. Brown - Second Time Lucky? (6 page)

Sighing
loudly Emily reflected that the evening had gone rapidly downhill since
deciding to go to dinner with her husband. Firstly they had stopped to buy a
snack and been attacked by what she considered to be rather amateur kidnappers,
then they'd been arrested - something which had soon been noticed by her
superiors, triggering a phone call that had antagonised the police rather a
lot. Once they'd allowed her out of her interview room she'd received a call
from her boss who was very unhappy to be interrupted on a Friday evening by
stories of attempted kidnappings in south London. The call had not gone well,
hence the current state of her phone. Now she had to return to work to explain
what had happened with a large patch of pink chewing gum stuck to the back of
her skirt, what else could go wrong?

Before
she could berate herself for tempting fate something hit her from behind and
her head connected with the mirror over the sink in front of her. The glass
cracked and she felt a sharp pain on her forehead, she knew it had drawn blood.
Without looking she kicked out behind herself with her left foot and felt it
connect with something, she then span on the spot and swung with her right
hand. Her fist connected with the jaw of her attacker when she was about
halfway around. The attacker was a young, blonde woman dressed in the
chaviest
clothing Emily had ever seen, complete with large
gold hoop earrings that she was sure came direct from Argos' cheapest selection.
However Emily doubted that most of the women who normally wore similar clothes
could execute a perfect karate kick as this one did. Unfortunately her
appreciation of the quality of the kick was somewhat diminished by it
connecting painfully with her stomach.

Sergeant
Thomas was starting to wonder about the length of time the young chav woman had
spent in the bathroom. He hated it when that happened. From experience he knew
that if he thought someone had been in there too long there was almost always
something going on and he'd be the one stuck with dealing with it. Hoping he
wasn't going to have to clean up after another overdose Sergeant Thomas stepped
out from behind the counter, as he did so
Belinus
came into reception and walked up to the counter.

"Excuse
me officer, but do you know where my wife is? I was told she would meet me out
here."

"Sorry
sir,
just got to sort something out.
Back in a second or two."

As
Sergeant Thomas turned to walk over to the bathroom there was a loud thud as
something hit the door to the ladies’ from the inside. Before either man could
react the door was hit again and this time it was knocked right off its hinges.
Presumably this had been caused by the blonde chav woman hurtling backwards
into it as she now lay atop the broken door, struggling to get up.

"Doesn't
matter officer, I think I know where she is now."

Belinus
was
proved right a few seconds later when his wife stepped through the doorway and
bent down to punch the blonde in the face, turning to see the questioning look
on the Sergeant's face she explained she was "just making sure".

DI
Spencer walked into reception, took one look at the scene and started to wonder
if he could get away with pretending he'd gone home five minutes ago.