The Escape (Detective Jane Sparrow Book 2) (2 page)

Jane and Amy stepped out into the overbearing heat of the already boiling sun beating down and into the overbearingly hot cab of Amy’s car. The sun was shining down and into the windows of Amy’s car but Jane was not going to complain about the much need vitamin D.

             
“So Boss what’s on the agenda for today?”

“Who knows Amy lets just see what the day brings us.”

Chapter 2

Jane and Amy stepped out of the car and straight into the station. That turned out was no cooler than Amy’s car as the station doesn’t have any air conditioning either.

              “Do you want another cup of coffee or would you rather a cold drink?”

“I’m fine for the moment thanks though Amy.”

              “Ok well just give me a shout if you need anything ok.”

Jane felt by that Amy meant more than when she just wanted a drink but she either didn’t want to pry or she felt uncomfortable to ask about Perry’s request at the station. Jane was grateful for the concern. But she was also grateful for the silence she didn’t think she could stomach having to tell Amy about her nightmare just yet. She sat down at her desk and began to shuffle through her letters and messages that PC Jack Collins had already collected for her. A small post it note caught Jane’s attention as it was stuck to the front of her computer screen. Even more oddly all it had written on it was
‘I’m coming for you, see you soon Jane’.
No one was meant to be coming for her so Jane was struggling to think of an innocent explanation to the message. Trying not to let the panic boil and the bile rise Jane had been more sensitive to anything of a threatening tone since Thaddeus. Jane decided to call for Jack to come over, as he was the one that had probably taken the message.

“Jack do you know whom this message is from? It was the one that was stuck to my computer screen.”

              “It was on your desk phone answer machine. So they must have your personal line number and extension code. I assumed it was from a family member or friend that was coming to visit you. But they left no name or number for you to call back.”

Jane sat there in silence for a few minutes letting her brain reel and trying to process the information. Trying to come up with an explanation for the message before she really began to panic or go into a melt down. The colour had obviously begun to drain from Jane’s face, as Jack had nothing but a look of concern on his face.

              “Jane are you ok? Did I do something wrong? If it was a personal message that I wasn’t meant to know about I’m sorry. It hasn’t left these lips. And I didn’t delete the message. I left it on there in case you wanted to hear it. Its still on your answer phone.”

Jane sat there wide eyed and bewildered for a few seconds longer when she then reached for her answer phone and pressed the play button.

“I’m coming for you, see you soon Jane.”

Jane shot up in cold fear as the sound of his voice filled the vicinity of the station she was in, the cold sneer in his voice as her name rolled of his tongue. Jane reached out to hold onto Jack’s arm as she felt herself going dizzy, the immobilizing fear and the bile that was rising in her stomach making black dots dance in front of her eyes.

              “Detective, Boss, Jane I’m sorry who is it? What is wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?”

To Jane’s relief Amy had already seen the commotion and was heading over with PC Ian Watson and PC Eric Stone in tow.

              “Jane what’s wrong your as white as a sheet, come on sit down keep breathing nice and calm tell me what’s wrong? Has it got anything to do with Perry’s request this morning?”

Jane managed to wrack out four words past the beating thrum of her heart and the fear wracking in her chest.

“Play the message Jack.”

The whole team went silent as the sound of his voice filled the room again. Jane couldn’t control it this time the bile rose to quickly. With the lack of sleep and now uncontrollable fear that was coursing through Jane’s body she ended up throwing up in her desk waste bin.

              “Ok, Ok your safe. Don’t panic. He is in prison he cant hurt you or Layla just breathe we will fix this ok.”

              “Amy what’s going on? You’re the only one that seems to understand. What do we need to fix?”

              “That my friend’s was Thaddeus.”

Ian, Eric and Jack all instantly reached for their firearms in a protective stance. Amy tried to comfort Jane as best as she could while trying to think of what to do when Jane managed to pull herself together enough to speak.

“Jack can you ring through to the Superintendent please? Just ask him to come down here.”

              “Yes Boss what shall I say?”

“Just tell him the Detective has requested his presence at her desk as she has something there to show him. Amy would you mind I could really do with that cold drink now. Ian, Eric you can holster your weapons. Thaddeus is in prison there is no threat here.”

In unison they both replied yes mam and put there firearms back at the clip on their waist but neither of them went to make a move from the protective stances they had made at either side of her. Amy had returned with a cold glass of water and was keeping a watchful eye on Jane. Jack came over. The superintendent had agreed to come down but he told Jack to make a note of the fact that he didn’t appreciate a phone call of summons. When he arrived at Jane’s desk he instantly spotted the sick and his nose turned up in disgust slightly. He was also eyeing the protective stances her team members had taken around her and was eyeing them with suspicious curiosity.

              “Detective if you are ill you can go home you really didn’t need to call me down here for that.”

“Jack can you play him the message. I can’t stomach to hear it again for a third time. Excuse me while I go freshen up.”

              “Excuse me but what’s going on here. Play me what? She summons me down here and then walks off without an explanation. You, Jack was it, explain your Detectives meaning?”

              “Just listen Sir.”

Thankfully Jane found herself out of earshot when Jack pressed play again on the answerphone. She stepped into the ladies room and splashed her face with cold water. Her makeup that she had applied earlier that morning was already ruined from the cold sweat she had broken out in and from the exertion of being sick. She rinsed her mouth with cold water as best as she could and decided it was probably time to make her way back to her desk. As Jane re-entered the room she could feel five pairs of eyes on her. Every one of them studying for any signs that she was cracking up.

              “Detective I am going to have your number and extension code changed. I have no idea how he got his hands on it. But I promise you he won’t have it for much longer. I am going to go call a judge and the chief warden in charge at the prison and see if I can get his phone privileges revoked. I will not have him tormenting members of my staff. If you need to go home for the rest of the day Amy has volunteered to drive you.”

“Thank you sir but I find it will be best to keep myself busy. But thank you for the offer.”

             
“As you wish Detective. I will have all of this sorted by the afternoon.”

The Superintendent stalked back off to his office looking suitably pissed off by the situation. Jane was actually feeling a little bit sorry for the chief warden at the prison. I wouldn’t want to be him when he gets that phone call. Jane was still feeling rather shaky. The unsettled feeling that she had had since the night before, the nightmare and now this message. Jane couldn’t help but think it was all mounting up to something much bigger in play. But that was just the paranoid part of Jane’s brain talking. The rational part of her knew it was silly. Thaddeus was locked away for the rest of his life with no chance of parole. He was never going to be able to get at her again. Jane again for the second time today had to admonish herself for overreacting to something that was silly. It was just his voice. It wasn’t rational to get so emotional.

              “Jane are you sure you don’t want to go home? It’s completely understandable to be a little freaked out by that but everything will be ok.”

“No honestly Amy I’m fine I just want to keep busy. Thank you though sorry about throwing up. So in the mind of keeping busy what have we got to do today?”

              “Well we have last weeks report to finish up. There are three men in the holding cells that need booking, charging or releasing depending and I believe you still have your internal reports to finish.”

“Well I’ll finish the report for last week and then I’ll make a start on my internal reports. If you and Ian deal with the three men from the holding cells but if you need anything…

Before Jane could finish what she was saying the Superintendent was running, actually running into the main station calling for her.

              “Detective, Jane we are going to need to get you and Layla into protective custody now!!!”

              “Sir what’s going on?”

              “Thaddeus has escaped and we have no idea on his location at present.”

              “Oh my God and he said he was coming for Jane.”

All eyes in the station were back on Jane again as the entire colour drained from her face. Thaddeus was out and coming for her blood.

Chapter 3

Jane couldn’t believe her ears; her head was spinning with confusion. Thaddeus had escaped and had already left her a message saying he was coming for her. Jane didn’t know what to do first, panic was setting in, and she wanted to make sure that Layla was going to be safe. But another part of Jane just wanted to hide in the corner and pretend this wasn’t happening. At that point in time Jane wished she were an ostrich that could bury her head in the sand. Jane’s main problem was she couldn’t comprehend how this had happened. Thaddeus should be locked away in prison for the rest of his life. Her brain couldn’t quite process the situation as real. Jane could hear the rest of the station in a buzz around her. She couldn’t quite work out if they were talking directly to her or just around her. She couldn’t hone in on what anyone was actually saying or doing. Her mind felt like too much of a jumble trying to process, she felt like her head had been filled with jelly. But the one thing she did notice was when Perry burst through the station doors.

              “Amy what is it? What’s wrong with Jane? I knew I shouldn’t of let her come to work this morning. I knew she wasn’t quite herself after last night.”

              “Perry it’s not that. I didn’t want to tell you on the phone. But Thaddeus has escaped from police custody. He left a message on Jane’s voicemail and when we looked into the security breach of it we found out that Thaddeus was missing. Jane has been pretty much catatonic since finding out. We weren’t sure what to do we were hoping your presence might snap her out of it. It’s been fifteen minutes now if this doesn’t work we are going to have to consider calling an ambulance.”

              “Oh my gods Jane. I cant believe this is happening. Sweetie can you hear me? Jane its going to be ok I promise. I will keep you safe I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. Jane please talks to me? Everything is going to be fine. I wont let anything happen to you or Layla.”

“Perry. I’m fine I’m sorry I didn’t realise that I had been so out of it. How long have I been sitting here like this?”

             
“About fifteen minutes Jane.”

“Oh Amy I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare anyone. I honed out for a little while trying to get my brain to process. I just seemed to lose the ability to focus and do anything else at the same time. This is mad. Superintendent Andrew Walden you remember Perry. Now tell me what is happening with Layla?”

              “I remember Perry he has just joined us from being upstairs with Frank. As far as we can tell at the moment Layla is completely fine and safe. PC Ian Watson and PC Jack Collins have gone to meet Layla’s family and then pick her up from school. They will be brought here for debriefing and then we will ship them off to a safe location. I’ve got the full story on Thaddeus escape now. So we are going to be running point on the investigation as so far the evidence is leading to him coming here. So everything will be run through this office.”