Jake Todd was swinging his legs backwards and forwards, the wind was very strong. He couldn’t estimate the distance between himself and the ground. There was an awning below him to signify the entrance to the building. He felt if he leapt from his ledge he would crash through the awning first, but he feared the result would be the same.
He was wondering how he had found himself in this predicament in the first place. He’d been kept prisoner by a gang and forced to take drugs and let loose under the influence of their reaction and the police thought he was drunk and disorderly and placed him in a cell at the local police station for three days.
He was released on bail by his girlfriend and he spent a couple of days in a stupor. He couldn’t account for his actions on those days and now had been accused of murdering his girlfriend and the police were banging on his flat door at this very moment. How did it all happen and so quickly?
Jake needed time to think, he had to get away and then he remembered the iron ladder that was embedded into the concrete wall outside his bedroom. It was probably built at the same time as the block of flats and was eventually was deemed unsafe to use and so a new stairway fire exit was built but this would be covered by the police who probably were already climbing up to his flat.
Jake moved quickly from the balcony back to his flat, hastily picked up a few things and stuffed them in his pocket. He entered his bedroom and opened the window and climbed out and clung to the ladder which moved slightly away from the wall. He slithered down like a fireman would round a pole, but his hands were hurting as he went down and he stopped suddenly having realized at the last moment the ladder ended there and he hung precariously, his legs waving in the wind with nothing between him and the ground. He remembered the workers who built the new fire escape had cut off most of the old ladder. The ladder moved another inch away from the wall and Jake looked up seeing a widening gap. Suddenly the iron ladder jerked away completely and swung down in a horizontal position. The iron rivets were beginning to loosen where he was hanging. It was now or never and he was determined not to end up dead. He swung his legs backwards and then forwards and plummeted through an open window and into another bedroom. He heard the clanging noise of the iron ladder that had loosened and was falling earthwards. Luckily no-one was underneath at the time.
The bedroom was empty but Jake heard voices coming from the next room. How could he explain to whoever it was that lived in the flat why he was there, although with clatter of iron scraping the wall and the din outside, how could anyone not hear?
Jake tiptoed to the bedroom door and opened it an inch or two and his eyes widened with horror. He quietly closed the door and thought of a strategy but nothing came to mind. He saw a man standing over two people who were sitting on the settee both tied up and gagged. The man was waving his gun about whenever he spoke.
Jake heard the man say, ‘You must know where this man lives?’
Both persons looked down at a photograph and denied ever seeing him.
‘Looks like I’ll have to shoot you both as you know what I look like.’
Jake knew what he had to do. He just couldn’t allow this to happen. He knocked loudly on the bedroom door and shouted, ‘Police, open up!’ Jake was hoping that the man would go to the nearest window and look out and he would see the place swarming with police. Thinking that the police were at the door of the flat he would come into the bedroom to hide or perhaps climb up the iron ladder that had fallen to the ground when Jake made his escape from his flat. Sure enough the man came into the bedroom and Jake tripped him up, the gun went off and Jake gave the man a rabbit punch. The man went down like a sack of coal. A gunshot noise would have alerted the police who would be fearing that one of their colleagues had been shot. A group of police approached Jake’s flat from the fire exit stairway.
Jake turned the man face upward and a gasp escaped from his mouth as he recognized his best friend, Roger Tamworth. Jake saw the photograph that was in Roger’s breast pocket and snatched it and he was looking at a photograph of himself. Jake decided to search Roger’s pockets and found a police badge that announced that he was a member of Special Branch. He took Roger’s wallet, car keys, his badge and the warrant card. He knew they were fake because he had the same identity papers.
‘Why?’ He thought Roger was his best friend, ‘Why send him to….’ Having no time to dwell on the matter he rushed from the bedroom and took the gags from the two people. They looked bewildered having just seen Jake in the photograph that the other man had shown them.
Jake spoke, ‘Don’t worry the police are here, but before I leave I’ll blindfold you both and when the police come they will see the man in the bedroom with the gun and arrest him.
Jake left their flat just in time, the hallway was clear. He made his way to the stairs and listened, no-one seemed to be coming up, so with caution he started to edge his way down leaning against the wall as he went down. A blood smear traced on the wall as he went. Jake felt no pain and assumed he had been nicked by the bullet and the blood had seeped through his jacket sleeve. His hand was still stinging from the Rabbit Punch he had delivered to his friend. Perhaps that had disguised the pain he now felt as his hand was beginning to come back to normality.
Jake moved away from the wall, not wishing to leave his blood signature on the wall. He managed another flight of stairs. He felt dizzy and at the same time heard noises from below as the rush of feet could be heard coming up. Jake left the stairway and stumbled along the hallway and knocked on the first door he came to.
A girl answered, ‘Yes?’
Jake walked passed her and collapsed.
* * *
As Jake had deduced Roger Tamworth was arrested for whatever the police had in mind. The police listened to the two people who lived in the flat who complained that this stranger had tied them up and threatened to kill them if they could or would not recognize the man in the photograph. From that point the conversation was thwarted with problems and many questions were fired at the two people and Roger Tamworth.
The policeman asked, ‘What photograph?’ There was no photograph.
The two people insisted that there was a photograph.
The policeman said okay, ‘So there was a photo. How were they going to recognize who it was if you were both blindfolded?’
Both people looked at each other – the husband of the two stated that they were blindfolded after the viewing of the photograph. Roger Tamworth denied that he had threatened the couple by shooting them because they knew what he looked like; after all he was a policeman.
* * *
Roger Tamworth sat in a chair rocking backwards and forwards. He was handcuffed and he held a hot steaming cup of tea, sipping it slowly. He felt the pain in his neck and it made him wince every time he moved his head. He was smirking as he was being arrested, telling the police they had made a terrible mistake and if they would look in his pockets they would find his police badge and warrant card. He was asked to empty his pockets and nothing was found to support his story and no identification at all. His warrant card, badge, wallet and car keys were missing.
Roger knew he had to keep his cool and he knew that a police check would be made and he also knew that they wouldn’t find anything for the simple reason that he did not exist. All he had in the world was the paperwork he had been given.
‘Paperwork?’ That’s it, his passport to freedom. It was the envelope with all the relevant information that would prove who he was as far as the police were concerned.
He turned to the constable who was guarding him.
‘Can you get the Police Inspector, I need to speak to him urgently?’
The constable moved to the door and knocked twice on it and whispered his message and shortly a man appeared who sat down opposite Roger and said, ’Looks like you’re in the clear, sorry about the inconvenience. I have just been reading the document we found in your shoe. Someone will take you wherever you want to go.
Roger left the police station smiling, declining the lift offered. ‘What fools the police are!’ Roger turned the corner and was shot through the head. He never felt a thing. A car stopped by his body and a passenger got out and a gloved hand pinned a note to his suit. It read, “The penalty for failure.”
* * *
Jake awoke from his dream, he had dreamt he was being tended to by a vision of loveliness. His arm ached and he looked to see that it had been nicely bandaged up and slowly looking up he saw what he thought was only in his dreams. This beautiful vision came to be real and spoke to him, ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Wonderful!’ said, Jake.
He sat up and took in his surroundings. The double bed had a luxurious feel about it with pink sheets complete with duvet of a similar colour. The room was tastefully decorated with gold roses on an off-white background. The heavy curtains matched the décor.
‘The police came and wanted to search my flat, but I told them that I had a sick aunt who was staying with me who was asleep in bed.’
‘What happened?’ said, Jake.
‘They came in and opened the door and saw you and then went on their way.’
‘They didn’t recognize me then?’
‘No! I think it was the grey wig I placed round your head and the make-up that I applied that helped to make you look like an old person. I belong to a amateur society and we put on shows, anyway it did the trick.’
‘Why did you protect me, I could have been a murderer?’
‘Your face tells me you are not and besides you are wounded and you fainted on my new rug. It’s going to be a devil of a job to remove the blood stains. I had just rolled up the rug and placed it in a cupboard when the police called, it was a close shave.’
One of the policemen kept staring at my floor and said ‘Where is the rug that used to be on top of the carpet?’
‘At the dry cleaners, I took it in yesterday.’
‘Did you?’ said, Jake.
‘Luckily I took a rug in to be cleaned, but not the one you collapsed on and I was able to show them a receipt.’
‘What I want to know how did he know there was a rug?’
‘The legs of a table leave an indentation, but after awhile they disappear and if you had just taken up the rug, he could possibly see the markings on the carpet.’
‘Rather clever of him.’
‘Not really,’ said, Jake. ‘It’s part of their job to be observant.’
‘Are you a policeman?’
‘Sort of.’ said Jake.
Jake sat up and leaned back against the pillow. He was about to ask her to get his jacket when he realized that he didn’t know the name of the angel that had saved him. He decided to tell her his story.
My best friend Roger Tamworth and I went to the same college, we both passed our exams and gained our degrees in Sociology. There wasn’t much in the market for Social Workers at that time and so we lazed around for some time until one day Roger, who had been out came rushing in brandishing a newspaper. We were both hoping there would be jobs on offer, even a washing up job, but those days had long gone since the advent of Commercial Dishwashers. Roger pointed out an advert which read: LOOKING FOR EXCITEMENT – WE CAN OFFER YOU THIS OPPORTUNITY. Please apply to Box 22 with your cv.
We both looked at the advert to see if there was any other information regarding this exciting opportunity, but there was none, so we both applied as there was nothing else on offer.
Eventually we both had a reply and were given instructions on how to reach their office. We had to meet someone at London Bridge Railway Station. She was a curvy blonde. We boarded a train and after changing at Lewisham Junction we headed off into unknown territory. Before alighting from the train, which appeared to be practically empty we were blindfolded and guided out of the station. No one appeared to ask for any tickets. For the rest of the journey we were taken by car. It took an hour and at last we had reached our destination. The blindfolds were removed and we were rushed into a room and told to sit. It seemed an eternity and Roger was getting fidgety. He said
‘Well I don’t know about you, but this is about as exciting as picking your nose at a seance.’
‘I was just about to answer when a door opened and in walked another curvy blonde. At this point Roger rubbed his hands and said, ‘Is this a sex farm?’
The stony look that could have killed a dozen men assured Roger that was not on anyone’s agenda.
‘Follow me!’
I hadn’t noticed when entering the room the number of doors that the room had, whether it was significant I did not have the chance of finding out as we were ushered through one of those doors when the blonde opened it for us to go through.
A man sat behind an enormous desk. He was dressed in a trench coat with turned up collar, wore dark glasses and had Wellington boots on as he stretched out his legs under his desk; when we sat down we could see them. Our gaze was immediately diverted as on the walls were pictures of scantily clad blondes. Who wanted to look at a clownish person dressed as if he was expecting a high tide to appear in his office?
Suddenly he said, ‘Raise your feet off the floor!’
I thought it was some sort of test and raised mine instantly, perhaps it was a reflex test and I had passed with flying colours, but no, it was not as water appeared as if by magic and flooded the floor. Unfortunately Roger had not raised his feet quickly enough and had to take off his shoes and socks. I looked round the room resting my chin on top of my knees surveying the situation and thinking how comical it was, it was too silly for words, perhaps it was just a silly joke and we both had been sucked into a surreal world of fantasy by someone who did not want us to know his identity. It was at this point the man removed his coat and glasses, stood up and walked towards us as the water receded from the room. He proffered his hand for us to shake and said, ‘Sorry about that! This building was built on marshy ground and every now and again we get a tide invading this office. I’ve spoken to the Council about it, but nothing seems to happen. He sighed.
‘You both want excitement, well you’ve come to the right place. I’ve looked at your CV’s and everything appears to be in order. You’ll both receive special training and become part of an elite force. Just sign on the dotted line. The man leant forward and proffered them a blank sheet of paper to sign. We both looked and said, ‘There is nothing on this paper to signify to what we are penning our names. ‘Don’t worry about that, it is nothing underhand, we take our job seriously and as we are a Secret Service for this wonderful country of ours, we keep our administration to a minimum. It all boils down to costs. Your progress reports will be placed on this form as you start your training and hopefully pass. They both signed the forms and the man retrieved them. He said ‘I forgot to mention that should you fail any of your tests, you will be eliminated. Don’t worry you look like a very promising pair, but should one of you fall by the wayside, at least you will be killed off by your best friend, that should be rather comforting and if either one of you fail to kill the one that has failed he will be eliminated too. The less paperwork we have to do, the better.
You realise that you both can’t go back to collect your clothing and other personal things. We will arrange for all your stuff to be brought here.
We looked at each other in a rather peculiar fashion and it appeared they had joined this group as friends, but were now enemies. I wished I had not joined and Roger, well I didn’t know what Roger was thinking at the time.
Jake stopped talking and looked at Samantha. ‘Are you sure you want to hear the rest of my story?’
‘Yes! Carry on.’
Jake took a deep breath. We both finished our three year course of training which covered many subjects. We were equal in everything we did. One day I let my feelings get the better of me and I confided with Roger that I missed Penny who was with me at the college. Obviously I did not know Roger, who immediately told the boss man and he was given his first assignment to kill her and stage it to look like I had done it with a trumped up story that I was captured by a gang and held captive for two days and given drugs. I was arrested and let go to be looked after by my girlfriend. It wasn’t my girlfriend who picked me up, it was some woman I had not seen before in my life, a blonde…a blonde. Oh how stupid of me, the group must have arranged it all and now I am on the run because the police think I killed her.
Samantha said, ‘They will know that you didn’t do it, I don’t know much about killing and such things, but they must realise that you couldn’t have done it because of the timing and everything.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘If Roger killed her before the group let you go and staged this story, surely common sense will tell them that Penny had been murdered two days before you were released, because I assume a body goes through several stages.’
‘How do you know all this, you’re not an ordinary person are you?’
‘I better own up I suppose. I work for the Government. I am part of a special unit to crack down on groups like this who have sprung up over the years and have caused problems. I was put here for your protection. I might as well tell you that your friend Roger Tamworth was murdered as soon as he left the police station. He was found just a few yards away. The police tried very hard to hush up the incident. But they all have been arrested, thanks to you. I am just sorry about Penny your girlfriend.’
‘She wasn’t my girl friend. She was my sister. We made an arrangements with our parents to safeguard her and if everybody knew I was around, there wasn’t going to be any monkey business. All she wanted to do was to get her degree and move on. She wanted to be a career girl. I have let my parents down and I have lost my sister – you know deep down I loved my sister. She used to play terrible tricks on me, but I loved her really. I want revenge, but even that has been taken away from me.’
‘No you don’t.’ said Samantha. ‘You’re too nice!’
Jake broke down and cried and Samantha cuddled him and they kissed.
The Government agency of secret service members captured the group who were going to infiltrate and cause mayhem, although they were thwarted in capturing the top man and a few others that were drowned by all accounts. The basement had been filling up with water from the marshy ground and had not managed to drain away and subsequently the building sank without trace. It was as though it had never been there.
