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.
