Going Home

I waited by Angel’s bedside for the rest of that day and night, not able to sleep, just watching for any kind of movement or twitch that might signal recovery – not that I expected any, for I was still sure that the reason Angel hadn’t woken up yet was because of Chris.

Still, I sat there dozing, waking myself every half-hour or so to check that the monitor displays hadn’t changed while I napped.

The tedium began to get to me a little, and I saw why Jessie had seemed so drained – the appearance of Mrs. James or other nurses when they came to check on her started to become a welcome relief from the time-keeping monitor beeps.

By dawn, I had just fallen into a doze with my eyes open, vivid dreams of Chris returning to the hospital, interspersed with stretches of reality, so indistinct that I jumped in fright when the door burst open just after seven o’clock.

When I finally focussed on who had actually entered the room, my heart sank again, for the look of alarm on Mrs. James’ face told me before she spoke that something was terribly wrong.

“What is it?” I asked flatly, not daring to speculate on what could have happened that was bad enough to shatter the usually composed woman’s demeanour.

“It’s Jessie,” she whispered, wringing her hands like a storybook damsel in distress, “Chris just called me, he says he and some others have got her, and…” she trailed off, almost breaking down from sheer terror for her only daughter, but forced herself to continue. “He says that if I don’t call off the case, they’ll kill her.”

I just stared silently at the wall behind her head for a moment, processing the terrible news and hoping, in an unrealistic part of my mind, that this was maybe all just another really vivid dream – but I knew it was not.

“What are you going to do?” I whispered eventually, my voice seeming to have left me as the blood drained from my face. “Call the case off?”

“No,” Mrs. James shook her head vehemently, and started pacing the tiny length of the room. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t now, the police are doing an independent investigation.”

“So what, then? We have to be able to do something,” I found myself talking with a calm voice, though I could feel my fingernails biting into my palms inside shaking fists.

Mrs. James didn’t answer at first, turning where she paced the room before making a tiny strangled noise of desperation.

“I don’t know, I really don’t know – I’ve called the police, but I have no idea what they can do…” she trailed off, the first tears I had seen so far creeping unbidden down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Jay, I just thought you ought to know,” she finished, then jumped as her pager went off. “The police are here, I have to go,” she muttered, already halfway through the door. “If anything happens, I’ll be at the house,” she called back distractedly.

“What an asshole,” I muttered to myself as I sat back down, stunned and helpless.

“Yes, he is, and you’ve got to hurry,” a familiar voice said by my side, making me jump though I knew the only person it could be.

“Angel, you heard?” I asked, looking around to check the door was closed and we were alone.

“No…” she began, frowning as she tried to work out what I was on about. “I just saw Chris kidnap Jessie while she was walking here – I don’t know how much you’ve heard, but I saw where they took her, and you’ve got to tell someone for me, so that they can get to her in time.”

I nodded, trying to take in all the information quickly, and fixated on the one really important detail.

“You know where they took her?” I asked as I jumped up, grabbing the jacket I had used as a blanket the night before, and already heading for the door.

“The primary school downtown,” Angel nodded, “its empty at this time of year… but you’ve got to hurry, Chris won’t work it out himself, but as soon as someone tells him Mrs. James can’t stop the case, Jessie won’t be worth anything to him.”

I closed my eyes at the thought, but pressed on, pausing at the door to turn back to the two parts of Angel behind me.

“Is that it?” I asked quickly, not wanting to miss any important detail.

“That’s all I know, but if you can convince the cops he’s there, they can save her. Just hurry!”

With a final nod, I raced out the door, hurrying for the phone box down the corridor, rather than waste time trying to get to the James’ house, and hoping that I wasn’t too late to save Jessie.

As soon as I reached the phone booth, which was thankfully empty at this time of morning, I dialled 000 and waited impatiently for it to connect.

“Emergency, how can I help you?” the sickly sweet tones of the operator finally answered.

“I’ve got some information, about the James kidnapping,” I said, hoping that it really was anonymous, and that they would know who to tell.

“I’ll put you through to the Sergeant in charge, hold please.”

Another tense minute of waiting, with the buzzing ring of the Sergeant’s phone in my ear, and he finally picked up.

“Sergeant Vicks,” the terse voice on the line introduced himself.

“Sergeant, I’m a friend of Jessie’s,” I began, hesitating as I worked out how to sound like I knew what I was talking about, without having to give direct proof, “Another friend I was just talking to told me that they saw someone that looked like her being taken by some mean-looking guys to the primary school, downtown.”

The sergeant paused, probably digesting the rush of information, and when he spoke again he sounded vaguely suspicious.

“Is this a prank call?” he asked, sighing as he covered all the bases.

“No, I swear, I called as soon as I heard about this – I really want you to find Jessie. You’ve got to at least go and look,”

By the time I got off the phone to Sergeant Vicks – which took longer than I expected, because I had to convince him that he should check it out – I was tired, but relieved because I hoped now that they would do something to fix all this.

I started walking back to Angel’s room to keep watch, when suddenly it occurred to me that, with Chris busy at the school, her body, at least, would be safe here – and I felt that, right then, Jessie needed me more.

With that in mind, I turned and headed for the hospital’s main entrance, only realising that I had company when I got to the carpark.

Still walking, I turned to Angel and asked her with a raised eyebrow what she was doing – I had assumed she would stay with her body while she was here this time.

A grim look of determination on her small features, she didn’t stop walking, just turned her head slightly with a purposeful smile.

“What do you think? I’m coming with you – Jessie needs us.”