Armitage

Chapter 11 - One Step Too Far

Madeline sat in silence as she was driven back to Armitage City Police Station, the cold metal of the handcuffs around her wrists a grim reminder of the terrible events she was caught up in. Her arresting officer cast occasional looks at her from the rear view mirror but said nothing. As they pulled into the station car park Madeline wondered morosely about what was going to happen to her. Was she going to be convicted of a crime she didn’t commit but could well have caused? Was Mason going to get to her before any of that happened? These were the questions that were filling her grief addled mind as the officer escorted her to the holding cell area at the far end of the station.

‘Stand there, please,’ said the officer, indicating a line on the floor. Madeline looked blankly into the camera as her mug shots were taken and stared helplessly at the ceiling while her DNA swabs were taken from the inside of her cheek. She was then led to a desk where her fingerprints were taken, and all the while a strange feeling like none of it was really happening washed over her. It was all so horrible, things had gone so wrong so quickly that it didn’t feel like reality anymore. It was only when a seated female police officer asked for her name that her attention was brought back.

‘Name?’

‘Oh, Madeline Jameson,’ she replied numbly.

‘Date of birth?’

‘30th of April, 1982.’

‘Turn out your pockets.’ The officer standing next to Madeline took off her handcuffs but held them ready to reapply.

‘I…I don’t have anything in my pockets,’ said Madeline.

‘Sergeant Tate?’ The seated officer indicated the man who had removed Madeline’s handcuffs.

‘Please spread your legs, Ma’am.’ Madeline did as she was told and was briefly searched before the sergeant took his place at the side of the desk once again. ‘She’s clean.’

‘You don’t have any personal items on you, Ma’am?’ asked the seated officer.

‘They were all in my bag,’ said Madeline slowly, as the realisation dawned on her that she didn’t have it, which meant that she didn’t have the compound.

‘And where’s your bag?’ asked the officer.

‘It was in the squad car.’

‘I searched Sergeant Thomas’ vehicle and didn’t find any bag,’ said Sergeant Tate, further cementing in Madeline the fact that she had lost the compound, the one thing Sebastian said could finally kill Mason.

‘Right, we’re done here,’ said the female officer.

‘Come with me, Ma’am.’ Madeline was led to an empty cell and as the door closed fast the tears began to well up once more in her eyes. Seeing no possible way out, Madeline sat heavily down on her hard bed and started to cry.

*          *          *

The rest of the day wore on painfully slowly for Madeline, as she paced her tiny cell, intermittently crying over the tragedy of Zeb’s and Sergeant Thomas’ deaths. She had lost the compound and left Sebastian stranded so all hope of stopping Mason had evaporated into the air. Her thoughts also kept returning to the possibility of being convicted for arson and double murder, crimes that carried penalties too severe to think about, and as the afternoon became evening Madeline was overcome with extreme physical exhaustion. She flopped down on to her bed and almost instantly fell into fitful and restless sleep, her body clearly needing to recharge but her mind too full of fear and doubt to power down.