My Ex's Ex

TWENTY

James laughed out loud immediately he was within the privacy of his office.
He laughed so much that he began to doubt his sanity for a second.

He wasn't laughing because he was amused. No, in fact, it was the opposite. He was laughing because he was irritated, disgusted, and annoyed.

When Charlotte pulled her gun on James. He didn't know how to react at first. He was confused, to tell the truth. When he finally gathered himself, however, he was overcome with a wave of anger.

To pull a gun on your partner meant that you didn't trust them. Not only that, it meant that you thought they were capable of being a bad person. It meant that you never trusted them all along when they gave you their full trust. It meant that you saw them for the worst.

James recalled when he felt a bit off about Charlotte on one of the earlier days. He believed it was after she went to interview one of the family members. So, that was why. She had started to doubt him since then and had let it build up to this moment.

James was sure it couldn't have been Lily's dad that mentioned him. There was no reason for him to. He would have said it was her mom, but the truth was that she most likely didn't consider him significant enough to be remembered. It had to be Arielle.

Many things were wrong with the situation in James' opinion. Even if Arielle did tell Charlotte that James was Lily's ex, James believed that Charlotte should have asked him if she was in doubt.

He knew he should have mentioned that he was Lily's ex to Charlotte, and that made him feel he wasn't allowed to blame her completely for not mentioning that she found out. However, that didn't rule out any of Charlotte's wrongs. He felt betrayed by her. Maybe the use of the word 'betrayed' was an overstatement on his part, but that was how he felt anyway.

He decided he wasn't going to report Charlotte for what she did. He was going to let it go. In fact, he was going to pretend it didn't happen. He'd found early on in life that reacting to things made people feel more important and eliminated their guilt towards that situation. He needed Charlotte to feel extremely guilty for what she did. Till she felt as bad as he did.

.

.

"This tracker will be placed in you so that you won't try to... you know... run, " Newt said to Jamie.

"If you run and we catch you. Which we will. It's goodbye to our immunity terms." James added

Newt continued to brief Jamie as the tracker was placed in him.

"So, we let it out that the video was fabricated.  We wait for the information to get out. In an hour or two. Then we send you out. You make the call. We trace it. That's the summary." Newt rounded up.

Spreading the false news was easy. They just walked into the conference room as Chief was debriefing the force and said they had to tell him something urgent about the case.

Newt told him about the video being fabricated and how they were now going to prepare for Jamie's release.

Approximately 2 hours later, Jamie was falsely released. Charlotte stayed at the office to keep up appearances while James followed Jamie.

Jamie went straight to his house and pulled out the burner as instructed. He immediately dials the number and waits for the pickup.

Newt told Jamie he had to stay on the call for about 2 minutes. So he began to mentally prepare what to say. The entire operation relied on there being a mole at the station.

He dialled the number, and at the 3rd ring, the line clicked, indicating that someone was on the other end.

"The feed was fabricated? How's that possible when the scenario was actually real?" The voice asked

"I don't know. Thought you had something to do with it. "

"No, I didn't. What's this all about? "

"No idea, but thankfully, it's all over."

"Yiu sure the cops aren't on to you? How sure are you that they're not?"

"The detectives were anything but happy to see me go. Trust me."

"Hope you didn't say anything? "

"No, I didn't even when you tried to make me take the fall for it."

There was silence for a bit before the voice on the other line sighed, then replied.

"You will be heavily compensated for your troubles."

"How much?"

"Another 2 million."

"After what you pulled. I'll need more."

"Fine, how much?"

"10 million. To get me and my family out of the country."

"That's a lot."

"You set me up to take the fall for you, and I didn't snitch on you. It's the least you can do."

"I'll call you." The voice said, then hung up.

Immediately, James swooped into the house and handcuffed Jamie for transport back to the station.

Newt had gotten a location from the call. It was successful.

Once James handed Jamie over for transport to a secure site far from the station, he and Charlotte, along with other officers, will be on their way to Southern Limer.

.

.

James and Charlotte were alone in the vehicle on their way to Southern Limer. It was an hour's drive to Southern Limer.

That meant an hour of awkwardness, for Charlotte, not James.
As far as James was concerned,  he couldn't be bothered.

Charlotte decided that she was going to use the time to apologise to James again because she realised that her first apology was barely an apology.

"I know I apologised before, but I feel like I should again," Charlotte started, "I'm sorry about how I handled things. Pulling the gun on you wasn't right."

"It's fine, Detective Hutchinson. You don't need to apologise again." James replied with an impassive face.

Charlotte tried hard to subtly study his face for any form of emotion, but there was none.

She knew one thing for sure, though: her friendship with James was severed.

Art by: meha-k