The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2589 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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“Apparently there is someone loitering outside,” I said to the two teens.

“How d’you know?” asked Danni.

“Trish saw them. Is this anything to do with you?”

Pia shook her head. “No, I came to speak with Danielle.” She sounded sincere but I’ve been wrong before.

“If they are, then the moment I get back indoors I’m going to call the police and have you rearrested—so you have a few seconds to call them off.”

“Honest, Dr Watts, it’s nothing to do with me.”

“In which case we have a potential hostile.”

“It’s not Chas or Dave is it?” asked Danni.

“Who’re they?” asked Pia.

“Some muscle we use now an’ again.”

“Except Trish wouldn’t have seen them,” I added.

“Not in the dark,” offered Pia.

“She’s using Mum’s night vision thingy, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

My phone peeped again. ‘He’s down by the gate.’

“Right, here we go, run for the back door—don’t forget the dog.”

“What about me?” asked a confused Pia.

“Just get in the house—go—now.” I threw the door open and the two girls plus spaniel ran towards the back door. I stopped to lock the shed door and of course in my haste dropped the key. I managed to lock it at the second attempt but felt someone creep up behind me.

“Stand still or you die,” said a Slav type accent.

“What d’you want?”

“Come on, Mum,” Danni shouted from the door.

“You. Come with me.”

“And if I refuse?”

“I will kill you.”

“You don’t give me much option, do you?”

“Yes you come or you die—two options.”

“I can’t say I like either of those.”

“Too bad, now I kill you.”

“D’you mind if I say a prayer first?”

“What for?”

“If I’m going to die, I’d like to cover all bases, just in case there is a god of some sort.” I was playing for time and in a moment he’d rumble me. He sounded much larger than I was and I didn’t know if he had a gun or knife or whatever. I was trying to draw down enough of the energy to do one thing, I’d find out if it worked in a moment—or not as the case might be.

“Goddess forgive them for they know not what they do,” or who they’re dealing with. I stepped away and clapped my hands. There was a blue flash like a camera flash and for a moment he was blinded. He was carrying a knife. I dropped and kicked at his knee with one foot whilst looping the other behind his ankle. If you do it hard enough you dislocate the knee. Boy, did he scream as he fell down dropping the knife. I started to run for the door aware he was either with friends or armed with a gun. I zigzagged to the door trying to make myself a more difficult target.

As I got to the house I heard the bullet strike the wall and a bit of masonry pinged off hitting my coat. Diving through the door I heard another bullet hit the wall and this time a shot rang out and there was silence.

“Mummy, someone shot him,” called Trish down the stairs.

“Shutters closed please,” I called as Simon picked me up from the kitchen floor. Danni grabbed Pia and told her to help dragging her into the sitting room. I heard the clatter of the shutters. They look wooden but have half inch thick steel in them, just like the doors.

In two minutes the windows were all protected. If it wasn’t a listed building we could have shutters which rolled down outside the windows at the touch of a button. “They wouldn’t have shot their own man would they?” Simon gasped.

I shrugged, “Who knows but I’d have thought it was more likely to be Chas or Dave. Here, I’ll ask James, he’ll know.”

“Jim went out as soon as Trish spotted someone out there,” Julie informed us.

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” asked Stella.

“Not until James comes back in,” I insisted.

“You lot lead much more excitin’ lives than I do,” complained Pia.

“Not from choice, young lady,” I told her.

“No, but there’s always someone tryin’ to kill one of my parents,” Danni informed her erstwhile friend.

“Why?”

“How do I know, we never stick around long enough to ask,” Danielle answered her friend.

“It’s excitin’ though, innit?”

“No, it’s bloody stupid,” snapped Stella dismissing the teen. “I thought you had an order preventing her coming near Danielle after what she did last time they met?”

“I do.”

“Want me to call the police?” she said quietly.

“Not until we hear from James. The last thing we need is him being arrested or shot by the police.

“Thae polis are on their way,” said Daddy emerging from his study.

“You called them?”

“Aye, seemed like a guid idea.”

“It could be a very bad idea if James is arrested or shot by them, especially as he’s trying to protect us.”

“Oh, shall I call them back and say it wis a wee mistake?”

“Not a lot of point now, is there. Look we need to agree one person organises things not have everyone doing their own thing.”

“Aye a’richt—ye gang tae dae it?”

I glanced around everyone seemed to be nodding. “Someone else can do it if they want.”

“No, babes, you seem the best suited for it.”

“But I’m a woman...”

“We’d noticed that already, Cathy,” Stella smirked as she spoke.

“Ye’re guid in a crisis,” Daddy patted me on the shoulder.

“She is, isn’t she?” agreed Pia, Danny nodded agreement.

“The plod are comin’,” shouted Trish down the stairs and we heard a helicopter overhead.

“Can you see Jim?” I called back.

“No, he went ages ago,” she called back. “He and another man took the body off with them in a small van.”

“So what are the police going to say?” I mused aloud.

“Wasting police time, unregistered firearms...” Stella continued.

“Och weel, I’ll jest hae tae say I’m gettin’ auld and mistook some noise fa gunfire.”

I glanced at Pia who went rather pale as soon as the word, ‘police,’ was mentioned. “Take her upstairs to your room, come down when I call you—you were walking the dog in the garden, okay. No mention of her,” I nodded towards the girl.

“Yeah, fine.”

“And you, Missy, the slightest squeak from you and I throw you to the lions, got it?”

“Yes, Dr Watts, and thank you.”

“Upstairs and now—quickly.”

There was a battering noise from the front door and ‘Police’ was called several times. All the same, I opened the door on the chain giving Danielle a chance to hide her friend.

Daddy gave an Oscar winning performance as the old dementing academic, whilst I kept out of things until they asked for a statement. I hoped it supported what Daddy had said.