The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2447 by Angharad Copyright© 2014 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

Press conferences are nerve-racking things at the best of times, add the news that your own personal nightmare is at large and it was astonishing that my brain wasn’t in meltdown. I calmly texted Danni that Cortez had escaped and to warn everyone. Effectively to pull up the drawbridge and admit no one, except family members. Easy enough, you’d think, but that is where you’d be wrong.

Back to the press conference: contrary to Jason’s instructions, I was going to blow the lid on Cortez—expose his empire built upon the poverty of many and maintained by a gang of thugs to whom murder was a way of life. I started telling my story and Jason tried to stop me. “You can’t say this, it’s under investigation, there’s a court case pending.”

“They have to find him first. Given their efforts so far, I’m not holding my breath.”

“Cathy, you have to trust the legal system, if you don’t what else is there except the law of the jungle?”

Questions came thick and fast, we showed the photos of his assault on the young copper, his attempt to kill me and Simon’s subsequent rescue. “I wish I’d killed him,” he muttered under his breath and part of me agreed with him. So far we’d managed to turn the tables or escape him. Sooner or later that wouldn’t happen, or so the law of averages suggests if not dictates. If the only way I could prevent him killing me or mine was to reciprocate the threat, if only in my head, then that was what I would do. I was going to murder someone, albeit in self defence. I would pay Jim to track him down and euthanase him.

The decision left me feeling dirty and at the eventual end of the press conference when Jason took me to one side and began to berate me for embarrassing him, I stepped away from him and said through clenched teeth, “When you’ve seen what that man has done to poor people, when you’ve been threatened by him, when you’ve felt his hands around your throat and smelt his disgusting body so close to yours it made you want to vomit, then you can pass judgement on me. Until then, stuff it.” I strode away from him and back towards Simon and Sammi.

“What was all that about?” asked Simon.

“I gave him the facts of life, if he doesn’t like it we may need a new lawyer.”

“You did what?”

“I told him to climb off his pomposity and smell the coffee.”

“You did what?”

“Simon, you just said that—please take us home.”

“We’re supposed to be meeting Dad for lunch. Can you apologise to Jason then?”

“No I can’t.”

“We can’t afford to lose him.”

“It’ll be cheaper than losing me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he snapped.

“Simon, there is a lunatic at large who wishes to kill me and mine. I don’t know about you, but I am going home for a change of clothes and then I am going to organise my defences.”

“Call James.”

“I’ve already sent him a text.”

“Look, I’ll get home as soon as I can.” He went to kiss me and I turned away.

“I’d better get back to the bank,” said Sammi.

“Which bank?” I felt nervous for her, the sense of foreboding hadn’t left.

“I’ll go into the main Portsmouth branch now, I can work from there.”

“You could work from home.”

“It’s not as secure.”

“Take the afternoon off.”

“I can’t, Mummy, remember I’m going on holiday and need to have everything up to date before I go.”

“I wish you’d come home, darling. I’m worried for you.”

“Don’t be silly, I’ll be all right.”

“Cameron, prepare to die.” Cortez suddenly appeared as we walked to reception. He raised his hand and Sammi tried to pull me out of the way. There was a bang and her body jolted and we both fell down. Police came running and Cortez disappeared.

I extricated myself from under her. She was in shock and blood was seeping from the wound under her right arm. There was blood frothing from her nose and mouth. She’d been hit in the lung. Her breathing was laboured. “I have to get back to work,” she said trying to rise but falling back into my arms.

“Lie still, darling, you’ve been shot.”

“Ambulance is on its way,” said a woman police officer. I thanked her and returned to trying to keep Sammi alive.

“Sorry, I messed your suit, Mummy.” She said as fell back unconscious and stopped breathing.

Simon ran up, “What’s happened?”

“What’s it look like?” I said as I began CPR.

“Oh shit.”

I tried pouring the blue light into her but somehow I couldn’t muster any, so I reverted to good old fashioned conventional medicine and began compressions of her chest. Sirens sounded and running footsteps and two paramedics appeared and quickly took over. Simon led me away while they worked on her, scissors slicing through the priceless garment as they attempted to plug the hole and restart her heart.

Sitting in the car following the ambulance I saw the blood on my own suit—it was probably ruined—not that it mattered too much, it was only cloth, it was replaceable, Sammi wasn’t.

I stared aimlessly out of the windscreen of the Jaguar, sitting in the seat she’d occupied a few hours earlier, now she was fighting for her life. “If she dies, I am personally going to kill Cortez.”

“Not if I get to him first,” said Simon, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel. “Not if I get him first.”

We screamed into the A&E parking bay and Simon told me to go in, he’d park and come and find me. I did as he told me, walking almost in a dream blood splashed all down my front and my skirt bearing quite a large red mark.

“Are you all right?” asked someone in scrubs running to me.

“My daughter has been shot,” I remember saying before collapsing into their arms. I awoke some little while later. Simon was sitting next to me.

“How is Sammi,” I asked weakly.

“She’s critical but holding her own.”

“She’s a fighter.”

“Takes after her mum.”

“We don’t know her mum.”

“You, ya dipstick.”

“Some role model I am. Why am I here?”

“You’ve been shot as well.”

“What?” I almost called him a liar or a joker but the pain in my side tended to grab all my breath.

“You were hit in the side, mostly a flesh wound, they’ve got the bullet out and stitched it up. You were so worried about Sammi you didn’t realise you’d been shot yourself, did you?”

“No, no I didn’t.”

“What time is it?”

“Seven o’clock.”

“What?” I gasped, I’d been here six hours.

“Don’t worry, Jim’s friends are guarding the rest of the family.”

“I want Cortez dead.”

“I’ve already offered an obscene amount of money to Jim to take care of that.”

“What’s happening to us? We’re becoming as bad as him, aren’t we?” I said the tears running down my face.

“No, he does it to enhance his reputation for nastiness. What we’re doing is pest control.”

“I hope Sammi will be all right.”

“Trish is on the job.”

I smiled then drifted off into oblivion.