Wow! Thanks so much for all of your responses to the first chapter :D Made me a very happy bunny indeed!
Again ta muchlies to warbs1981 for beta'ing this. Oh and I still don't own Ashes :'(
The callout wasn't so much as a Gene-goes-in-guns-blazing-and-catches-all-the-bad-guys callout but a Let's-interview-every-single-person-even-though-they-all-have-conflicting-statements callout. In this temperature, everyone's patience was running thin. And as it was a Monday morning, the amount of witness to the armed blag were numerous. Even with plods on the scene it was simply a mad house trying to process everyone.
"Look! I don't bleedin' care why you were at the Post Office. Just tell me what you saw!" Ray snapped at the frail old woman he was questioning. The room went silent for a moment as her handbag connected with his face.
"So you saw two men –" Chris began, unaware that Ray being clocked around the face by a woman at least twice his age had caused the shop to go silent. Carrying on in usual Chris fashion, he opened his notepad and tried to give a caring look to the little Indian man he was talking to.
"I saw nothing," An eye twitch. Chris tried to ignore it.
"But you said –"
"I saw nothing." His eye twitched again. This was getting ridiculous.
"But –"
"Nothing." Another eye twitch.
Chris couldn't hold it in. He let out a small snort and promptly began choking.
"I came down 'ere this morning 'cause I was getting a present for me girlfriend."
Alex held up her hand, "You came to the Post Office? To get a present?" And who said romance is dead?
"Well no I was goin' to the lingerie shop jus' aroun' the corner. You know that fancy French one?" The twenty-something skinhead looked Alex up and down, "What am I saying? Course you do."
"Excuse me?"
"No offense mind. But you look like the type that knows good lingerie when you see it."
Alex shut her notepad rather forcefully. "Well yes, I think I've got all I need from you."
"I'm just sayin' darlin' if you've got it, flaunt it. And you 'ave definitely got 'it'." The skinhead stood up, leered at her and winked as he turned to leave.
"Makin' friends Bolly?" Gene said, as his latest witness stalked off, probably offended in some form or the other.
Alex visibly shuddered. "Why do I always attract the weirdoes?"
"Yer 'magnetic' personality?"
"Shut up." Something at the back of the shop caught Alex's eye, "Guv, I think there's something back there."
"Get the plods ter take a look. This is a bloody waste of my time. Collecting statements. Do the words CID mean nothin' to anyone anymore?" Disinterested, Gene began to walk off, occasionally shoving a random rubbernecker out of the way.
"But…" Alex began, frustrated. "Must I do everything around here?"
She slowly approached the back of the Post Office, well aware how fragile her heel was after walking around collecting statements. She also now knew how the Little Mermaid must have felt in the Hans Christen Anderson story. It's like walking on knife point. If I fall I'm screwed.
It was clear to see the amount of damage the blag had done. The safe was well and truly open, but Alex didn't want to touch anything in case she messed up forensics. The noise however seemed to come from one of the storeroom, to the left of the safe. It sounded very much like a large rat, but Alex desperately hoped it wasn't.
Cautiously, she cracked open the door. To her relief it wasn't a large rat as she had expected, but a very small blagger crouched over a duffel bag, shovelling bundles of notes into it. Actually, relief was quickly replaced with shock as she realised the blagger was armed. And the pistol was trained on Alex's forehead.
Damn it. Not again.
"What are you? Police?" The little blagger shouted, still training the gun on Alex's head. She noticed that his hands were shaking slightly.
"Uh…yes. DI Alex Drake. And you are?"
"None of your fucking business DI Drake." Alex almost let out a giggle. The blagger was trying to make himself seem tougher by using pretentious language. Coupled with a very put on low tone of voice, it was hard to take the situation seriously. "You're gonna let me go yeah? Or I'll shoot ya."
I'd like to see you try, smart arse. "Alright then." Alex raised her arms above her head as the blagger picked up the duffel bag and dug her in the back with the barrel of the gun. "How old are you anyway?" She wondered aloud, remembering rule number one of hostage taking, keep them talking; humanise them.
The blagger pressed the gun further into her spine. "None. Of. Your. Fucking. Business. Now move!" Alex whimpered slightly as was shoved into the main area of the Post Office.
"Get on the fucking ground!" Alex covered her ears as the blagger let a round rip into the ceiling, causing several people to drop to the floor quickly. The old woman Ray had been questioning earlier let out a small squeak and fainted dead away.
Gene, Ray and Chris quickly drew their own guns and aimed at the blagger.
"Guv! He's armed," informed Ray, clicking the safety to 'off'.
"Well I 'adn't really noticed Raymondo but thanks ter yer keen police skills I'm now up ter speed!" Gene snapped, annoyed that none of the plods had checked to see if all the blaggers had actually left the building before they began questioning.
"You're goin' down you scum!" Chris exclaimed.
The gun was once again shoved into Alex's back. "No I'm not! Lemme go or I'll shoot her!"
Gene scoffed, "Lad, you could shove the gun up 'er privately educated arse an' still miss."
"Hey!" Alex protested. "Why don't we just lay him down a wager?" She tried to shift positions as the gun pressed further into the base of her spine, but her left boot wobbled dangerously.
What happened next happened rather quickly, but may have been avoided if the plod that had snuck around the back decided to make a dash for the blaggers' gun. But he didn't and it did happen, so here we are.
The blagger raised the gun and let a few more bullets rip into the ceiling. As Gene was just about to fire, the blagger – who was actually quite cocky for a person of his stature – suddenly pushed Alex forward and made a run for it.
"Bugger!" Gene, Chris and Ray exclaimed simultaneously, holstering their guns.
"Go around the back!" Gene ordered and Chris and Ray took off obediently.
Alex however, hadn't fallen over. Instead, she'd given chase. Albeit, a slightly shaky chase at that.
"Bolly! Bolly! BOLLY! Shit!"
As soon as Alex had decided to give chase, she realised it wasn't the best idea. She'd twisted her ankle because of the wobbly heel, and the heat was making her feel lightheaded. She tried to block these things out as she charged down a side alleyway. On the plus side, the blagger was slowing down and Alex just had to reach out and…
Snap.
If she wasn't so consciously aware of the state of her left boot, Alex would have never have heard the slight sound it made as the heel came away from the actual boot. She did, however, feel the tremendous decline in height, but as she was running, she could do little to stop herself from toppling forward.
It was a shame really that the alleyway in which she was now running down was being remodelled and the builders that were there in the morning had left a small pile of bricks out.
It was even more of a shame that Alex didn't see the small pile of bricks before her head made contact with them.
Poor Alex. *smirk*