Chapter Four
"Artemis, who's your friend? Why are you willing to put everything on the line for her?"
Artemis was silent for a moment. As Jules scanned her face, she saw a change come over the tight, worried features. When she spoke the voice was soft, quite different to the one that had threatened to kill Jules less than half an hour ago.
"She helped me. When no one else was interested, she helped me."
Love and affection showed in Artemis' face, stirring something deep within Jules, and she grasped Sean's hand, suddenly longing for the moment when she could hold tightly to him and never have to let go. With a mental shake, she pulled herself together. She couldn't afford to let this woman get under her skin, her priority had to be getting everyone out of here safely.
"Why, what happened, Artemis?"
Artemis checked her watch.
"They didn't believe me. Everybody said that Jake was such a lovely man. That I was lucky to have him, we were meant to be together. But then it all changed."
.
"The husband, Jake Farthings, used to work as a manager for a local insurance firm. The company went bust a few years back, Jake lost his job." Spike's eyes roved across the monitor as he pulled up the case file. "He couldn't find anywhere else that would take him on, had his licence revoked for driving under the influence, then got brought in for a couple of drunk and disorderlies."
Wordy looked over Spike's shoulder at the screen. "Looks like he'd been abusing her for over two years by the time the law found out," he said. "A few bruises here and there, somewhere safely hidden under her clothes, no one would ever notice it."
.
"He always kept a revolver in the bedside table. Just in case I forgot my place, he said. No one ever believed me when I said he was bad. He was always careful not to leave too many marks. And they were always somewhere I would never have dared show anyone." Jules' skin prickled at the thought of what this woman had been through. How terrified she must have been with no one there to stop him.
"But when I told her, she listened. And then, that night…" she stopped talking.
"What did she do that night?" Jules asked quietly. Artemis seemed to come out of her reverie, and looked at her watch.
"Stand up." Sean made to get up instead, but Artemis pointed the gun at him.
"Not you, the woman," she said.
.
Looking up at the CCTV footage, Greg was suddenly faced with the image of his friend. A gun was pointed at her head.
"Where's that food, Leah?"
"Ready, Boss," came through his earpiece.
"I need it now. Donna, I want you ready to hand it over to her, but don't do anything else. I don't need another member of my team stuck in there. Leah, cover her back."
"Copy."
He picked up the phone and dialled the store's number. He breathed a sigh of relief when the gun was taken from Jules' head and the bearer walked towards the phone on the counter.
"Well?"
"The food is ready. Someone is outside waiting for you."
"I'm sending the woman out to get it. Don't be in any doubt. This gun will be aimed straight at her head. Any bullshit and I pull the trigger. Understood?"
"Understood." The phone was hung up at the other end.
.
Artemis unlocked the door and gestured towards it with the barrel of the revolver.
"Take the food, come back in. Don't try anything." Jules nodded. The subject didn't know she was a cop, and she needed to keep it that way. She stepped out into the warm summer air, and a cool breeze brushed her skin. She didn't have long to enjoy it however, and she could feel the gun behind her, spurring her on towards the colleagues in front of her. Standing inside the barrier of police cars was Donna holding a box. She took another step. She struggled against the urge to run to the command truck that was parked just on the other side of the street, to get out while she had the chance. But Sean was still in there, and she would be of no use to him with a bullet in the back. With every step taking her closer to them, her love for her team grew stronger. She knew that every one of them was protecting her right now, that Ed would be there with a sniper rifle trained on the subject, and Greg would be on hand to negotiate Artemis into letting them all go home. She wanted to run. She wanted to be anywhere but in the firing line. Most of all, she wanted to be on the plane to Hawaii, with her boyfriend and a large bar of chocolate, with no worry except whether her luggage would get lost on the way.
.
She reached Donna, who smiled encouragingly at her. She forced her face into what felt more like a grimace and took the box. As she did, she felt something else pressed into her hand. She carefully refrained from looking at it, not wanting to draw the subject's attention to the object now hidden in her palm.
"How you holding up in there?" Donna asked.
"Yeah, we're doing okay. She seems willing enough to talk to me now. Hopefully I'll be able to get her to tell me what's really going on."
"Good. Spike's found out who she is. Her name is Kathy, she was abused by her husband for years before he got caught. We're looking up her flatmate now."
Jules nodded. Suddenly, she heard Artemis' voice shout from the shop doorway.
"Get back in here now!" With difficulty, she turned away from her teammates. As she did so, she stumbled and dropped the small box on the floor. Picking it up she headed back to the jewellers, comforted only by the feel of the earwig now nestled inside her boot.