Chapter 19
' Principal '—Part 2
" What's all this, Harper? I get a radio that a man's down and in need of assistance?" Creedy grinned at his friend.
" I ain't down yet, but I can use some assistance."
Creedy leaned in. " Are you flat broke already?"
The Fingermen broke into laughter led by Creedy as he sat next to Harper, pouring himself a drink.
" How'd you sneak away, Creedy? Almond let you off your leash?" Lout asked.
He's over at the coroner's home. Decided to pay her a visit. Probably buggering her." Creedy answered.
" Bloody bugger's loosing his mind over this terrorist shit." Lout said finishing his drink.
" Terrorist or not, if that bastard gives me another double shift, I'll stomp his fucking head!" Harper exclaimed.
Creedy lifted his drink. " Aye. This nonsense has put a serious strain on my drinking. I think I was actually sober today."
" I'll drink to that." Lout poured himself another whiskey.
" We need a real man of the people in the Chancellor's seat." Harper paused, " Somebody like Creedy here." He lifted his glass in salute.
Creedy grinned as everyone cheered. " Well, it's nice to know when the shit hits the fan who your real friends are."
-------------------------------------------------
Evey finished her brandy, laying a couple of pound notes on the table and prepared to leave. A man approached her through the crowd, a sloppy smile indicating he had been drinking.
" Can I buy you a drink?" Creedy asked.
" No thank you. I was looking for someone, but he's not here." Evey pulled the scarf further over her face, hoping Creedy would not recognize her from the photos. She smiled, then turned for the
door.
" I didn't like your looks anyhow. " Creedy said as his radio crackled.
" All units, all units. Code red. Coverage in Plaistow to apprehend Codename V."
" Bloody hell!" Creedy exclaimed. " It's him! We've got him!" He shouted to the Fingermen at the back. " Get your bloody arses moving!"
Evey watched as they stormed out of the bar, then followed.
------------------------------------------------
Finch's car skidded onto the sidewalk in front of Surridges's building, emergency lights blaring as he and Stone bolted from the car and barreled inside. At the top of the town house's staircase, they found Almond's body. Finch took a deep breath and headed for the bedroom. " Delia?" He asked softly, approaching her bed, but there was no answer. Reaching out to her, he touched the single Scarlet Carson rose lying on her lap.
" Chief?" Stone's voice broke the silence.
" Get an ambulance."
-----------------------------------
Evey rushed around the corner and found a crime scene bathed in siren light. Pushing up to the police barricade, she watched as the M.E.'s load a draped body into their van.
---------------------------------------
Raven spotted the girl from her advantage point high above. " Stupid little twit....what were you thinking?" Jazlyn huffed, watching the scene below. She couldn't grab Evey now, there was too much activity going on------she would have to wait for a better time.
-----------------------------------------
" Oh no.......V?" Evey tried to angle closer for a better look, when a man in a brown overcoat grabbed her from behind, dragging her into the alleyway.
-------------------------------------
Eric Finch sat in the corner of Delia's bedroom, watching as her body was wheeled out.
" I'm sorry, Chief." Stone said as he squeezed past the gurney to Finch.
Finch nodded slowly, staring at the bed.
" I found this on her bureau. It's Dr. Surridges's journal. It covers her time at Larkhill." Stone
handed the red leather-bound book to him. " It may fill in some of the blanks."
Finch took the journal and placed it in his jacket pocket, then walked out.
-----------------------------------------
Evey stirred slowly as voices drifted in the hallway outside the door of the cramped jail cell she was in.
" Wake up cow."
Opening her eyes, she saw the silhouetted shapes of three guards just outside the door. Still sluggish from the chloroform, Evey looked at the course orange slip over she now wore. One of the men, Rossiter, Creedy's right hand man, crossed the room toward her, a pair of shackles swinging from his hand. Grabbing Evey, he slammed her face down into the hard cot, driving a knee between her shoulders and she screamed.
" Christ. Is this piece of shit the famous Evey Hammond." Rossiter gloated.
The shackles bit down on Evey's wrists as they laughed from the hallway.
" You've made a mistake." Evey sobbed, " I haven't done anything...."
" Shut up!" Rossiter ordered as he slid a thick black hood over her head and dragged her from the room.
----------------------------------
Chief Inspector Eric Finch snapped Dr. Surridge's journal shut and tossed it onto Sutler's desk, puffing on his pipe as the Chancellor stared coldly. " That's the last entry until six months later when Dr. Surridge is back in New London. There is no mention of the man in room five again. End of story-----except that's not the end of the story."
" Are you suggesting, Mr. Finch, that this man, number five, is our terrorist?" Sutler asked, raising his head.
Finch rose, crossing over to the wastebasket. " Between 2009 and 2013, fifty-eight men and women who were previously stationed at Larkhill met with what we believed, at first, to be accidental deaths. Eventually, only three remained." Finch tapped his pipe in his hand, and emptied the contents into the wastebasket. " Those three----Prothero, Lilliman and Surridge, are now dead." Brushing the ashes from his hands, Finch began repacking his pipe. " Everyone who worked at Larkhill-----everyone who could have identified him. You see, there are two possible motives here. Not one."
Sutler watched him with interest.
" The first, " Finch began, " is revenge. He escapes from Larkhill and vows to get even with his tormentors. The whole exercise, an elaborate, chilling vendetta." Finished repacking his pipe, he replaced it back in his mouth. " That's the explanation I find most reassuring, funnily enough. It's over now." Finch explained as he relit his pipe. " The second one is more sinister. Like I said, everyone who could have identified him is dead, What if he just had been clearing the ground? What if he's planning something else."
" Enough!" Sutler pounded the desk. " Mr. Finch, would you please explain to me the nature of this meeting?! I was under the impression that you had new information on the terrorist!" Sutler hit the desk again, his collar choking his face to an unnatural crimson." I do not want to see you in this office again, Mr. Finch, unless you have new information for me. Do I make myself clear?"
" Yes, Chancellor."
" Dismissed. England prevails, Mr. Finch."
-----------------------------------------------
Jazlyn hurried back to the Shadow Gallery to find V. She had to let him know that she had been taken by Creedy's men. " V?" She called out. " V, are you here?" She paused a moment, but still there was no answer. " Damn!" She bolted back out the gallery doorway, heading to the lower labyrinth to change clothes.
The hood was pulled from Evey's head and she squinted hard, awash in a blinding light. Across from her sat a man, unmoving, his hands crossed atop a wooden desk. A guard stood by his side, both back lit by harsh white kilegs.
" Do you know why you are here, Evey Hammond?"
" No, please. I didn't do anything." Evey said, her eyes beginning to water.
" Allow me to be more specific. Did you participate in the murder of Dr. Delia Surridge?"
" No."
" Did you participate in the murder of Bishop Anthony Lilliman, Lewis Prothero, or Derek Almond, the director of the Finger?"
" Oh god, I don't-------" Evey sobbed.
" Have you ever participated in a terrorist act against your country?"
" No."
" What is the identity of codename V?"
" I don't know."
" You are a lying whore."
A monitor next to the desk lit up, and from the snowy static, an image began to appear. A girl is talking to a man, shoving her hips at him, propositioning him. When two more men appear from the alley, Evey realized she was watching herself.
" They were going to rape me, kill me----"
" Rossiter grabbed a handful of hair." Shut up!"
Evey swallowed hard when she saw V emerge on the screen. The image froze on his smiling face.
" This board will not tolerate any more of your lies, Miss Hammond. We have over 120 minutes of audio and video tape, along with 75 pages of testimonials from eyewitnesses that identify you as an accomplice to the terrorist, codename V."
The monitor blinked off.
" Do you want to know why you are here? You are formally being charged with fourteen counts of murder, sedition against your chancellor and country. All charges bring an automatic death sentence."
Evey sobbed softly, " Please....I didn't do anything."
" Process the prisoner and return her to her cell until she is more corporative."
Rossiter slid the hood over Evey's head.
Jazlyn waited patiently for V's return. She had left him a note to meet her in the faux gallery. If she would have had Shadow, she probably would have tried to rescue Evey, but she was no body's fool----she would not give up her life so easily.
" Good evening, Jazlyn." V's voice came from behind her. " I believe you said it was an emergency?"
" Yes, I have some bad news, V." Jazlyn began, " Evey has been taken by Creedy's men. They took her before I could get to her." She watched for a reaction, but V stood rigid, his wrists crossed at his waist. " Did you hear me?"
" Yes. " He answered, his voice showing no emotion.
" Shouldn't we rescue her?" Jazlyn pressed.
" No."
" No!?" she exclaimed.
" What is happening to Evey is necessary."
" Necessary?"
" Yes, she wants to be free of her fear. There is no other way." He answered as Jazlyn turned away. " Jazlyn....." He raised a hand toward her.
" V, " She faced him, " They will torture her, then most likely kill her, and you say it's necessary?"
" No harm will come to her. I give you my word." V's head lowered, as he walked toward the piano. He looked up, moving his hands gently across the polished top. " I was the one who took her."
" You what?" Jazlyn could not believe what she had just heard. " Took her where, V?"
" She is safe."
" You have to let her go." Jazlyn spoke softly, watching him. Had he gone over the edge once again?
" No."
" Why are you doing this?" She asked as he approached her.
" To free her."
Jazlyn was becoming more angry every second. " V, if you harm her...."
" You will do what, Jazlyn?" He sneered at her. " Kill me?"
Jazlyn felt a cold wave of fear cover her.
" I could break your neck with a flick of my wrist" He replied as she backed up.\
" What has happened to you? You're not the same man I left...."
V tilted his head, looking at her. " Nothing you would understand."
' Try me.' Jazlyn thought to herself as he disappeared through the gallery doorway and into the darkness. Wrapping her arms around herself, she walked around the main room. The monster was back-------something had made it resurface again. She would now have to tread very carefully, or she could find herself at the end of one of V's blades.
---------------------------------------------
Several weeks passed without V's presence and Jazlyn was beginning to worry more and more. There had also been no sign of Evey either. Raven had kept her word to V------ every night, she had been on the streets helping the people of New London, and would continue to do so. It still terrified her that V was holding Evey captive somewhere, doing god knew what to her. She had searched both levels of the gallery in hopes of finding her, but to no avail. All she could do was hope V would release her before it was to late.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Evey's solemn face reflected the light as it blared against her. A typed document sat on a small tray before her.
" My name is Evey Hammond. On the 19th of July, 2019. I was abducted by the terrorist know as codename V and then taken against my will to an unknown location." The investigator read Evey's confession as Rossiter stood behind her." Once there, I was systematically brainwashed by means of physical and psychological. I was frequently subjected to sexual abuse during this period."
Evey's stare burned into the interrogator's shadowed face, never blinking, never moving.
" Eventually, I was terrorized into helping him commit the murders of Derek Almond, Dr. Delia Surridge, Lewis Prothero and Anthony Lilliman, Bishop of Westminster."
Evey watched as Rossiter rolled a pen across the table toward her.
" I the undersigned, swear that the above statement is genuine and that it was not signed by
means of intimidation." The investigator paused momentarily, then continued." We'd like you to sign that for us, Miss Hammond. Where the little cross is."
Evey blinked. " No."
" As you wish. Escort Miss Hammond back to her cell, Rossiter, where she will wait until you arrange a wet detail of six men."
Rossiter unbuckled Evey's restraints and forced her to her feet.
" Then take her behind the chemical sheds and shoot her."
It was several hours later when the cell door opened behind Evey. Quickly, she rolled a piece of tissue paper up, and held it in her hand. It had been the last of a letter written by a woman named Valerie. The first part had been delivered two months ago, the other parts, were delivered about every two days to her, tucked inside a rat hole on the opposite wall. It was Valerie's letters that had kept her going------holding protectively onto that last inch she had spoken so strongly about.
" It's time, unless you want to change your mind." Rossiter spoke gently as he watched Evey hold the tattered piece of toilet paper to her chest. " Sign that statement. You could be out inside of three years." Rossiter stared at her, " Why are you protecting someone who doesn't give a shit about you?"
Evey closed her eyes, then opened them. An inner strength, shinning within. " Thank you, but I'd rather die behind the chemical sheds."
" Then there is nothing left to threaten you with, is there? You are free." Rossiter smiled slightly, then turned and walked away.