The Pleasure of Your Company (Chapter 2)
Dinner went well, considering. It consisted of movie talk and Eddie giving repeat order for iced drinks because Jamie felt his lips were falling off his face every time he put something in his mouth. He had tears streaming down his face and Eddie teased him for 'crying like a baby'.
"So what do you think? Do you think I got what it takes to be a good cop?" Eddie had asked.
"Yeah. You do."
"Honestly, Reagan?"
"Yes. Officer Eddie Janko, you've got what it takes."
"But…?" Eddie trailed off a question, getting the feeling that his sentence was not exactly over.
"You just got to be careful OK? Being a good cop doesn't make you invincible. You could get hurt like everybody else."
"Don't you worry, Reagan," she said, crinkling her nose like when she was trying to assure him of impossible things.
"I always got a spare firearm taped under the furniture in my apartment," Eddie said as she stabbed a spicy squid with a fork and held it close to her lips.
"Amen to that," Jamie raised his glass of unknown juice. To the squid and the spare firearm.
The drive home was comfortable. He asked about her father and what went down between them but she said she isn't ready to talk about it just yet. He wanted to kiss her but he couldn't because he wanted to keep her. And a hug would have felt like a huge goodbye, like he was sending her off somewhere. Instinctively, he guessed, Eddie had initiated the fist-pump and it felt right.
"Pick you up at 7," he said.
"Bright and early."
Eddie walked to her building. Jamie started the engine and she gave a parting look. A look of regret, he wanted to believe, but who would know? Jamie had driven off a block when he noticed that her phone was on the seat. It must have slid off her lap when she put it there after she texted a relative. She must have not felt it slip from her lap.
Jamie turned the car around. He reached her place and stopped the car. He took her phone and ran up the stairs. The corridor to her apartment was quiet. Jamie came to Eddie's door and knocked. There was no answer.
How long had it been? She must have not tucked in already. She had to take off her make up at least, Jamie had thought.
"Hey Eddie. You left your phone in the car," Jamie said to the door. His ears were close enough to the wooden construct that he caught a muffled cry of a woman yelling 'no' and a man's voice. His police instinct kicked in and he dialled his detective brother, Danny Reagan.
"Hey kid," was the voice at the other end of the line.
"I'm at Officer Janko's apartment. I'm off duty. There are intruders inside. I need back up."
"Wait till back up arrives, OK?" Danny said.
"Yeah," Jamie answered. But of course he wouldn't. He didn't know how much time he had with Eddie in this. Jamie didn't disconnect the call but left the phone on. He knew Danny was cursing profusely at the other end. Jamie pulled out his service weapon and rammed into the door with all his strength. It was not dead bolted, just latched. The door chain snapped into two. Expecting the force he exerted to cause him to crash on the floor, Jamie expertly folded his body like he was a ball and was able to land on one knee with his Glock trained on whoever was in front of him.
It was Eddie with a knife to her throat. Her fingers were clawing at the arms of the man who held the knife.
"You might want to drop your gun," the man said excitedly.
Jamie knew at the instance what he was up against. It was the perp who assaulted Eddie last year. He remembered everything about Jake Singer. He knew the scum bag wasn't a low class criminal. This guy had means and he had the intention to hurt. Jamie put his service weapon to the floor.
"Don't hurt her," he said.
The instant he let go of his gun, he was tackled by two men who promptly duct taped his hands to his back. He tried tensing up his body so he could get precious life-saving millimetres to loosen himself from, so he could squirm his way out of the bindings, but the men were seasoned goons. One of them rammed his large fist into his stomach, sending him doubling over in pain. He coughed as air was knocked out of his body, his muscles weakening and limp, so his plan to squirm his way out of his binding was put to a halt. On the bright side, he almost had nothing during the extreme Thai fest so he only had bile rising up to his throat. And if he were alone he would have wretched violently in pain but he didn't want to give the guy the satisfaction.
"Jamie, I'm sorry," Eddie said, tears in her eyes.
"It's OK, Eddie. They won't get away with this," he assured her.
But the fact was, nothing was OK. Jamie couldn't do anything else but to wait for Danny. How long would it take for Danny or a patrol to get here? Five minutes? What if Eddie didn't have five minutes? What if it only takes five minutes to change a person's life from being just OK to a living hell? He's got to have that five minutes.
"How the hell did you get off?"
"Glad you asked. An assault charge, made by the victim who is a police officer, goaded by her partner three days after the said assault and the arrest was made by the victim herself with her partner. Sounds fishy already. So I got roughened up a bit but you know that the charge won't stick for long. So, here I am. And now it is time for me finish what I started."
Jamie was already completely tied up to a kitchen chair.
"You resist one bit and your partner gets the knife," the maniac warned Eddie before he slid the knife on the floor to one of the men.
"Let her go. Take me. Do what you want. Just let her go,"Jamie said. It was logical. Worse came to worst, Singer was going to kill him. But to Eddie, Singer would beat her up, violate her and then kill her. He had to choose the lesser between two evils, in the most bleak of future.
"No, I can't do that. I'm sorry," the perp said in a sing song voice.
"Eddie, you've got to fight!" Jamie yelled to his partner. He only saw fear in her eyes.
"Shut up," Singer said and pulled Eddie by her hair and pushed her towards the single sofa. The force was strong enough that the furniture turned over. Eddie was curled up on the floor. Singer strode towards her.
"You do know that I like it rough."
Singer pulled Eddie up to her knees. Then, he half pushed, half threw Eddie to the coffee table which was made of hardwood. The furniture turned over with Eddie sprawled on it. The din made by such violence was horrendous.
Jamie knew he was helpless. The only thing that could help them was Eddie putting up a fight no matter what the consequence. Eddie writhed in pain as she struggled with the effect of her terrific crash landing on the coffee table.
"Fight, Eddie!" Jamie yelled.
"Shut up already! You're killing the mood," Singer yelled angrily. He took the knife from the goon's hand and stood over Jamie.
As if Singer was annoyed, without preamble he thrust the blade into the centre of Jamie's torso, kept it there for a second and pulled it out. He didn't even use extra force. A knife was always sharp enough to slip into skin and flesh and muscles like a blunt butter knife into soft margarine. Jamie didn't feel it enter even though he saw it. But when Singer pulled it out, he felt as if someone had cut him in half. Jamie breathed sharply and clenched his jaws shut. He didn't want to let Singer see that he had surrender to fate or even pain.
When the knife was finally out, Jamie could see that the knife was five inches long. His vision began to spin. He had felt pain before but nothing could describe this one. The kind of pain made anyone wish for a quick death. Instinctively, he wanted to staunch his wound with his bare hands and curl up like a hurting child but his hands were tied behind his back and he was tied to a chair. His muscles tensed up as adrenaline surged in his veins. Soon, it would run out and there would be nothing left. The urge to double over was cruelly hindered by his bindings. Jamie just bent at his neck, coughing out bile as he felt pain he had never felt before.
This would be a good time for Danny or anyone to come save the day and Eddie, he thought. But deep in his gut, Jamie knew that he was done for. Everything felt cold but the heat from his own blood flowing down his torso.
"Fight, Eddie," Jamie gasped.
To be continued…