Minnie Chase Makes a Mistake Page 11

  All that noise, action, instruction and confusion combined to create a charged atmosphere. Minnie could sense that she was in real danger as it became all too apparent that she was considered a threat.

  She sprinted faster, harder, gasping for breath. Greene spotted her and was staring, mouth open slightly. There was a faint sign of surprise on the otherwise measured face.

  It went from bad to worse in a heartbeat.

  ‘PANIC ROOM!’ screamed someone. Four men raced towards Greene.

  Levchin was pushed to the ground, not for his own protection, but because he was standing in the way.

  Minnie told herself that you don’t slow down when you’ve come so far.

  The noise from the helicopter blades continued to batter Minnie’s ear drums and people dodged out of the way as gravel fired like shrapnel.

  The shouting increased to compete with the noise of the helicopter. Incredibly, Minnie managed to dodge an enormous man who had his feet planted apart and his arms stretched wide as though he could throw out a sticky web and snare Minnie mid-flight. She ducked and dodged around him. Greene was now surrounded by a circle of man power who were marching him away from Minnie but she thundered after them. She screamed at the top of her lungs. ‘Mr Greene, I just want to talk to you.’

  Still running, she hurled her contact details, a paper plane, in the direction of Greene. It soared over Dragonet heads in the helicopter’s wash.

  The human shield surrounding Greene was broken as one of the men stepped out of the protective circle.

  He turned to face Minnie straight on. His outstretched arm was holding a gun.

  Minnie’s brain didn’t register the severity of a lethal weapon pointing straight at her because she reasoned that no one in their right mind would shoot her.

  Then the man shot her.

  If you did that to me, I’d probably kill you, whispered Jackson’s words in her head, as the person pulled the trigger. At precisely this moment Minnie was sure she saw falling stars or flashes of coloured light from a broken rainbow.

  The noise seemed to pop and explode. There was nothing graceful about the end of the race; indeed, Minnie didn’t even get a chance to reach the finishing line. Arms outstretched, her fingers grasped at the air as the ground disappeared from beneath her. She felt herself falling until the blow to her shoulder tossed her into the air again. She became a powder-filled firework soaring, burning, crackling but there was no appreciation of beauty from the watchful eyes beneath. Heat coursed through her whole body and she felt as though she was burning fiercely until the sparks went out. Then, all too quickly, she crashed to the ground, blackened and lifeless.

  Finally, it was quiet at last.

  10

  Second chances

  Everything happened so quickly. Everything happened so slowly. Minnie’s world was a blur of motion, noise and pain. She felt the ground rush up and hit her. She screamed but it sounded far away, under water, just a gurgle in her throat. Much closer was the high-pitched crackle of the gun, sharp and distinct, ricocheting inside her ears. Her head collided abruptly with the immaculate grass and the last, lingering crackle was replaced by a dull thud that rolled around inside her head like approaching thunder. She felt a powerful blast ripping effortlessly through cotton, skin and muscle until the bullet smashed into her collar bone and across towards her shoulder. She twitched, she groaned. Her right arm was tingling and felt on fire.

  She was stunned and confused. Clouds quietly congregated above her. She looked around for the angels but could only see men in black.

  Then faces, pushing in front of the clouds, loomed over Minnie – alien spaceships in a holding pattern. It was a strange and unsettling perspective but Minnie hurt too much to move. She tried to croak out a few words but struggled to even catch a breath. She turned her head fractionally to the right. Unbelievably, there was no sign of any blood.

  One of the faces loomed even closer to get a better look, a mouth moved and said, ‘Subject is down. No more Taser intervention.’

  Minnie’s brain took a moment to process this information. She. Had. Been. Tasered?

  ‘There will be no lasting change in the subject,’ barked the voice. ‘She’ll be fine in a minute. Then arrest her.’

  He had barely finished speaking when, whoosh, Minnie was hauled roughly to her feet – a San Franciscan minute evidently passing more quickly than in the rest of the civilised world. Minnie wouldn’t have been surprised if an electrical current was still coursing through her body. The enormous Dragonet, who now jammed his hands under her armpits, didn’t appear to get a shock when he touched her so she was obviously no longer ‘live’. Perhaps his rubber-soled boots, life-saving in a lightning strike, worked to his advantage.

  Minnie could not believe that an electroshock weapon had been used on her, had struck her down. Admittedly, it was the lesser of two evils, particularly when the alternative could have been a gunshot wound. Still, she wasn’t exactly feeling thankful that she had been Tasered instead of shot.

  She started to shake. She didn’t feel as though she would be fine in a minute. Her muscles ached, and not just where she had been hit but throughout her body. It didn’t ease the feeling when her arms were savagely pulled behind her back. Then someone roughly handcuffed her.

  This can’t be happening, thought Minnie, panicked and dazed. She was frog-marched across the grass towards the helicopter. ‘Please, no!’ she managed to croak. But the deafening noise from the helicopter’s engine and rotor blades tossed her words around with the flying gravel. No one could hear her.

  The persistent whop-whop-whop-whop from the blades drowned out peripheral sound. People were shouting but Minnie couldn’t work out the words. Someone forced her head down so she wouldn’t be hit by blade tips as the helicopter dipped and danced into position on the grass. Minnie thought her situation couldn’t get much worse but she hadn’t factored decapitation into the realms of possibilities.

  She was half pushed, half hauled into the helicopter. Two armed Dragonets jumped in beside her.

  The second she tried to use her phone it was slapped out of her hand and pocketed. The men spoke to her in what sounded like grunts and hooked a safety belt around her. No one told her where she was going.

  After the flight checks were completed communications moved from grunts to words. Minnie’s mouth gaped when she was told that she was under arrest to which Minnie responded, ‘You are joking, right?’

  Her voice was starting to sound normal too, not as scorched and croaky.

  Then one of the Dragonets read out her Miranda Rights.

  ‘You can’t arrest me,’ said Minnie, flabbergasted. ‘Security teams don’t have the power to arrest people.’

  It was the pilot who answered this time. ‘Mr Greene can do whatever he wants,’ he said without turning to look at her.

  At this point, Minnie was more scared than she had ever been in her entire life. Problem-solvers love a challenge but even Minnie knew it would be near impossible to work this one out.

  She managed a last backward glance before the helicopter took off. Greene had halted the procession to the panic room and was watching all the action with cool, reserved disdain. Levchin, on the other hand, judging by the expression on his face, was lapping up the most excitement he had seen in years.

  Then Minnie was whisked up into San Francisco airspace knowing it wasn’t going to be the tour of the city she had hoped for.

  No one waved her off.

  The helicopter’s continuous roar began to hurt Minnie’s ear drums but she was starting to feel more alert now after the shock of however many thousand volts. She silently observed the helicopter’s flight path as it followed the highway away from the city before veering abruptly right towards a landscape of rough terrain. Minnie had a clear view of the various dials in the cockpit. By the time the helicopter’s nose started to dip towards its destination Minnie had quickly worked out that the same journey from San Francisco by road would take aro
und three hours and 48 minutes, depending on traffic. She was still in California but now further away than ever from Greene. Meanwhile, the enormous Dragonets sat like road blocks on either side of her. She was going nowhere until they told her so.

  As the helicopter landed, Minnie craned her neck to get a better view. It was immediately clear that this was no walking tour of Alcatraz. However, the no-frills building that sprawled like an enormous rock on the dusty earth beneath her did have a more maximum-security penitentiary look about it than a first-class spa retreat. Minnie didn’t like the look of it at all.

  ‘Excuse me,’ Minnie shouted above the thunderous roar of the engine, ‘where are we?’

  The Dragonets looked straight ahead. No one answered her.

  Minnie lightly tapped a knee belonging to one of them. Her hand was roughly shoved back onto her lap, a slight twist bent her fingers back just to get the message across – no contact. She squeaked and rubbed her wrist.

  The pilot eventually offered up some information. ‘Monitor Pass. Prepare for landing.’

  ‘Is this… a… a jail?’ cried Minnie, stupefied. Horrified.

  No one spoke.

  Minnie was bundled out of the helicopter and hurried across into the bleak building where everything got very legal very quickly. Greene had apparently already filed a list of complaints. These were read out to Minnie as someone busied themselves with paperwork. The officer’s voice was an unemotional monotone. He began with kidnapping charges citing Dr Levchin as the victim. Then followed criminal harassment, detailing how Minnie had terrorised the victim – Greene this time, not Levchin. Stalking was mentioned although Minnie wasn’t sure, at this point, if this was a separate charge or not. Disturbing the peace and threatening to fight in public was included on the list. Greene, apparently, also intended to sue Minnie under defamation law, which highlighted loss of work as a result of the Parkinson’s slur she had made against him. Finally, there was a possibility that a restraining order would be brought against Minnie instructing her to stay away from Greene’s home and place of work.

  Minnie unwittingly reserved her right to remain silent. She was so stunned at the accusations that she couldn’t think of a thing to say.

  Once all the paperwork was processed Minnie was in no doubt at all why she was here. More iron hands led her to a holding cell with a bare concrete floor. The cell contained nothing except steel benches and a group of other wearisome women who looked in need of a good night’s sleep. They were downbeat and miserable. The temperature was freezing, which didn’t improve anyone’s mood.

  Minnie quickly backed herself into a corner and then read the list of bail bondsmen on the wall to avoid making eye contact with anyone. She was petrified, convinced she wasn’t going to survive in here. Silence wasn’t going to save her. There was a roar rising in her throat and she inhaled deeply to make this shout reach ears at the front of the building. ‘LET ME OUT,’ she screamed. ‘THERE’S BEEN A MISTAKE!’

  It was an impressive roar but not everyone appreciated the noise.

  A sharp voice from within the cell shouted, ‘I’ll shut you up girl if ya don’t quit hollerin’. Someone else added, ‘Who the hell d’ya think’s listenin’ t’ya anyway?’

  Minnie was growing more desperate by the second. ‘Please! Help me!’

  Someone else made an angry sound and the atmosphere inside the cage changed. There were sudden, agitated movements as people picked themselves up off the floor and began to pace around, practically pawing at the floor. Minnie finally, fearfully, looked around. She didn’t see compassion or sympathy on the faces of her inmates, just snarled-up expressions and unrest. Minnie felt threatened and trapped. Obviously, she wasn’t the only one who wanted out. A couple of the women were heavily restrained, handcuffed and manacled, chains rattling as they moved. She felt genuine menace from them.

  One of them started to approach Minnie in stealth mode, slightly hunched and low to the ground as though she was prepared to strike. She was a large thick-set woman who moved surprisingly lightly on her feet despite the chains. She had several smudged tattoos and talon fingernails. She stared at Minnie with a feral light in her eyes. Minnie pressed her back against the bars and waited for a clawed paw to slash her across the face.

  Then another woman intervened, positioning herself between Minnie and the big cat-like woman. She said to Minnie, ‘Shoutin’ won’t get ya outta this place honey, d’ya hear what I’m sayin’?’

  Minnie nodded violently. She got the message. But she also got someone’s attention.

  A prison guard sauntered over and looked at Minnie. He screwed up his face as though he’d discovered a large fungus growing on the floor of his jail.

  ‘Sir, I would like to go home now,’ she asked as politely as possible, keeping her voice low and level so as not to incur the wrath of her caged companions. ‘Please.’

  This time there was an eruption of laughter. Even the angry cat woman seemed to find Minnie amusing. The guard smiled and walked off shaking his head.

  Well, that’s one way to break the ice, Angie would have said.

  The laughter gave Minnie new-found confidence. ‘Please, listen to me!’

  The guard turned back and he wasn’t smiling any more.

  He said, ‘No, lady, YOU need to listen to ME. You have been accused of a crime. You’re not a minor. We don’t need permission to detain you.’

  ‘It was a misunderstanding. Please… I…’

  He flicked his eyes upwards in exasperation. ‘You didn’t do it. It wasn’t your fault. It won’t happen again. Yawn.’

  ‘Mr Greene knows I wasn’t going to hurt him.’

  ‘We’ll soon find out, won’t we? In a couple of days you’ll be able to leave on bond or dismissal of charges. Or your case will end in conviction.’

  Minnie looked horrified. ‘What am I supposed to do until then?’

  ‘Well, you could think about why you are here and what you did wrong. There’s nothing else to do but think. Think until your brain makes smoke. Why are flamingoes pink? What’s the cure for world hunger? How can I be a better person? Think until you run out of question marks.’

  Time to think? Minnie would prefer not to. She sank to the floor, too tired and traumatised to stand for another minute. She had never considered what she would look like in an orange boiler suit. She pictured the horrible scenario in her head if she should be imprisoned in the States, left to rot under a Californian sun when it became apparent that Britain didn’t want her back. James George obviously didn’t. No one did.

  Minnie, always the quick learner, filed away a new fact: it was not wise to get arrested on a Friday because nothing happens over the weekend. Lawyers and judges have other places to be.

  So here she was, incarcerated with lots of women, many of them repeat offenders, who were now united in crime and trapped in the same cage as Minnie. Everyone seemed to know how the system worked except her. She had to give Greene credit – he had found an effective way to keep her away from him while he worked out his next move.

  Minnie found it a challenge to keep track of time because one minute behind bars passed like an hour. It didn’t help that there was no natural light from outside, just harsh strip lighting that illuminated every lost hope and broken dream etched on the women’s faces. It was a dumping ground of missed opportunities and major mistakes. Second chances had come and gone.

  There was a strong smell of old clothes and alcohol. Some women remained slumped in a drunken stupor. Minnie found it impossible to get comfortable. Her shoulder and arm still hurt. She was also parched. She had tried to rectify this but the guard simply barked that he wasn’t a barman when Minnie asked for a cup of water.

  Every so often, conversation would bubble up among the women. Minnie looked over the talking heads and all she could see were grey brick-exposed walls.

  Then there was some action. Some of the women including Minnie were moved into a bigger room with windows. There were a few tables with decks
of cards strewn on the top. It was a step up from the cage.

  The doors had long narrow windows without glass. No room to escape though.

  Minnie started walking round the room to stretch her legs and get the blood flowing. The cold had set into her bones. She hadn’t got very far when the guard shouted at her. ‘You need to stay OFF the grey area.’ His face was pressed up to one of the spaces in the door. He rattled a baton against the metal. Minnie skidded to a halt.

  ‘BACK UP!’ he shouted again.

  ‘You need to move off the grey line,’ explained one of the women, pulling Minnie into the middle of the room.

  Minnie looked down at her feet. The brown-flecked flooring had thick grey tiling around the perimeter of the room; a marked path. Walking too close to the walls or doors, apparently, was not allowed.

  ‘You wanna end up back in a lock-down cell?’ shouted the guard.

  Minnie shook her head, eyes cast down. She seemed to be in a perpetual state of apology since the night of The Savoy.

  ‘Whatcha do wrong, Sugar?’ asked the woman who had pulled her to safety.

  ‘I made a mistake.’ Minnie’s chin fell onto her chest.

  ‘Who hasn’t?’

  ‘This was a terrible mistake.’

  The woman shrugged. ‘They’re the ones you learn from best, babe.’

  Minnie turned and said to this stranger in despair, ‘I need to get out of here. Really, I do.’

  ‘Be patient. God has a plan for you.’

  Now Minnie was really worried. Her fate was in the hands of someone who was even more elusive than Greene.

  The woman reached out and gently put a hand on Minnie’s arm. ‘Did someone hurt you?’

  Minnie immediately thought about James George but volunteered a more recent incident instead.

  ‘I was Tasered,’ she explained, touching her shoulder.

  The woman’s eyes widened. ‘No medical episode as a result?’