Adeline

Chapter 9 - Games

The police stayed at the house for much of the rest of the night and they didn't go home until early morning. Partly because their team needed a place to stay whilst groups of them went out into the woods with their hounds looking for Adeline, and also partly because they wanted to make sure that Arthur and Celeste were okay. Lots of them knew who Arthur was as a result of his high ranking profession in law and justice, and each of them apologized profusely in turn for not getting to them sooner. One policeman, his name, sergeant Hendricks was actually at the prison on the escape of Adeline, and he had seen her drive away with Arthur in her evil clutches. He said that he was the one who lead the search party and when he found out who the kidnapped was, he accelerated the search, putting double the men to work on it.

He had told Arthur that they searched all night and all they could find was the car with a pile of clothes next to it, by the canal. They had never assumed that Adeline had gone into the storm drain and when Arthur told him so, Hendricks slapped his head and exclaimed profanities. He said that made sense and didn't know why nobody could work it out. He claimed that the force searched London all that night and by the morning the next tactic was to find the relatives of Adeline and check their houses, assuming that she might be hiding with one of them. He said that 9 times out of 10, that is where escaped convicts go after their escape, which he followed up by saying, proudly, that convicts hadn't been escaping much since he was put in charge at Scotland Yard. He said that the first place they checked the Saturday was the house of Georgia Stockwell, as she was the sister of Adeline. Then they checked the house of David Dainford-Brown and yet no luck there. It was there that they learned from David that he had a brother, and that David had given the police Victor's address, which was when they sent 2 policemen over there. Hendricks said that when those policemen didn't report back, he went over there himself and found them both unconscious and Victor sitting in his living room, reading a newspaper. When the policemen came to, they said that Arthur had attacked them when they were about to arrest Adeline. Victor filled in the story by saying that Adeline had threatened Arthur and himself at gunpoint to protect her and do what she said. Hendricks said that he knew Adeline very well and it seemed like something she would do, and that it fit in with Arthur's side of the story. He said that after a whole 24 hours of silence of evidence, with no sign of improvement, Arthur was identified by the policemen and his apartment was visited. When it was found empty, the police travelled to Celeste's house, knowing that would be the next place that Adeline would force Arthur to take her to keep her from facing her charges. And that was when they found them.

The sergeant told both Arthur and Celeste that they had been the victim of attack by a psychopathic mad woman and for all they were made to do in the last two days, they needn't worry about any penalties that they might face. The policeman told them both that they were the victims and what they needed now was a week off work, a nice, relaxing day off and lots of sleep. He told them that Adeline would be brought to justice and stayed with the both of them all night. Celeste was very hospitable, supplying the policemen who carried them through with cups of tea and pink cakes throughout the night, and the policemen were very grateful. They stayed at the house to make sure that Adeline didn't come back out of the woods thinking that the coast was clear. By 6 am, Hendricks retracted his forces from the woods, the police coming in through the house and back out the front door. He apologised greatly for not having found Adeline in the woods and informed the two that they would be searching those woods and the surrounding country side in the next few days – or at least until they found Adeline. He said that his police had been awake with this case all weekend and none of them had been able to go home and see their families, and they were all very tired, so they wouldn't be back for a few hours. He told Arthur that it was understandable that he should want a rest from what he had been through, but he said that the next time he was in London, he should go to Scotland Yard and fill out a witness report the next chance he got. The policeman didn't seem to bothered about it, though, saying that he didn't need to do it immediately. He said that everyone was rather exhausted from this ordeal but he was just glad that Arthur was okay and that it was no longer a hostage situation.