Terror in the Night

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

At Faye’s first scream, Abby wanted to scream along with her friend. She was already crying but she knew what she had to do. She transferred the link from the computer to her phone and ran out of the club, listening to the whole convocation between Faye and Charlotte.

She parked behind the building; the only space left anywhere near the building, and started running towards the crowds and the police. She cut across the front of the building steps to get to the police faster, but forgot about the masked men patrolling the building and almost got shot as she ran by.

“Are you crazy woman,” one of the police shouted and ran out to meet her with a riot control shield to cover their heads. “What the hell were you doing at the back of the building?” he shouted as the bullets bounced off the reinforced plastic.

“Where can I find Detective Chaplin?” she asked once they were safely out of reach and back at the police line.

“Try the damn van, we’ve got the video footage from inside the building but we can’t see anything. What the hell were you doing out there; you could have gotten yourself killed.”

She didn’t answer him, he only had to look at her face to realise that she was troubled, so she pushed away from him and through the crowd towards the police van.

The van was packed, the computer technicians were yelling at the police behind them who were yelling at them to get the computers working. For a moment Abby felt proud that the police were having problems with her handy work. “Detective Chaplin,” she shouted but her voice was drowned out with the other voices in the van. “Detective Chaplin,” she shouted again and again no-one heard her.

She checked her phone nervously and heard that Faye and Charlotte were still talking and while they were talking Abby had time to do something. She thought about going in the crowded van and grabbed the detective but even if she tried to step into the crowded van she would be pushed straight back out.

Making up her mind, she took her tablet out of her bag sat by the corner of the van behind the open door where she would have direct access to the computers. Taking a few wires out of her bag and attached them from her tablet to the cables, she hoped they would at least affect something in the van to get the police’s attention. She blacked out the screen and in big bold writing she wrote: DETECTIVE CHAPLIN, OUTSIDE NOW AND STOP ARGUING.

The techs and the police were baffled but quickly the message disappeared and the video was replaced again. “Where did that come from?” one of the police muttered and while the techs were trying to figure out the mysterious message and what was wrong with the camera, no-one noticed Detective Chaplin slip out.

He was surprised to see Abby clutching a computer table and a phone in one hand and was putting away a load of wires with the other. “That was very stupid,” he snapped, “We could have spotted something really important in those seconds you blacked us out.”

“No you wouldn’t,” she muttered and wiped her nose with the back of her hand, “The cameras are on a loop. The image hasn’t changed or flickered and the time stamp hasn’t changed.”

Colin sighed and put his hands on his hips. “Okay, you got me out here, what are you doing here?” he asked but thought of something else he should ask, “You didn’t bring Faye with you did you?”

“You need to send men in now, you need to storm the place now because I don’t think she can last any longer,” she sobbed as a fresh wave of tears flowed down her cheeks.

“What’s going on Abby?” Colin asked, now all concerned with Abby unable to keep it together, “Who’s not going to last much longer?” he had a horrible thought that she was talking about Faye had hurt herself or something.