Premier Deception (22 page)

The screen shot into
life and there in the mad internet world was a man looking out at
them. Elliott was holding the gun to her back so that he
couldn
’
t be seen on the screen and turned
lovingly towards her.

The man looked at
them both smiling and started the proceedings. Charlotte
couldn
’
t believe this was happening.
Couldn
’
t he see her distress? Her face
was smeared in red lipstick and there were tears running down her
cheeks. Her hands were bound and she was sure that she looked less
like a bride than anyone had ever looked. Desperately she looked at
the man her eyes pleading with him to help her. Elliott was looking
very pleased with himself and had a mad grin on his face. The man
asked her to repeat the vows after him. No she would never do this,
she would rather he shot her.

She turned to him and
said,
“
Elliott, I am sorry but I cannot
marry you. I love another.
”
Her words had
a huge effect on him. His eyes narrowed and he looked as though he
had been punched. He turned to the Internet Man and said in a
smooth voice,
“
Please can you give us a
minute,
”
and he flicked the screen so
that the man disappeared. Suddenly he struck her a resounding blow
across the face and shouted,
“
Whore, who
is he? I will kill him! Nobody takes what
’
s mine. If it
‘
s that Luke I
won
‘
t just stop at his tyres this
time.
”
Charlotte was in even more shock
than she was before. He was stark raving mad. Tears ran down her
face. He looked at her and his face changed again.
“
My darling you were very brave to tell me. This
is why we need to be married now; I need to save you from the
wickedness out there. With me you will be safe from harm and I will
kill anyone who gets in our way. Tell me who it is and I will deal
with them. You and I will be together and your innocence will be
protected.
”
He stepped forward and she
flinched. He reached out and stroked her hair.

“I may need to
reprimand you sometimes for your own good. But I love you Beauty
and I know that you love me. The Devil has got into your head but
our marriage will cleanse your soul.
”

He flicked the switch again and Internet Man was back
looking thoroughly confused.

He asked if we were
sure that we wanted to continue and Elliott looked happily at her
and said,
“
Just pre-wedding nerves, all
is fine now.
”
Charlotte looked at the
screen, willing the man to call the Police or just cut the
connection, anything to stop this debacle. The Man
continued.
“
Repeat after me.
”
“
No!
”
she
shouted.
“
I will not, this is
madness.
”
Elliott once again flicked the
switch and grabbing her hair he pulled her head back in a
rage.
“
You will marry me or else I will
treat you as the whore you are,
”
he
hissed, pulling at the front of her dress. What happened next
seemed to Charlotte as if it all happened in slow motion.They heard
a loud voice shout,
“
Police drop your
weapon!
”
Elliott
’
s head shot up in bewilderment and Charlotte seized her
moment and pulled away from his grasp. The next thing she knew the
door was flying open and a Police Officer in full body armour
appeared in the doorway shouting,
“
Armed
Police drop your weapon!
”
She saw Elliott
writhing in agony on the floor as the electrical charge of a Taser
hit him. His gun fell to the floor and several more police officers
rushed in and kicked it out of the way, whilst another bundled her
out of the room. She was pulled outside and there in front of her
rushing towards her worry etched all over his face was
Max.

She fell into his
arms tears pouring down her face.
“
Quick
where are the paramedics?
”
she heard him
cry as she crumpled to the floor.

The journey to the hospital was a blur.
She was taken in an Ambulance to the nearest hospital. She wouldn’t
let go of Max for the paramedics to check her over and they said
that she was in shock. He held onto her tightly all the way,
comforting her and saying over and over again that she was safe now
and he would never let her go.

Once inside the hospital she was taken
to a cubicle in A&E and a lady doctor gave her an injection to
calm her down and help with the shock.

The shock had given way to tears and she
couldn’t control them as they fell down her cheeks. She still held
onto Max’s hand tightly not letting go for an instance. The nurse
brought her some water to drink and said that when she was feeling
ready they would check her over. She started to calm down feeling
safe in the hospital with Max by her side. Looking at him she was
shocked to see how pale he was. Worry had transformed his usually
relaxed features and she suddenly felt sorry for him. “Thank you
Max.” she said softly squeezing his hand. He looked at her gently
and said, “thank you for what? I obviously didn’t do a good enough
job in protecting you in the first place; otherwise you would never
have been in that situation.” She was shocked, how on earth could
he be blaming himself for the actions of a mad man.

“It wasn’t your fault Max you didn’t
know, and I was on a day off - remember.” She said desperate to
alleviate his guilt. She hated seeing him in such obvious
distress.

Before he could speak further her mother
and father burst in through the curtains.

“Charlotte! Oh my God what has happened
to you?” shouted her mother, obviously deeply distressed. Her
father looked at her with tears in his eyes and was trying hard to
keep it together she could tell. Max looked at them all and made as
if to go saying, “I will give you your privacy and wait outside.”
Charlotte wouldn’t let go of his hand and said, “please stay Max,
It would make me feel so much better if you did.”

“Of course I will, if that is ok with
your parents?” he said unsure of himself. Her parents nodded and
her mother came and hugged her tightly, tears coursing down her
face. “We didn’t know what was going on when the police called to
tell us, something about a mad stalker kidnapper. Who is he and
more importantly where is he now?” her mother said worriedly. Max
said, “In police custody I am sure. I don’t think you need to worry
about seeing him again,” he said bitterly.

Just then her mother screamed. “What are
you wearing! Is that a - wedding dress?!”

Charlotte had forgotten her attire and
looked down at the huge frilly dirty dress, now covered in red
lipstick and tears. “I will explain it all at home,” she said with
a shiver. “Right now I just want to get out of this monstrosity and
into a nice hot bath to try and get cleaned up.” Max said, “I have
arranged a car to pick you up when you are ready, if you want I
will also bring you some clean clothes?”

“Don’t worry said her mother, I bought
some new clothes today when in town, Mick go and get them from the
car, Charlotte can wear those.”

Her father hurried away and Charlotte’s
mum sat on her bed shaking her head. “When I think of the danger
you were in, I-” Charlotte stopped her.

“Don’t think about it mum, I just want
to forget about it for now and go home.”

The curtains parted again and the doctor
came in. “Charlotte, we have checked you over and there appears to
be no physical damage except for a few bruises on your face and
wrists. I can prescribe some pain killers but would advise plenty
of rest and lots of fluids. You are free to go when the
prescription is ready. The police officers are outside and wondered
if they may have a minute?” she said, looking at Charlotte
steadily.

“Of course please send them in, oh and
thank you doctor,” she said with a small smile.

The doctor held the curtain open and two
police officers entered the now very crowded cubicle. “Miss Dawson,
PC Monroe and WPC Bartholemew, we are sorry to impose but wondered
if you were up to answering a few questions?”

Charlotte nodded just wanting to get it
all over with so that she could go home.

They all listened whilst she related her
version of events. Both Max and her mother were pale by the end of
it and she felt Max squeezing her hand tighter and tighter as she
went on. Her mother was in tears at the end just as her dad
appeared with the bag of new clothes. The police officers thanked
her and said that they would be in touch. They also asked that she
leave them the dress for forensic examination which she was glad to
do, it was not as if she ever wanted to set eyes on it again.

Max and her father went out with the
officers whilst her mother helped her to get changed. Her mother
took the dress out to the officers and came back to hand Charlotte
a leather skirt and a large pink fluffy jumper with - Shopaholic-
emblazoned on the front in black sequins. Charlotte raised her
eyebrows and said. “Really mum, leather and sequins?” “Just blame
my mid life crisis dear and be grateful that it’s not the silky
underwear that I was contemplating instead.”

As her father and Max came back in she
had to stifle a giggle at their expressions on seeing what she was
wearing. Oh it felt good to be able to laugh she thought.

The police officers said that they would
be around the next day to see her and the four of them left the
hospital. “Are you coming with us?” said her mother to Charlotte,
noticing that she still had her hand firmly implanted in Max’s.
“It’s just that we have the car here if Max needs to get off.”
Charlotte suddenly felt alarmed; of course he was probably feeling
really uncomfortable. She hadn’t let go of him at all and he was
too much of a gentleman to say anything. Looking at him he must
have seen the uncertainty in her face because his face softened and
he said. “I am happy to take you home Charlotte. The car is just
here and we could meet your parents there. I promise no harm will
come to you on the way.” Charlotte smiled and turned to her
parents.

“I think that I would rather go with Max
if that’s ok with you. I am sure that he would like to join us for
something to eat as it looks like he has had as bad a day as I
have.”

Her parents nodded and headed off to
retrieve their car. Charlotte noticed that it was the same car and
driver that had taken her to the house in Kensington and wondered
if he was related to Max.

Max climbed in beside her and gently
fastened her seat belt. The car started and he held her hand gently
and said. “If anything had happened to you Charlotte I would never
forgive myself.” She looked at him and said, “you must stop blaming
yourself, but now I’m thinking straight how did you find me?” Max
sighed and settled back into the seat. “I had a call from Allison
yesterday asking me to help her with the notes that you had
received.” He looked at her as though he wanted to say something
about them but then checked himself. “I went to the Stadium and
thought that the best place to start would be by viewing the CCTV
of the days that the flowers were delivered. It took some time to
go through them but all I saw was the florist delivering the larger
bouquets and no others.” He stopped to check that she was ok before
continuing.

“I then thought that it must be someone
from inside the club so I decided to try and check out the
handwriting. As you can imagine this was a big task and I spent
many hours in the Human Resources office looking at Job Application
forms and the like.”

Charlotte was intrigued. She hadn’t
known any of this and felt bad that she hadn’t confided in him
earlier.

“I finally had it narrowed down to four
possible suspects. I checked the duties and noticed that
realistically it could only have been Elliott the security guard
which also made sense. He was off work at the time so I planned to
go in this morning and confront him.”

By now they had almost reached her home
but she was too engrossed for him to stop now so she told him to
carry on. “Well this morning I went in early and was told that he
had rung in sick, so I got his address and went to his flat. His
neighbour said that she hadn’t seen him for three days but thought
that he was on holiday. I knew that this wasn’t the case so I asked
if she had a key to his flat because I was worried that he had
harmed himself. This seemed to do the trick and she said that she
always had a spare because he kept on locking himself out. She let
me in and waited whilst I checked the flat. There was nobody there
but I did see something that sent chills through me.”

“What?” she said alarmed.

In his bedroom there was a wall of
photos, all of you taken at various times. There were also some of
him that he had cut up to stick next to you as though you were a
couple. There was also a calendar and he had marked today’s date
with -Wedding Day.” She sat thoughtfully realising that the whole
event had been obviously planned down to the last detail. Max
continued. “I raced off to the Police Station after I tried calling
you unsuccessfully. There was no answer at your home or on your
mobile. I got there and they told me that some lads had reported
that an armed bodyguard had threatened them in the park who was
guarding you and they had alerted the firearms team. They went to
check the CCTV for the park area but the car was lost somewhere
between cameras. I knew that you weren’t at the flat because the
police had radioed to say that the flat was still empty. You were
totally lost and we didn’t know which way to turn.” Charlotte heard
his voice shaking and realised the trauma that he had also been
through. “So how did you find me?” she said quietly.