Jeannette and I stood frozen to the spot. Neither of us had seen the lunchtime – or evening – news, though we had had a radio on which was tuned to a local station. The prisoner was still on the run and police were yet to get a lead on his whereabouts. But there was something familiar about this guy, I was sure I had seen him before. Although in this job, we got to see quite a few people.
As he moved from the shadows, I noticed he had a slight drag to his right leg. My main concentration however was that shotgun and the direction in which it was pointed. As the thought left my head about his gait, another appeared in its place. I did not know whether this was the escaped prisoner, though I doubted it, after all wouldn’t he have been long gone by now?
Why hang around? And where had he been hiding?
It was becoming abundantly clear to both of us that our plans for the evening had changed somewhat. It was cold, the sky wore a cloak of the finest cloud, with the pale motif of a half-moon now disappearing and together we shivered as large raindrops started to fall.
We dared not even glance at each other, as the man began to shout at us. His speech was muffled through the mask, though it was clear he wanted something. Jeannette, although scared, asked him please to slow down, as it was hard to understand. If we could not understand then how could we do what he wanted?
He took this question and seemed to be digesting what she had said. Before a seconds’ hesitation, he told us he needed a car – and a driver. Or two – as we women always ‘did stuff together’, he would take the both of us – take us where? – one as a driver the other as insurance. This struck him as amusing, and he gave a short sharp chuckle. We were told to turn slowly toward the door from which we had both very recently left, straight away I sensed him move closer to me and felt the metal of the gun against my neck. He told Jeannette to open the door and lead us to the keys. Keys?
He wanted one of the staff cars and Jeannette to drive. If the time in which it had taken to get to this point had seemed to go on, then the next five minutes were going to be among the longest of my 34 years. With a gun pushed against me, I held on to the tears of terror that I may never see my children or my husband again, and it was this thought that kept me from breaking down completely.
Silent tears coursed down my colleague’s face as she unlocked the door and disabled the alarm that had not long been set, before going back along the darkened corridor to the office. I felt a click as he barked instructions at her to hurry, she was taking too long, he did not like being kept waiting.
I wondered if she were deliberately playing for time, and while mentally applauding her, another part of me willed her to hurry also, so he could get to where he wanted and hopefully let us go. In my mind I had the idea half formed that we could let him get away, and hold back before going to the police.
Jeannette by now had got to the safe where the keys were kept and was fumbling with the door, while all the time, our captor kept up his stance with the gun against me, and I was painfully aware of it, as the veins in my neck throbbed with fright.
Finally we were in the rear car park, and I was pushed into the back seat as Jeannette got into the driving seat. In the dark I could see her trembling, as she tried to get the key into the ignition and start the vehicle. The man gave further instruction and with a degree of irony told her to go straight on unless he told her otherwise. She had already offered him our petty cash, which he had taken although he told us this was not the motive of the evening’s events.
Jeannette had failed to tell him she had not driven for over ten years.
Tags: gun, insurance, keys, petty cash, stalling
