First, apologies for the long delay in getting this chapter out. The story has been buzzing around in my head but only today has it crystallised. I hope you think the wait was worth it.
Sarah turned as the door firmly closed behind her. Was this nightmare over? Was she really free?
She looked right and left and could see nobody moving about. The streetlights had just come on and she looked around for a street sign so that she could have an indication of where she was. She saw a street sign, Kingsland Road, E8. She had been there before to the famous Faulkners Fish Restaurant so she knew where she was. She hailed a passing taxi to take her home.
Arriving home she knew she would have to talk to her neighbour Lisa who probably would have been wondering where she was and who no doubt, had been caring for the dogs. But first she wanted to go inside and take a shower. She felt dirty from the place in which she had been kept for the past few days.
As soon as she put the key in the door the dogs started yelping and barking which in turn brought Lisa to her door. She ran to Sarah and gave her a hug. She was so pleased to see her. Sarah explained that she just had to have a shower after the past few days and promised to come up to Lisa’s as soon as she had done so.
While in the shower Sarah thought over the past few days and how she was going to tell her neighbour what had happened. She decided that only the truth would do. So showered and changed, having petted and fed the dogs, she took herself off to Lisa’s flat.
And while Sarah showered Lisa had called Tom who hurried over to see his sister.
Sarah heard from Lisa how worried she had been. How she had enlisted the help of Tom and how together they had gone to report her as a missing person at the local police station.
Then Sarah told them what had happened, the meeting with Alex Wishart, the detention in the basement of a house in the East End and how she learned that she had been instrumental in a young woman committing suicide. She was still trying to come to grips with this information as both Lisa and Tom peppered her with questions, some of which she couldn’t answer.
They agreed that they needed to tell the Police that she had come home, safe and well. But she didn’t want the Websters to get into trouble. They had suffered enough because of her thoughtlessness and she wondered aloud whether she would have to tell the Police who they were. None of them knew whether these people would be charged with unlawful detention but they all agreed that the Police Station was the next stop.
Arriving at the local Police Station they asked for Sergeant Jane Palmer and were relieved when she came into the reception area. Taking in the fact that there was now another woman with them, she ushered them into an interview room.
They quickly got down to the purpose of their visit. Tom introduced his sister to the policewoman who commented that she was pleased to see her safe and sound.
“But where were you?” she asked Sarah. “Did you take a few days off without telling anyone because let me tell you we were all very worried about you.?”
‘Before I get into that” Sarah replied, “I have to know whether I have to make a complaint against the people who held me. As you can see, I’m unharmed and they really wanted me to know something that happened in their family which was partly my fault.”
“Well, it’s most unusual for a victim not to want to lay a complaint. But tell me what happened and then we can see where to go from there”
Sarah then related the facts. How she had been sitting in the bar on Friday night, how she met a man and they had a drink and then dinner together. She told the policewoman how she had woken up in a basement tied to a bed. She recounted her fears while lying there wondering just who the man was and why he had drugged and kidnapped her.
Neither the policewoman, Tom nor Lisa interrupted this flow, although all were equally horrified.
Then Sarah came to the part about escape and how Alex/Ronnie had engineered this. And then she told of her confrontation with his parents and the fact that she had been instrumental in their daughter’s death. She told them how she had then been allowed to leave, how she found herself on the other side of London and took a cab home.
There was absolute silence in the room at the end of this dissertation. Nobody spoke for several minutes trying to assimilate what they had heard and trying to imagine the terror Sarah had endured.
“So can you tell me the names of these people Sarah?” asked the policewoman.
“I can, but I don’t want them charged with any crime. I think they have suffered enough because of me. I don’t want to add to that suffering.” She replied.
The policewoman then excused herself from the room returning shortly with an older man whom she introduced as Detective Brian McLeod. The Detective asked Sarah to repeat her story and at the end of it sat for a few minutes looking very thoughtful.
He then said, “As the Sergeant has already told you, it is most unusual for a victim not to want to lay a complaint. But if you’re determined then so be it. But I must ask you to give the Sergeant the names of the three people involved.
“We will have to interview them, probably at their house rather than at the police station, but if you are sure that you don’t want them charged we will issue them with a warning. Are you OK with that?”
Sarah was relieved that the Websters would not be charged and so she gave their names to the Sergeant who promised to keep in touch to let Sarah know when they had been interviewed.
So feeling much better Sarah and her friends left the police station and found their way to a local bar where they all had a well deserved drink.
I choose how I will spend the rest of my life 