It's time to move on

Chapter 16

We head to court. The crowd is huge. It’s hard for me to navigate through all the people. Jason takes my hand and leads me. I’m overwhelmed by the amount of people gathered at the courthouse. I hear people cheering and even my name being called out. I keep walking forward as the police keep most of the crowd at bay. I have to admit I’m nervous. I have no doubt that Charles will be convicted but until he is behind bars he is still a danger.

We get settled into our seats. The courtroom is packed. Jamie is there two isles behind us. Mike looks a little flustered. The judge walks in and we all stand up, he tells us to sit and then lets the jury come in. They bring Charles in. Jason takes my hand in his.

“Foreman, do you have a verdict?” The judge asks.

One of them stands up, a man around my age I would guess. “Yes your honour we have.”

He hands a piece of paper to the bailiff who then walks over to the judge. The judge looks at the paper and puts it down, he nods at the man and then he says, “We the jury find the defendant guilty on all charges.”

“You’re dead!” Charles yells standing up. Two officers hold him while he yells death threats at the entire courtroom. The judge doesn’t even bother to hit his gavel. He looks at Charles in disgust. The officers eventually manage to get Charles back in his seat.  

The judge looks Charles right in the eyes, “I do not have to retire to my chambers to think about the sentencing.”

My grip on Jason’s hand tightens as the judge starts sentencing.

“For the assault, torture, r**e and murder of Miss Rachel Smuts, you are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

“For the assault, torture, r**e and murder of Miss Samantha Brown, you are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

“For the assault, torture, r**e and murder of Miss Jacky Holloway, you are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

“For the assault, torture, r**e and murder of Miss Veronica Masters, you are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

“For the assault, torture, r**e and murder of Miss Angela Brian, you are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

“For the assault, torture, r**e and murder of Miss Cheryl Cameron, you are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

“For the murder of Officer Lance Brady you are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

“For the murder of Officer Lance Brady you are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

“For the repeated assault and r**e of Miss Rebecca Jones, you are sentenced to fifty years in prison making you eligible for parole only after serving your previous sentences.”

“For the two week imprisonment of Miss Rebecca Jones against her will, I add another ten years to your existing sentence.”

“For the attempted murder of Mr Jason Conner, you are sentenced to a further ten years.”

“I’ll get out!” Charles yells.

“Mr MacAdams, I’m not sure if you are able to count but at the moment you stand on eight life sentences and another eighty years in prison. You are not getting out in your lifetime.”

“You can’t do that! I’m innocent! You are all f*****g lying!” Charles yells swinging his arms around.

“Please remember that the officers assigned to the prison you will live in now are not the forging type. They lost brothers and not to mention inmates do not take kindly to rapists. I suggest that you learn to control yourself.” The judge says.

“You can’t do this!”

“It is done, Mr MacAdams.”

Charles leaps at the judge, the two officers try to subdue him but he grabs one of their guns and shoots one of the officers in the leg and the other one in the shoulder. The bailiff tackles him and is knocked out by the butt of the gun.

Most of the courtroom has cleared out in seconds.

Jason puts me behind him.

“Stop moving!” Charles calls out waving the gun in the air.

“What do we do now?” I whisper to Jason.

“Try to get out the door.” Jason whispers back.

“If anyone moves I’ll shoot!” Charles screams.

“Maybe let’s not move.” I tell Jason.

“If he sees you it can get bad fast.”

Jamie has managed to make her way over to us before everyone stopped moving as well as some of the victims’ families. They have started to form a human shield around us blocking Charles from seeing me. 

They are protecting me from Charles.

 Why would a group of strangers put their lives in danger to protect me?

“Rebecca! Where are you?” Charles calls me out. His voice sends a shiver through me.

“She left with the others.” A tall man two rows in front of us says.

“I don’t think so. She loves all this attention.” Charles replies.

“What is your plan, Mr MacAdams? You are in a courthouse, surrounded by police. Where do you think you are going to go?” The judge asks.

“Give me Rebecca and you will find out.”

“As the gentleman pointed out before she is no longer inside the room.”

“Then get her in here!”

I suddenly drop to my knees and start crawling away, Jamie and Jason can’t stop me or they will draw attention.

The judge’s cell phone starts to vibrate, “This will be the police. You should answer.” The judge holds out the phone to Charles. He grabs it from the judge and tells whoever is on the line, “I want Rebecca Jones here now!”

It's quiet. I assume he listens to whoever is on the other end of the phone call. “That is my only demand. Give her to me now or I’ll start shooting each and every person in here!”

I’m almost to the front, praying my heartbeat is not as loud as it sounds to me right now. I’m not entirely sure what I am going to do but I have to do something.

I turn my head around when I feel a presence behind me. It’s Jason. He nods at me. My love for this man just keeps growing.

“Mr MacAdams.” Jamie says, stepping into the walkway pulling Charles attention.

“Stop moving!” Charles yells and aims at Jamie.

“Please sir, put the gun down. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” Jamie says giving me and Jason the opportunity to crawl in the open to the jury box.

“Too bad because I want everyone dead!” Charles yells.

We make our way through the jury; they make room for us to pass without alerting Charles. I keep searching for a weapon I can use. We make our way to where the judge is sitting in his chair, he spots me and lifts his pant leg, a gun is strapped to his ankle. I glance up at him. The judge nods at me. I crawl to him and quietly take the gun. Jason motions for me to give him the gun. I can’t shoot so I do. Jason takes the safety off. One more problem Charles still has the gun pointed straight at Jamie. I stare into Jason's eyes and mouth. I love you, he shakes his head but I turn and crawl down the other side. When I’m far away enough from Jason and the judge I say while still on all fours, “Charles.”

“Where are you?” Charles asks.

I stand up, “I’m right here.”

“How the hell did you get there?”

“It doesn’t matter.” I reply holding up my hands.

“You ruined my life.”

“Please let everyone go.”

“Why do you even care about them?”

“Why don’t you? Charles, why did you hurt those people?”

“I had to! They wanted to leave me. You left me.” Charles says rubbing his forehead. Jason peaks up from the judges table. Charles’s gun is up in the air. If he shoots now it can hurt someone. People shift and Charles turns his attention to them.

“Charles, please this has gone far enough.” I say returning his attention back to me.

“None of this would be happening if you just stayed with me.”

“I couldn’t. You hurt me. I was scared that you would kill me.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“But you did hurt me, don’t you see that.”  I say walking closer to him. “And not just me you hurt those women and those police officers too.”

“They don’t mean anything.”

“Of course they mean something, Charles, they were all people that had lives, lives you took away from them.”

One of the guards stir and Charles swings around and points the gun at the already injured officer.

“Charles, hey, look at me.” I call but Charles doesn’t move his gaze away.

“Charles!”

Still nothing.

I step closer, Charles seems to focus only on the guard, and his eyes grow darker. He seems to have made a decision and I can tell what it is.

This is going to be a bloodbath. I need his focus on me with his back turned to Jason.

“Where do you want to go?” I ask.

Charles turns to me, “What do you mean?”

“Where do you want to go, Charles?”

“Out of here.”

“Okay, then where?”

“Home.”

“Then let’s go.”

“You want to come with me?”

“If you let all these people go then I will.”

“You’re lying.”

“No Charles, I will gladly go with you so that you don’t hurt anyone else.”

“You’re trying to trick me.”

Jamie has opened the doors and people have slowly disappeared. There are not too many people left, more than half has made it out safely without Charles noticing. The families of the victims have moved their shield to block the view of the door so the others could escape. The strength and courage these people have shown after everything they’ve been through amazes me.

“Charles, I’m offering to go with you so if you don’t want me to, it’s okay I won’t.”

“I don’t believe what you say.”

I have to keep him talking while the others leave, the less people here the less there are for Charles to hurt. “Fine Charles, do what you want then.” I say casually walking away from him. Praying he doesn’t shoot me in the back. One of the escapees accidentally bumps into one of the chairs, the screeching ego’s through the courtroom.

Charles snaps his head to the door and fires a shot. “Get down!” I scream. Charles turns to me bringing the gun with him; he doesn’t get a chance to shoot me. Jason fires and hits Charles in the leg. The two already injured officers tackle him. Charles gets cuffed and I run into Jason’s arms.

“Miss Jones, I’m sorry you had to go through this. We should have had more officers here.” The Judge apologizes.

“Judge Parsons, you could not have predicted any of this would happen.” I tell him.

The remaining people, mostly the families are still in court, they are hugging one another and some are crying. I'm not sure if it is out of relief or fear or sadness.

I remove myself from Jason’s embrace and walk over to them, “Thank you for putting yourself in danger to protect me.” I tell them.

The tall man from earlier that tried to convince Charles that I was no longer in the room says, “Even though my daughter died and I miss her dearly I can’t imagine how she would be able to live if she survived. The fear you must have felt every single day that he might come back, being locked up and hurt…”

“I’m truly sorry for your losses.” I tell them. I can’t imagine what they’ve been through.

“Our babies have gotten justice and he’s never getting out. He’ll spend the rest of his life in a cage.” A woman with dark red says. I think she’s Samantha Brown’s mother. They look the same.

“Now you need to live an amazing life. Live each day to the fullest after what you’ve been through you deserve it.” Another woman says stepping closer. Jason comes over and pulls me close to his side. “I’ll make damn sure of that mam.” He says grinning.

That lightens everyone’s mood a little as some laugh and others smile. I might not ever see them again as they are all going back home but I will do everything I can to help someone in need from this moment on.

We say our goodbyes and head outside completely ignoring the reporters.

“How are you doing?” Jason asks me in the car.

“Strangely I’m more than okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, it is finally over and he has gotten what he deserves. How are you doing?”

“Honestly I wanted to shoot him in the head. I almost did but I want him to suffer for everything he has done.”

I take Jason’s hand in mine. “I’m glad you didn’t kill him now he gets to suffer and live in fear just like his victims did.”

“I’m so grateful that you came into my life.”

 “So am I. I love you Jason Conner.”

“I love you Rebecca Jones.”