Chapter 7

[chilly658]

7
Jasmine Fashions
New Kent Road, North Lambeth, London
Tuesday 25th January 2011

Despite the fact that Jade had already put a hundred thousand pound cheque into her account which merely joined the twenty three thousand that she had already saved from working in her former profession, the fact that Carmen insisted that she pay minimal rent on the shop and the flat upstairs was thrown in meant that the young woman with an inventive streak had the best start in business possible.

When Carmen had first shown it to her it was an empty space with a shop counter and dirty white walls and a threadbare red carpet in a shop which actually sold bathroom equipment but even back then Jade could envisage her own shop inside that dirty hovel

When she had finished painting, the inside of the shop had dark and deep red walls with pictures of fashion models tactfully placed and boxed shelving for piles of denim jeans and the like.

There were two full length mirrors screwed into the walls and she had knocked through into the store room so that she now had two changing rooms which were equally as tastefully decorated.

The shop had racks and racks of the latest fashion clothing which quickly filled the once empty space with a counter, a new electronic and digital till and credit card machine.

The sign writers had been a month ago after the shop front had been repainted and electronic security roller shutters had been installed too and in the mornings when Jade pressed the button to raise them up the sign writing displayed.  Jasmine Fashion'

Jade Harris had found her independence.

Delivery drivers had learned to detest her because it was becoming widely known amongst the driver community that even if the box carrying her purchases was even slightly damaged it was sent back, she wouldn't even look inside and she got into so many arguments with delivery van drivers because of her stand up attitude.

But today she had been busy with a group of young girls who had come to the shop from school and were keen to try on just about everything that was in the shop and that included the accessories and so when a driver delivered some boxes with thirty two denim skirts, Jade for the first time ever didn't check them because the young ladies in her shop were her priority, she was trying to turn her shop into an after school hang out and get to know the local community.

However now it was twenty three minutes past eleven at night and Jade was laying in her bed upstairs from the shop in her new flat and there was just one thing on her mind, keeping her from sleeping.  ?I need to check on those skirts first thing in the morning.?  She said as she laid in her bed.

Jade had trouble sleeping every night and tonight it was the turn of the skirt to keep her awake, last night it was thinking about the old days after a night out with Carmen and April, the night before it was VAT, the truth was that Jade was just having trouble sleeping.

Two hours had passed and she still laid there looking for new problems to keep her awake and she wondered how Carmen ever slept with so much business around her now, before it was so easy, she had her client list for the day and she catered for whatever floated their boats and then went home for the night. this was so much harder.

She looked over to her red digital alarm clock which told her that it was now thirteen minutes past one and Jade sat up in her bed before sliding her legs out and slipped her feet into her pink fluffy slippers.

She then walked from her bedroom along the short hallway and into her recently decorated kitchen and made herself a cup of hot coffee before she checked herself in her full length mirror and in her two piece pink pyjama set and slippers with a coffee in one hand and her keys in the other Jade carefully walked down the stairs toward her brown front door which was right next door to her shop.

Before she opened the door she rehearsed her physical actions which were to be open the front door and check to make sure that nobody was outside on New Kent road because that would be highly embarrassing to walk out there in her pink pyjamas and matching fluffy slippers courtesy of April.

If the coast was clear she would step out and slip the roller shutter key into the lock and turn it so that the shutters went up high enough for her to open the glass door where she could then step inside the shop and close and lock the door behind her, after dis-enabling the security alarm system.

She replayed it over in her head again, New Kent road during the day was quite manic for traffic as well as pedestrians but at night it was very quiet and besides it had rained which often kept people in their homes.

She turned the latch of her front door and slowly opened it before she popped her head out and looked right and it was clear so she turned her head to the left and that's when she saw the sliver van across the street with it's back doors wide open.

Jade closed the door to a little so that she wasn't seen and then slowly looked through the small gap again and that's when she saw two men walking toward the back of the van.

Jade's eyes widened as she watched the two men carrying an unconscious person, a woman and as she focussed herder she could see that this woman wasn't old, she was quite young in fact with a head of flowing blonde hair, in fact Jade remembered seeing her across the street moving in a few days ago.

She could see that the girl was wearing something white over her face and it looked like a mask, something a paint sprayer might use or something like that and her hands had been bound together in front of her with tape.

Slowly and quietly Jade closed her front door and cringed as the latch made a quiet 'Click!' as it locked again and then she leaned her back against the inside of her front door.  "Holy **** ****!"    She quietly said to herself before running back up her stairs and into her flat where she ran straight into her bedroom and picked up her phone and called Carmen.

It took Carmen a few moments to answer her phone and when she finally did so she could tell by Jade's voice that something was very wrong indeed and she told Jade to calm down and think rationally.   "Y....You know those abductions on the news?"   Jade asked her and Carmen confirmed that she knew what Jade was talking about.

Jade took in a deep breath after Carmen again asked her to calm down.  "I think I just saw one of those abductions Carmen."  Jade told her, still working on breathing properly but she was beginning to calm down for her friend.
Eventually Carmen asked Jade to explain everything which her young friend did in great detail and now Carmen asked Jade if she knew whether they were still there or not?

Jade looked over at her bedroom window.  "I don't know, should I sneak a look?"  She asked but Carmen told her to stay away from the window and she had one more question for Jade and that was "Did they see you?"

Jade confirmed that they didn't see her, she had made sure.   "Carmen they were right across the street!"  Jade began again.

Carmen told Jade to get dressed, she would organise a cab for her and she could come over to Carmen's mansion and explain everything and then they would decide what to do, the truth was that Carmen wanted Jade to do nothing and just stay out of it.

They hadn't seen her because the two men were too busy carrying the subdued woman to notice Jade Harris standing at her door watching in horror, but their two colleagues sitting in a car as look outs from her left had watched Jade witness the abduction of twenty year old Kerry Mathews who had just moved into the flat across the street from Jade after living on the streets of London for the past two years, they knew exactly where she was and how to get to her and they knew that Jade Harris had seen them take the young girl.