Can he admit that he's made a mistake, and can Sam save him from a terrible fate...
Phil studied himself in the mirror as he shaved, the bruise under his eye was black and blue, it was just an accident, Jenny just caught me in the face with her elbow. It didn't look good, and he was wondering if there was a way he could cover it up. He shrugged, I walked into a door.
He finished shaving and headed back to the bedroom, bent over the sleeping form of his new girlfriend, god she is so gorgeous, he dropped a kiss on her bare shoulder. He was finally getting his life together, committing to a relationship. He felt good about it. For a moment he considered dropping the towel and climbing back into bed with her. But he was going to be late and he was in enough trouble with his new DI as it was.
DI Sam Nixon. Whichever way he looked at it, she still had the power to rock his world. I'm with Jenny now... He smiled, life was coming together.
Sam Nixon looked at her watch and frowned. Phil Hunter was late again. She looked up, and there he was, strolling in as though it was no big deal. She was getting really fed up with him challenging her authority. They had been lovers once, but this was work, and she wasn't letting him get away with it, Stuart had got the message, and he was keeping a suitably respectful distance in work at least. Why can't Phil just give it up... Sam honestly didn't know what made her more angry, the casual way he was behaving, or the way he seemed to have put her out of his life, when her head was still full of thoughts of him.
That idea just made her feel more angry. He was all wrong for her, she'd finished with him, and she was the one who was supposed to walk away unscathed, and it really annoyed her that he was so calm and detached about it.
"Phil, a word." Her tone was stiff, and cold.
"Ma'am." Even his response sounds disrespectful.
She closed the door behind him. "You're late. Again."
He looked at her with that knowing expression, and she could feel her anger rise, the desire to shout at him. I shout, he wins. She held on to her temper. "Don't let it happen again. Next time, you can explain to the DCI why your work holds so little of your attention."
His smirk was really too much. "Yes, Ma'am." Something in the way he said that, made her simultaneously sound like his maiden aunt, and a schoolgirl.
"Go. Before I forget myself."
He ambled out of the door. Turned back to wink at her. Damn it.
Sat down at his desk, shuffled paper, aware that her eyes were on him, maintaining the cocky and distant front for her was difficult, but he had a new girlfriend and a new future, and he needed to put thoughts of Sam out of his head. How to do that, when she's in my soul... He kept his head bent over his paperwork, sure that if he looked up and saw her watching him, he wouldn't be able to look away.
Stuart looked across at his arch rival. Noted the shiner. What's that, the second time in two weeks he's come in with a black eye. Something about that piqued Stuart's curiosity. Phil got on his nerves, but the guy provided the main challenge in the office, and Stuart liked having one over on Phil.
Terry Perkins had also noticed. Something about the bruising on his Sergeant's face rang a nasty little warning bell in the back of his mind. Knowing Phil and his penchant for getting involved with other men's wives, he'd figured a jealous husband or boyfriend had blacked his eye for him, but this was the second time in two weeks, and something about it looked a bit odd. Aware that the others would think his idea was mad, he decided to stay quiet. It could be coincidence.
Jenny was upset, and I got in the way. She was devastated when she hurt me, it wasn't her fault. Phil looked at the bruising under his eye, this was worse than the last time, his eye was nearly swollen shut, the side of his face bruised. He needed to cover it up a bit, otherwise there would be questions. He fished around in her make up drawer, and came up with a concealer stick, this should do the trick, he touched up the bruising down the side of his face, he couldn't do much about his black eye, but if he got in early enough, and kept moving he was sure he could pass muster. Just have to keep moving around so that no one gets too good a look.
This time Terry was certain he couldn't keep quiet. Phil Hunter's fidgeting around had made him more suspicious. So he watched him closely, noted the bruising under his eye, down the side of his face. Somebody's given him a beating. By my count that's the third time in a fortnight. He noted Stuart Turner watching Phil too. And that decided him, casually he walked over to Stuart's desk.
"Sarge, can I have a word?"
Stuart looked up at him, "Sure, Terry. What's on your mind?"
"Not here." Terry looked round, the briefing room was empty. He inclined his head towards it. Stuart got his drift, and followed.
"It's DS Hunter. I'm not sure, but I think he's become a victim of domestic abuse."
Stuart looked somewhat surprised and cynical "I doubt it. He's probably got a jealous boyfriend or husband chasing him."
"No. Look at him." Terry jerked his head in the general direction of Phil's desk. Stuart looked, noted the black eye, the bruising, the bad attempt to conceal the damage. Now Stuart didn't like Phil, and would go a long way to aggravate him if he could, but this was something quite different.
"What do we do about it?" for once Stuart wasn't thinking of himself.
"I honestly don't know." Terry was drawing a blank on this, but they had to do something. "We'll have to watch him, follow him, I don't think confronting him will work."
Stuart nodded slowly. The idea of following Phil Hunter in his private life didn't hold that much appeal. "I think we need to get an okay on this from the DI."
Terry scowled, why I picked DS Turner, god knows. "This isn't some kind of points scoring thing."
Stuart had the grace to look a bit ashamed, because that thought had occurred to him, but this was different. Phil was in trouble, and some pretty nasty trouble too.
"No. I need to tell her."
Terry didn't look particularly mollified.
Talking to Sam about their suspicions was surprisingly difficult. Stuart admitted to himself that the idea that Phil was the victim of anything was pretty much a non starter. But he had to try.
Sam heard him out in silence.
"We think he's being beaten up by that new girlfriend of his." It sounded a little lame even to Stuart's ears.
Sam looked at Phil, noted all the things that she would have seen before if she hadn't been so angry at him. The bruising on his face, the black eye, oh Phil... Part of her wanted to go and soothe his troubles away, part of her was angry at him for getting into this mess.
"So what's her name."
"Jenny something, some kind of model, he's been hanging around with her for just over a month, and he started getting the bruises about two weeks ago."
"Dig around, find out about her," Sam turned and looked him straight in the eye "and Stuart, be discreet, and absolutely no glory boy stuff, this is a fellow officer we are talking about."
Stuart didn't know whether to be jubilant that he could run with this, or annoyed that Sam would think that poorly of him, even as he admitted that to a certain extent she was right, he would have enjoyed having one over on Phil. Except this one isn't something where I would dream of doing that. Somehow this one was going to be bad, he could feel it.
Stuart wasn't usually given to premonitions, but he shivered, something just walked over my grave.