The 2nd July, 2008. My first day at Sun Hill. I'd started alongside PC Mel Ryder, a ballsy yet lovely girl, with an exotic ethnic background. We'd both turned up in our civvies at seven o'clock, waiting for our inspector to come down and get us. We'd waited at least ten minutes, but she didn't show... So we chatted between us, getting to know each other. By the time a sergeant had come to find us instead of the Inspector, we'd figured out that Mel was three years younger than me, at twenty five years old, and that she had only been at the job a year, compared to my four years at a previous station.
The Sergeant popped his head around the door and looked at the two of us. "PC's Mel Ryder and Kelsey Rivera?"
The two of us stood and looked at him. He looked like he could be in his early thirties, at least six foot, dark hair.. Attractive. He flashed us a smiled and stepped out into the reception properly.
"Sergeant Smith." He introduced himself and shook our hands. "Inspector Gold would've been here herself, but she's at a call at the moment."
He buzzed us through to the rest of the station, then continued to talk as we walked through the building. "The briefing room is straight up ahead, last door on the right.. You won't miss it, although I'm sure you'd find it yourselves anyway. There's ten minutes until briefing starts, but you're allowed to miss it just this once. Meet me there in half an hour and I'll sort out all of the usual things you need, so you won't have to wait half a bloody day. Any questions?"
"No Sarge." I spoke.
We paused outside the two locker rooms, the men's and women's opposite each other. Sergeant Smith pulled two small keys out of his pocket and I assumed that they were locker keys. "You know what to do from here." He spoke, a smile still present on his face.
"Thanks, Sarge." Mel spoke, her heavy Yorkshire accent evident in her voice, as she took a key.
I'd taken mine and we'd barely turned to head into the locker room, when the door to the Men's opened. There were two deep voices and a chuckle, then a clearing of a throat.
"New recruits?" I looked over my shoulder at where the voice had came from and found two uniformed men that looked like they were in their late twenties. "I'm Nate, Nate Roberts." He held his hand out, and Mel took it to shake. Nate had a mousey colour hair, and was well built.. Definitely a gym goer.
"Mel Ryder." she smiled at him.
The other one, a dark haired fella with a cheeky grin, stepped forwards and introduced himself before shaking her hand too. "Will Fletcher." He stated, then peered around her to look at me. "And you are...?"
"Kelsey Rivera." I smiled politely and shook his hand.
"Lovely to meet you both." Nate spoke, and shook my hand the second it left Will's.
"Alright, Romeo's." Sergeant Smith spoke up. "As lovely as it is to see you all meeting and greeting, you've got five minutes until briefing, so you need to get a move on."
I nodded and pushed open the door of the locker room, leaving the four of them behind. Mel followed a few seconds later.
Three women were dotted around the room, midway through a conversation. They glanced up at us and once one of them had stopped speaking, a brunette, not much taller than my five foot, bounded forwards and introduced herself.
"Hi, I'm Beth.. Are you the new PC's?"
"Yeah." I answered, smiling at her. "Kelsey Rivera." I informed her.
"I'm Melanie Ryder, but I'd prefer it if you called me Mel." Mel spoke from beside me.
A tall blonde woman picked up her hat and plopped it on her head before making her way over. "I'm Sally, nice to meet you."
"You too." I said.
There was a groan from behind the rack of pegs where the red-head was stood.
"You alright Mil?" Beth called out.
"I didn't bring a hair bobble... I've literally emptied my bag to find one, I could have sworn that I put it in there!" 'Mil' replied.
Sally checked her wrists, then shook her head. "I don't have anymore, sorry Millie!" She called out, then looked at us. "I'm going to grab a coffee before briefing, see you there."
"See ya!" Mel moved across to the pegs and put her bag down on a bench.
"I think I've got a spare hair bobble, give me a sec!" I said, and hung my bag on a peg, before searching in the inside pocket.
The redhead walked around to our side and stood beside me. "I'm Millie Brown, by the way. And I'm not always this forgetful!"
Beth laughed and bent down to tie up her boots.
I finally found a hair bobble and pulled it out, passing it to Millie. "There you go.. I'm Kelsey R-"
"-Rivera. I heard all the introductions! Thank you for this!" She said, then looked around me at Mel. "And you're Mel. It's really nice to meet you both, if you need anything, I'm always here."
I smiled. "Thank you."
"You too!" Mel said.
"Right, come on, we're going to be late for briefing!" Beth spoke up.
"Alright, alright!" Millie replied. "Go ahead if you're worried!"
Half an hour later, Mel and I had been taken into Sergeant Smith's office where he'd gone over the usual necessary details, then gave us our radios. We'd literally had them a second when there was a call to any available officers.
"Right, Mel, we'll do that." Sergeant Smith told her, and she radioed through to show her dealing. "You okay here, Kelsey?"
"Um, well Sarge, I'd like to get out there too... Get involved in what's happening on the streets."
He sighed and hesitated. "It's not really going to need three of us.."
"I'd suggest that Kelsey and I go alone, but I'm still no good at using a SatNav.." Mel spoke.
"And driving around here isn't really my forte yet.." I mumbled. "It's alright, I'll stay here."
Sergeant Smith shook his head. "No, come on. We'll all go, then we'll do a walk around the Jasmine Allen afterwards."
He grabbed his hat and the three of us headed down to the car.
We'd just opened the door when a woman I recognised as the Inspector approached us.
"Oh hang on, where you off to?" She asked.
"I'm taking Mel and Kelsey out."
"I haven't introduced them to the relief yet.."
"It's alright Ma'am, I've been told I'm worth the wait!" Mel spoke up, flashing the Inspector a grin.
I raised an eyebrow, but kept my mouth shut. Well that was a bit big-headed of her...
"Oh right, well don't let me keep you from your public."
Mel started to rush off towards the car. "Thanks Ma'am!"
"Ma'am." I nodded and smiled, Sergeant Smith and I turning to follow Mel, when the Inspector spoke again.
"Smithy."
He paused and looked at her, and I watched over my shoulder.
"Bring her back in one piece." She ordered.
I looked back towards Mel and smirked.
"Will do." Smithy replied and I heard his quick footsteps approaching from behind me.
We pulled up outside the school a few minutes later, and Mel climbed out and rushed over to the man and woman that were arguing. Smithy and I followed closely behind. Mel called in the time we arrived over the radio, then called out to the people.
"Sarah Figgis?"
"What d'you call the police for?!" The man ordered, his tone not polite at all.
"Because I saw you following us." The woman replied.
"I'm PC Mel Ryder from Sunhill, this is PC Rivera and Sergeant Smith." Mel told them.
"Oh what can't a Father give his son his birthday present now?" The man muttered.
"His birthday was in January!" The woman cried. "I've got an injunction against him, he's not allow.." Her voice was drained out by the sound of the man trying to loudly talk over her.
I opened my mouth to speak, and tell the man to shut up, but Sergeant Smith softly tapped me, as if to tell me to keep quiet. He glanced at Mel and I understood that he meant that she'd got it all under control.
"Step back please." Mel told him, but he continued to argue. "I said step back!" Mel raised her voice and the bloke did as he was told.
"Okay!" He cried and stepped back, then turned to look at Smithy. "You ought to keep her on a leash."
Smithy and I exchanged a glance as Mel scoffed. "Quite the charmer." she turned to look at him. "Can't for a second see why she'd want rid of you."
I tried to surpress my smirk as Mel turned back to Sarah Figgis, and Sergeant Smith glared at her husband.
"What's your name?" Mel asked the young boy that had been hidden behind his Mum the whole time.
"Josh.. Josh Figgis." he replied, looking up at Mel worriedly.
"Are you alright Josh?"
He nodded and his Mum put an arm around him.
"I think you can go to school now, your mum's going to be just fine now, here with us, we'll look after her." Mel told him.
"She's right, babe. Go on, get yourself inside, I'll be okay." Sarah told him.
Josh nodded and slowly sloped off through the playground.
Mel turned back to Mr Figgis. "Breaking an injunction is an arrestful offence, as I'm sure you've been told."
"I'll see you later, Josh.. Yeah?" He called after his son.
"No you won't! Not while the injunction stands."
He ignored her and continued to watch his son.
"Look at me Mr Figgis!" She ordered, and he turned his head to glare at her. "What are the terms of the injunction?"
"Ask her." He muttered and nodded in Sarah's direction.
"I'm asking you."
"I'm meant to stay a hundred metres away from my wife and son."
"Then that's what you'll do. Walk away."
He lifted up the box in his hand. "I just wanted to give him this-"
Mel cut him off. "Turn around and walk away, or you'll be walking straight into the station. Do you understand?"
He nodded and glared at all of us. "I understand." He turned and hurriedly walked away, Sergeant Smith following closely behind. I turned back to Mel and the woman, but found that Mel was okay, so I followed along behind the two men. Smithy paused at the gate, and watched Figgis walk away, and I stopped a few metres behind him.
"Do you think he'll be back?" I asked.
"They always are." He replied, turning to look at me. "Especially when they behave like that."
I opened my mouth to speak again, but Mel had approached and beaten me to it. "Thanks for the help there, you two." she playfully tapped Smithy on the arm with her notepad.
He scoffed. "Well if you'd have given us the chance.." We exchanged smirks and climbed into the car.
Mel sat in the passengers seat and rolled her eyes. "You had plenty of opportunities to jump in."
"Oh, but it was much more interesting to see you deal with it." I spoke.
"So, do you think we should take his advice?" Smithy asked as he started the engine and pulled away from the school.
"What advice?" Mel questioned.
I laughed. "Oh I don't know.. I don't think a leash is enough sarge, I think we might have to get her a muzzle too."
Smithy chuckled.
"Oh har har." Mel took her hat off and put it on her lap. "My bark's worse than my bite."
"I'd like to think so." I replied and heard her scoff.
"Right, so." Smithy started to change the subject. "We'll do a lap of the Jasmine Allen then head back, yeah?"
"Sounds good to me."
"The Jasmine Allen... Why do I recognise that name?" I mumbled.
"It's one of our most troublesome estates if I'm totally honest with you. It's got everything, druggies, thieves, guns, plenty of domestics. "
I nodded. "That's right, I remember now.. It was in the paper. That poor girl, Carly wasn't it.. The one that was shot?"
"Uh, yeah." He seemed hesitant to talk about it. "Carly Samuels. I was the family's FLO.."
"Oh right... That must've been hard."
Smithy didn't get the chance to answer as Mel spoke. "Look at that girl! Smoking? She only looks about twelve! And she's in her uniform! Pull over, sarge, I want a word with her!"
Smithy sighed and pulled over, allowing Mel to hop out and talk to the young girl who was stood on the bridge. Smithy unplugged himself, then twisted to look at me. "She won't listen to a word Mel says."
"Yeah, that's if she's actually bunking.."
"Of course she's bunking, it's not like there's someone there forcing her to not go to school and to have a fag."
I shrugged and nodded, then climbed out of the car. Smithy also did the same, and we slowly strolled up to where Mel was talking to the girl.
"I can guarantee she'll be back to bunking off again in a few days time."
"Oh, Sarge, your optimism about what we're doing is going to send me into happiness overdrive!" I sarcastically cried.
He rolled his eyes. "I'm not really the optimistic type."
"Really? I couldn't tell."
He chuckled.
"Seriously though, Mel might make a difference with this girl."
He shook his head. "Didn't you ever bunk off as a kid?"
"Only once.. And I got caught, so I never did it again."
He chuckled. "I should have known you were going to say that! Girls like that though.. The fact that she's got possession of a packet of fags just proves that this isn't the first time she's bunked off, and she's not likely to care what anyone else tells her!"
I sighed and shrugged, watching Mel as the girl handed over the packet of fags. Smithy lent on the railings and watched too. Mel turned and grinned, the satisfaction evident on her face.
"Remind me not to get on the wrong side of you!" Smithy mumbled.
"I'm a pussy cat really Sarge."
"You know she'll only go and nick some more don't ya? And besides, if she does go to school today, which is highly unlikely, she'll probably just bunk off tomorrow instead."
"You never know, she might surprise you. Some people are just looking for a chance to prove themselves." Mel told him.
"Are they really?" He grumbled.
"I've already tried telling him that!" I told her and she rolled her eyes.
We all started to head back to the car and Smithy spoke again. "So, you're like Mother Theresa and Lara Croft all rolled into one yeah?"
"Narh, I'm more one of a kind Sarge! Mum always said when they made me, they broke the mould."
"Oh and you're modest too." I joked, a smirk playing on my lips.
Smithy chuckled. "You'll go a long way."
Mel and I laughed, but paused when we heard the radio.
"Sierra Oscar 21 from sierra Oscar."
"Sierra Oscar go ahead." Mel replied.
"Disturbance at flat twelve, seven west key road, owner Simon Ford. Informer Sarah Figgis asked for you personally. Sierra Oscar, over."
Mel looked up at Smithy and I worried, and we hurried over to the car.
"All received. Show us dealing please." Mel replied.
"Figgis." Smithy opened the drivers door. "What was that about people wanting to prove themselves?"
Mel and I rolled our eyes, then climbed into the car.
Just a few minutes later, we arrived at West Key road and ran to the flat as quick as possible. The door was already open, causing me to feel a little panicky. Poor Sarah having to put up with her pain in the ass ex.
"Hello?" I called, and looked down at the coats on the floor and tipped over plant pot.
"Up here!" Came a quiet voice and Mel started to run up the stairs. "Sarah?"
Smithy and I ran after her, worried about what we might see.
"Are you alright?" Mel called out.
The three of us entered the living room to find it trashed, and a distressed Sarah sat on the sofa.
"Who did this?" I asked.
"It was Billy." Sarah answered.
"Did he hurt you?" Mel questioned.
Sarah shook her head. "No, no.."
"Right, can you tell us what happened?" Smithy asked as he looked around the room.
Sarah sighed. "He was so angry, he just forced himself past me and said that there was no way he was going to let me take Josh away."
"Away where?" Smithy returned to Mel and I, and stood in between us.
"Simon, my partner, he's moving to Glasgow next month for his work, and I'm going with him. And I'm taking Josh with us."
"And this is Simon's flat is it?"
Sarah nodded. "Yeah, I stay over here some nights.. I was just round here to pick up a few clothes."
"Where's Simon now?" Mel asked.
"On a plane to Hong Kong, he left last night. He's away for a few days on business."
"Do you know where Billy lives?" I spoke.
Sarah shook her head. "No."
"Okay.. What about where he works?" Smithy questioned.
"Erm, he said something about getting a job as a security guard.. At erm, a local storage yard. He didn't say which one."
"It's okay. Don't worry about it, we'll find out." He said, then lifted his hand to his radio. "Sierra Oscar from 54.."
"Go ahead."
"Can you draw up a list of all the local storage facilities in the area for when I get back, please? Over."
"Recieved, over."
Sarah stood up and looked out of the window, then turned to face us.
"We'll just need to take a statement, then we'll be on our way." Smithy told her.
Within half an hour, we were back at the station, going through the list of storage facilities and calling them to try and find Billy. We'd gone through nearly all of the list, when finally I spoke to a bloke that said they'd employed a William Figgis. I'd practically hopped out of my seat and told Smithy, and he'd wanted to get straight down there.
The three of us had almost reached the door when I heard my name.
"Kelsey?" Inspector Gold was stood behind us, looking at me.
"Ma'am?" I stopped and looked at her.
"PC Gayle will be here any minute with some CCTV, I need you to help him look through it all."
"Oh, but Ma'am, I was about to go with Sergeant Smith and PC Ryder to find Billy Figgis."
"I understand that you want to continue with the Figgis work, but I really need you to help Ben. Smithy and Mel can handle it on their own now."
I sighed. "Yes Ma'am." Great. I was now spending my first afternoon at Sunhill trawling through endless clips of CCTV.
Smithy and Mel disappeared out to the car, and another officer came walking through with a handful of DVD's.
"And speak of the devil, here he is. Kelsey Rivera, meet Benjamin Gayle."
"Ben." He nodded and smiled at me.
"Right, now. I need the two of you to go through the CCTV and look for Emile Grover and that gun. If you find anything, then take it up to Neil." Inspector Gold told us, before rushing off to find someone else.
"Lets get a move on then!" Ben spoke, and led me up to the room we needed to be in.
Once in there, he passed me two cases, then we sat down at TV's opposite each other, ready to watch the CCTV.
"So, Emile Grover.. What does he look like?" I asked, as I placed the disk into the player.
"Hard to find someone you've never seen eh?" He joked.
"Just a bit."
"IC3, nine years old, green jacket."
"Right thank you." I pressed play on the remote, then fast forwarded it a little.
"Enjoying your first day then?" He questioned.
"Yeah, it's been okay. Would've been better if I was still out with PC Ryder and Sergeant Smith, but yeah.."
He chuckled. "But instead you got plonked behind a TV and told to search for someone you don't have a clue about."
"Exactly." I smiled, still watching the tape. "So are you going to fill me in on what's happened and why I'm looking for this boy then?"
"We were called to a flat this morning, someone claiming to have seen a boy with a gun.. Pretending to shoot it at other people. When we got there DC Banks managed to talk him out.. And it turned out that the gun was very real, and loaded."
"Oh god, who would give a child a gun?!" I cried, frowning.
"No idea, but whoever it was must be wrong in the head. What if he accidentally shot himself?"
"Yeah, or someone else!" I shook my head. "Well, at least no one got hurt and we've got control of it now."
"Yeah." He nodded.
The tape in front of me suddenly blurred and it looked like the glass had cracked, which caused me jump. "Oh, ugh. Someone just destroyed this camera." I grumbled and opened the disk drive.
Ben chuckled. "There was only a few camera's left that actually worked."
"Well, this is no longer one of them." I placed it back in the case. I opened the second one and lifted it out to put it in the player.
"Hang on a second..." Ben said. "Don't put that disk in just yet. I've found him.. In the lift."
I got to my feet and walked over to look at Ben's screen. "Oh blimey! Look at the way he's playing with that gun!" It made my heart pound just looking at it.
Ben tutted whilst scrawling down the time from the corner of the screen, and shook his head, then paused it and pressed the eject button. "Let's get this up to the D.I, then!" He placed the disk in the case, then crossed the room to the door and held it open for me. I smiled and slid past, then the two of us made our way up to CID.
I peered through the window before Ben opened the door. It looked like they were in a meeting. As the two of us stepped through the door, everyone started to disperse and one man in a suit made his way over.
"Anyone for some tele?" Ben asked, holding out the case.
The man in the suit took it, and walked into an office on our right.
"That's D.I Manson." Ben whispered to me, as he guided me into the office behind him.
We stood next to the TV as another man in a navy blue shirt and black trousers walked in and lent on the table. Ben tugged on the blinds, and they shut out the light into the room. I placed the disk into the player and D.I Manson switched on the TV.
"Most of the camera's were vandalized." Ben stated, returning to my side. "But luckily, there was this one in the lift."
I fast forwarded it to the time that Ben had scrawled on the paper, and it showed Emile Grover entering the lift and pulling the gun out of his bag.
"The little-" The man in the navy shirt spoke, pursing his lips and shaking his head. "I knew he was lying."
"His old man won't be happy..." Ben mumbled, still focused on the screen.
"Right. Get that kid back here... Now." The D.I ordered, and stood up, leaving the room.
"Guv." The other man nodded and sighed. We watched the screen for a few seconds longer, then he spoke again. "I'm D.S Carter, by the way."
"PC Rivera." I smiled at him.
He just simply nodded, then left the room.
"He's always on his high horse.." Ben told me. "Don't worry too much about him."
I nodded. "Oh, I won't."
Ben and I headed for a quick refs, before D.S Carter found us again. I'd almost finished my sandwich when he approached us and told us that Inspector Gold had cleared it for us to go and find someone named Andrew Tirrell.
"He's the one suspected of giving Emile Grover the gun, so I need you to bring him in so we can question him."
"Yes, Sarge." Ben spoke, and I swallowed what was in my mouth. We binned the last of our food and headed straight over there.
When we arrived, Tirrell wasn't home. We'd knocked on his door a few times, but had no answer.
"It hardly looks like the home of an arms dealer does it?" Ben mumbled as we wandered back to the car.
"What were you expecting? A big flashy sign saying 'arms dealer'?" I questioned jokingly.
He rolled his eyes and smiled.
"Sierra Oscar from 469." I spoke into my radio.
"Go ahead, 469."
"Can you tell D.I Manson that we're at Andrew Tirrell's house, and there's no sign of him."
"Received over."
I dropped my arm back to my side and hopped down the curb into the road.
"So what we meant to do now?" Ben grumbled, the boredom evident in his voice.
"Well, wait." I replied.
Ben sighed and checked his watch. "When they said that they wanted us to pick up Tirrell, I thought it would've been a lot more interesting than this.."
I shrugged and Mel's voice was heard over the radio, reporting where her and Smithy were going next.
"I mean, how come the new girl gets to ride with the Sarge?" He grumbled.
"Well, you get a ride with a new girl too... Or was it the Sarge that you were interested in." I teased and winked at him.
"Hm, now I'm beginning to wonder why you so desperately wanted to be out with him earlier." He smirked.
I rolled my eyes. "Not my type." I told him. Although, one of the first thoughts when I was introduced to him was that he was attractive...
"So what is then?"
The two of us climbed into the car.
"Hoping you'll get lucky eh?" I teased him again.
His eyes widened a little. "Oh, no.. I didn't mean it like that.."
I laughed. "I know what you meant, you muppet!"
He let out a breath of relief. "Good."
I smiled. "I don't really have a type... Other than tall. But then again, everyone's tall compared to me."
He chuckled. "True that, how tall are you anyway? Four foot ten?"
"Oi!" I playfully slapped his arm. "I'm not that bloody short! Five foot exactly."
He chuckled once more, then sighed. "Ugh, how much longer are we going to have to sit here?"
"How ever long it takes, Ben." I told him, glancing over at the door. "Anyway, are you not enjoying spending time with the newbie?"
"Well, it's not exactly Miami Vices, is it?"
I rolled my eyes. "Right."
Half an hour later, Tirrell still hadn't turned up and the next unit had arrived to take over us.
"Oh, good! I can go back and buy myself a coffee now!" I said, grinning at Ben.
"You had one before we came.."
"Yeah, but I didn't drink it all!"
Suddenly, Mel's voice came over the radio again. "Sierra Oscar from 148, another unit required at 43 Colbert street."
"That's five minutes away, tops." Ben said, starting the car. "We could take that on the way back to the station."
I pressed the button on my radio and spoke. "Sierra Oscar from 469, that call from 148, show us dealing please!"
"I wonder what trouble they've gotten themselves into this time." Ben mumbled, pulling the car out of the car park.
"Well, we're about to find out!"
A few minutes later, we pulled up outside the Sunshine Way Hotel bed and breakfast. I glanced up at it. It looked a bit run down if I was completely honest.
"I don't really think sunshine is an appropriate word to describe this place..." I mumbled.
Ben chuckled. "I was about to say the same thing."
We entered the building and a woman sat behind the desk smiled at us. "How can I help?"
"Could you please tell us which room the other officers are in please?" Ben asked politely.
"Yep, the one just at the top of the stairs." She replied.
"Thank you." I nodded at her, then we both headed upstairs.
The door to the room was slightly open, and the two of us looked at each other, wondering what we were going to find. Mel hadn't seemed too panicked over the radio, but we had to be cautious just to be safe.
"Sarge?" Ben called out.
"In here!" Smithy called back, confirming that they were in the room.
I pushed the door open and allowed Ben to go in first, then followed close behind. Seconds later, I heard Ben chuckle, and Smithy groan. I raised an eyebrow and stepped around him to find Smithy and Mel stood in the center of the room handcuffed to each other. I pursed my lips, trying to hold back my laugh, and looked up at Ben who was also doing the same.
"Don't say a word, and get us out of these." Smithy ordered, not impressed at all.
Ben stepped forwards, pulling the keys out of his pocket.
"I take it Figgis did this?" I asked.
"Yeah." Mel replied and looked up at Smithy. He shook his head at her, as if to tell her to keep quiet about something. I looked away from the two of them, and my eyes explored the room.
"How on earth did he manage that?" Ben questioned.
Neither of them said anything, and I knew that Ben was looking at them expectantly, waiting for an answer.
It was then that the toy gun on the unit caught my eye. I reached out and picked it up. "Been playing with toys, you two?" I teased. "I would've thought you two were a bit old for that..."
Smithy glared at me, and Mel's face glowed a bright red. Ben chuckled and I placed the gun back down on the unit, before standing beside Ben. He fiddled with the hand cuffs that he had taken from the two of them, then smirked at me.
"I don't know, Kelsey, do you think it's alright to leave them on their own yet?"
Mel turned and started to search through the drawers.
"Oh, well, they might try it again..." I said, earning another glare from Smithy.
"Maybe we should confiscate their handcuffs." Ben said.
Smithy held his hand out for Ben to pass them over. "Shouldn't you be out trying to make our streets safer or something?" Once he had them, he put them back in the place they belonged on his belt.
"Do you get the impression that they want to be left alone?" Ben asked me.
I gave an agreeing hum and smirked, Mel glancing at us from where she was.
"Do yourselves a favor.." Smithy spoke, blocking our view of Mel.
"Foxtrot Oscar?" Ben said, pointing over his shoulder.
Smithy nodded and Ben turned to grin at me.
"Absolutely, go on." Smithy watched us turn to the door.
"Nice to meet you, Mel." Ben nodded at her.
"Yeah, you too." She replied, pushing a drawer shut.
We reached the top of the stairs, Ben starting to walk down them.
"Oh actually!" Smithy called and we both paused to look back at him. "Could I keep PC Rivera? She knows about the Figgis case too and it'd be quicker to have three of us searching."
"Give me a second, Sarge!" I called back to him, then turned to Ben and smirked, remembering his comment earlier about 'the new girl riding with the Sarge'. "Jealous?" I whispered.
He rolled his eyes. "I'm starting to think he planned all of this to get the new girls in a bedroom with him." He jokingly whispered back.
"And what if he did?" I giggled.
"Good luck to him! You two seem like trouble."
"Oh, trouble looks for me!" I replied.
He chuckled. "Go on then, Foxtrot Oscar back to Sergeant Smith."
I winked at him, then turned and headed back into the room, a smile on my lips. Smithy was searching in the wardrobe, and Mel had moved on to a suitcase.
"So what is it we're actually looking for then, Sarge?" I asked, pulling some gloves on.
"Anything that tells us what Figgis is up to, or where he might be." He replied, rifling through a box he pulled out.
"Right." I nodded and knelt on the floor, checking under the bed.
"There must be at least three hundred quids worth of stuff in here..." He said, and I twisted to look at the boxes sat in the bottom on the wardrobe, before looking back under the bed.
"Why do you think he didn't want his mail?" Mel asked.
"Oh I dunno, but I met plenty of blokes like him in the army." He replied. I climbed to my feet and opened the bathroom door, to search in there. "Damaged."
"Are you ex army, Sarge?" Mel questioned.
"Couldn't you tell from my military baring?" He muttered, crossing the room to search elsewhere.
I popped my head around the door to see Mel smirking, then tried to suppress my laugh. I stepped back into the bathroom and reached up to search in the cupboard.
"Did you see that notebook that Figgis had?" Smithy asked her.
"No, what did it look like?"
"That big, red." He explained, and I lent around the door again to see what he was describing.
Mel shook her head. "So, er, what now?" She shut the case and carried it over to the corner. "We go back to talk to Sarah Figgis?"
"Yeah, but I want to go back to the nick first and talk to the D.I." Smithy replied and I heard a cupboard shut.
I finished looking through the bathroom cupboard, then shut it and entered the main room again.
"Sierra Oscar from 54."
"Go ahead."
"Yeah, could you confirm that DI Manson's in please?"
I watched Smithy speak into his radio, as Mel looked in the fridge.
"Sarge." She spoke, and the two of us looked at the box in her hands. She moved a few Xbox games out of the way to reveal large stacks of money in the bottom of the box. Smithy took it and inspected it.
"I wonder what he's planning to do with this then." I spoke.
"No idea, but I have a feeling its something to do with whatever was in that notebook..." Smithy mumbled. "Right, lets get this back to the nick."