Indigo Hazard 93

Chapter Seven

Mistreated and Forgotten

Summary: A distraught mother deals with her daughters kidnapping while a girl chases after a man wanted by the police. Neil/Grace.

Pairings: Neil/Grace.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Bill or its characters all original characters are my own.

Chapter Notes: This chapter jumps ahead two months from the previous chapter.

A/N: I originally had written this chapter when I first started this story however, by the time the story had caught up this chapter it didn't fit in. Basically what I'm trying to say is a fair decent amount of work has gone into this one chapter alone what with all the rewriting and restructuring that went on. Enough from me, please enjoy the seventh instalment of Indigo Hazard 93 :)


Three months after Kensie had been reported missing her family were lead to believe that the odds of Kensie being found alive were very slim. However, Zac and Jess knew that this was not the case as the two friends knew that Kensie had runaway. She was never kidnapped. Kensie had told Jess this over the phone and had told her not to tell the police but she knew her friend would want Zac to know.

However things weren't quite so happy on the family side of Kensie's disappearance. Despite seeing a grief counsellor Julie was still struggling with her daughter's supposed kidnapping. Whilst around friends Julie put on a brave face and everyone around believed it. All except for Tom who was the only person who saw how badly she was still coping.


It was early. The morning had barely just begun in Canley. It was six thirty am and Neil was already in his office filling out paperwork, having not taken any paperwork home the previous night in favour of the night with Grace. He now had to catch up which was why he was in early while the rest of the office was empty.

Neil had already been at work for half an hour and had just placed a folder on the finished pile when Grace walked in. She walked over to his desk and stopped next to him. Neil turned in his chair to face her.

"You weren't at home when I woke up this morning."

Neil picked up her hand, "I'm sorry, I woke up early and I remembered that I had paperwork I needed to come in and finish. I should have left a note or something."

"That's okay. You finish it all yet?"

"Almost, it's surprising how much I can finish when I'm the only one here."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I don't get anywhere near as many distractions and I don't get distracted by you," replied Neil, the last part in a joking manner.

Grace laughed, "You can be quite a distraction too." With that Grace walked out of Neil's office and over to her desk to begin her day.

Twenty minutes later saw CID bustling with activity as the officers had arrived for the day.

Neil had finished his paperwork from the previous day and was about to open an email when the phone started to ring. "Manson," Neil answered.

"Sir, there's a young woman here in reception. She says she has information regarding the Marsden Case."

"Thanks, I'll be right down," Neil hung up the phone and turned back to his computer. Most of the emails informed him of upcoming court dates for previously closed cases which Neil ignored for the moment and quickly scanned over the rest of his inbox. He opened a couple of emails and wrote a quick reminder to respond to them as soon as he had the time to do so.

Neil stood up and exited his office he stopped just outside of his office door and called out to Grace. "Grace, we have a lead on the Marsden Case."

Grace walked over to where Neil stood outside his office. "Has someone come forward with information?"

"Yeah someone has, they're down stairs now."

Neil held the door to CID open for Grace to walk through before exiting the office himself.


When Neil and Grace walked through the door there was only one person in the reception area and she stood facing the wall.

"Hello, I'm DI Manson and this is DC Dasari, we hear you have some information for us about the Marsden Case."

The young woman turned around, "Yes I do."

Both Neil and Grace almost didn't recognise the young woman who stood before them. Kensie's once long brown hair had been cut short and died black. She had lost a substantial amount of weight and added to this her side fringe which covered almost half her face and the dark eye makeup she wore made it almost impossible to identify her.

"I'm guessing by the looks on your faces you aren't one hundred percent certain who I am, well I am in fact Kensie Marsden," she didn't sound smug just informative.


The two detectives were now seated across from Kensie in the soft interview room.

"What happened to you Kensie? Your family's been worried about you," started Grace.

"Basically I faked my kidnapping and ran away. I saw it as my only option."

"Surely there must have been another option."

"If there was I don't think my mum would have liked or approved of it."

"Okay then, tell us why you ran away Kensie."

"My mum always assumed that I would still live at home after I finished school but there is no way that's going to happen, I wanted to move out. I have plans for my life and they don't involve living at home whatsoever."

"Kensie I think there is more to it than just wanting to leave home. Maybe it has something to do with your stepfather?" asked Neil.

Kensie took a deep breath. "I never approved of mum's relationship with him. Six months after my father died seemed too soon too soon for me but what would a twelve year old know. Anyway, that's not the only reason, after he moved in he was all my mum ever worried about, she didn't seem to notice me much anymore, at times it felt like I was a nuisance to her. Also I never like to be alone with Tom, he would always give me these leering looks. It freaked me out sometimes."

"Was there ever any unwanted contact?" enquired Grace.

"No, it was always just the leering looks."

"Kensie, are you sure you're mother didn't notice you because from what I've noticed she's been really worried about you."

"I'm sure of it. I've been taking antidepressants for ages, she wouldn't even have noticed them if they were on my desk. I've never really been able to move on from my father's death, I guess that's why I hated that my mum had moved on so quickly."

"Kensie, we need to tell your mother that you're okay," said Neil.

"No, she'll make me go home."

"You're eighteen, we can't force you to go back home. We don't have to tell her where you are but, we do have a duty, as police officers, to inform your mother that you've been found."

"I don't want to go home. I don't want to go home. I don't want to go home," Kensie was hyperventilating and beginning to panic.

Grace stood up from where she sat across from Kensie and sat down next to the young woman. In an attempt to calm her down Grace placed her hand on Kensie's back and rubbed soothing circles. "Kensie, deep breaths, in through your nose out through your mouth," Grace had to repeat her words several times before Kensie responded.

"It's been a while since I've panicked like that."

"How about we go to the canteen and get a cup of tea?"

Kensie nodded her reply.


Grace and Kensie sat at one of the tables in the canteen, a cup of tea sat in front of them.

"We can force you to do anything you don't want to Kensie."

"I know and I understand that you have to tell her that I'm safe."

"If you don't want her to know where you are we won't tell her."

"Thank you," Kensie looked into the half empty cup in front of her. "I guess talking about why I ran away had worked me up more than I thought and caused a panic attack."

"Have you had any panic attacks before?"

Kensie nodded her head.

"Does anyone else know about the panic attacks? Are you taking any medication?"

"Jess and Zac know and so do a few other people. The attacks happen too infrequently for medication to help and they're usually mild, like the one today."

"One thing I want to know is, why did you frame ripley-92 for your kidnapping?"

"I had heard on the news that the police had been looking for him in relation to the kidnapping of three seventeen year old girls."

"Then you would know that you didn't fit the profile of his victims."

"I lied to him, I made him believe that I was his type. He believed every lie I told him. I told him I was good at football, I'm the worst player in my team, I only played because it's what my mum wanted me to do."

"Did you tell him anything that was true? Anything about your family? Your friends?"

"I told him what I looked like, where I went to school and that I didn't like living at home. That's about it and I never went into too much specific detail, if I did I had made it up for the most part."

"That's really well thought out Kensie but you couldn't have known that we wouldn't find him whilst we were looking into your kidnapping."

"I know I just had to take a chance that he wouldn't mess up."


After they had finished their tea Grace had taken Kensie back to the soft interview room. Kensie sat back where she had sat before.

"I'm just going to go get DI Manson, I'll be back in a few of minutes."

"Okay."

Grace exited the room and made her way up to CID.

Several minutes later Grace walked back into the room followed by Neil. On the way down she had informed him about what she had been able to find out while she talked to Kensie in the canteen.

Neil took his place from earlier, across from Kensie, however, Grace chose to sit next to Kensie.

"Kensie, what made you decide to come forward now?" asked Neil.

"Well, I have evidence that may help you to catch ripley-92."


A/N: Biggest chapter so far and I'm really quite happy with how this turned out but your thoughts would be better so please review :)