Author's Note:- Rated for sexual content in later chapters and adult themes. Episode based "Breaking Glass" S3 EPs 5/6. Not mine and never will be.
Nothing but the best Chapter 21
"Doctor Foley are you ok? I made them bring me because you said you'd be here if they had to ask me any more questions but really I wanted to know you were ok are you ok I..."
"Hayley stop and take a breath please you're turning blue. I'm fine I'm more worried about you right now." Grace said quietly in the reassuring quite tone that she always had and which at that moment seemed to subconsciously relax everyone in the room not just the girl. Watching as the young girl's eyes snapped to Boyd where he'd just entered the room she reached out placing her hand gently on Hayley's arm. "It's ok no one here is going to be unpleasant to you, no one is angry with you we just need to talk to you, would you like some tea?"
"I'll make it, let me just get some fresh water." Spence said with a small smile lifting the kettle off Grace's end table and leaving the room as Boyd took the seat he'd just vacated and smiled at Hayley.
"Doctor Foley is right Hayley I know it was all really frightening and abrupt last night but she's safe why were you so worried, did Professor McKenzie contact you again last night after we left?" He asked quietly and without any edge to his voice as Grace made a mental note to thank him later. She knew his desire to keep her safe meant he would want any information as quickly as possible and that could make him bullish and inconsiderate. Not today though and she'd never been more grateful for his ability to now and then show someone other than her that he did have a more sensitive side too.
"I told him I didn't want to talk to him but he kept ringing and ringing and in the end I picked up. He asked what I'd said to you and I told him me and George got into real trouble after he left and that we had to speak to you and Mr Boyd. He got really mad and started like properly ranting about how he was going to make you see...he said he was going to make you see he was right and Mr Boyd was wrong and..."
"Sssssh don't cry its fine Hayley look at me everything is ok you can see I'm just fine and so is Boyd so he might have ranted but that's all he did." Grace said quietly seeing the glance exchanged by Mel and Boyd and glad Hayley didn't as her view of them was obscured by Spence returning with the kettle. "Make her one of the lemon and rosehip ones Spence it'll help calm her a little. Hayley did he threaten you personally or just me?"
"Not the way he threatened you but he told me not to bother coming to see him on Monday for tutorial because he wouldn't be there and he didn't think he could help with my thesis anymore because I'd been so unhelpful to him then he just hung up. I didn't care about that though I was more worried about you and I didn't know how to contact you until they turned up today."
"Well thank you for worrying but I'm ok honestly and don't worry about your course nothing will happening just keep taking lectures and asking fantastic questions like you did the day I was there and you'll do great. Are you ok now if I leave you with Mel to drink your tea then she'll take you back home?"
"Yeah I'm sorry again about last night and Doctor Foley please be careful." Hayley replied with a weak smile as Grace stood returning her smile and nodding as she caught Mel's eye and waited until she joined her outside the office.
"There's something she's not saying."
"I noticed she never actually mentioned you in the conversation with McKenzie but when you asked if he'd threatened her too she said not the way he threatened you. You think he said something she doesn't want to repeat either to you or in front of Boyd?"
"Exactly so we'll leave give her a little while just talk to her and let her drink her tea you're closer to her age and she doesn't see you as directly involved so she might open up."
"Ok where are you going?"
"To see Frankie hopefully she has some results for me. There were developments while you were out we'll do a full update once she's gone." Grace replied smiling reassuringly at Mel before leaving the room and heading for the lab.
"Hi Frankie how did it go did you find them?" She asked buttoning up the white coat she'd put on as she entered the room.
"No bodyguard?" Frankie asked looking over her shoulder as Grace shook her head.
"Don't joke if McKenzie doesn't kill me before this is over Boyd will have smothered me to death."
"Yeah right well I'm on Boyd's side and on that note before he does get here we need to talk. Grace I found traces of blood on the sheet as well as semen, you said you woke up and McKenzie was "persistent" did he rape you?"
"No Frankie!" Grace replied a little louder than she'd meant to as she saw Frankie's eyes narrow a little. "I promise Frankie he didn't I just wasn't as ready as he was he's not the world's most considerate lover and at the beginning it was uncomfortable. I didn't notice there was actually blood on the sheets or I'd have warned you. Do you really think if he'd raped me any of this would be an issue? He'd have been upstairs talking to CID within the hour I was an idiot to get involved with him I didn't have a lobotomy for god sake."
"I know but given what we know about him now I had to ask you know that don't you?" Frankie replied pulling Grace into a tight hug as she nodded. "This is bloody scary Grace I swear give me two minutes alone with this guy and he'll never hurt you or anyone else again. I'll kill him in a way no one will ever be able to trace then send him out of here to an unmarked grave with a smile on my face."
"You'd have to get in line behind me." Boyd said firmly entering the room just in time to hear the end of the conversation. "Between mine, Mel's and Spence's experience of murder, yours of forensics and Grace's ability to coach us all on acting innocent we could get away with it, will we give up on this investigating bullshit and just hunt him down?"
"Tempting but I like the idea of him dying a slow and painful death behind bars better." Grace replied quietly shrugging as they both stared at her in surprise. "What? Once in a while I'm not allowed to give up on keeping everyone calm and rational and feel the same hatred for someone you all do?"
"Course you are and if there was ever a case to let your calm detachment slip this is the one Grace hold onto that anger it'll keep you sharp through all this." Boyd replied with a smile feeling a surge of pride in just how amazingly she was coping as they all turned to the table where a section of her sheets were mounted.
"I sent the rest of them to the incinerator Grace I figured you'd not want them back once I got what I needed." Frankie said quietly nodding as Grace gave her a grateful smile. "Ok so normally I'm queen of bad news good news around here but this time it's all good news, evidence wise anyway."
"So you were able to get a sample?" Boyd asked his eyes meeting Grace's for a second in a move she knew was designed to reassure her that he was ok with the whole situation.
"Yes as you said Grave there was a clearly recoverable sample on the base sheet, I got a profile which matched the sample from Julia Simmons so we can say definitively that McKenzie had sex with her in the hours before her death."
"Great! Brilliant Frankie I know we can't use it but at least we know something solid."
"Boyd I said it was all good news I'm not done yet." Frankie smiled moving Grace's sheet aside and pulling a second fabric toward her. "This is from Veronica Smyth's comforter now it's not conclusive because it was pre-seminal fluid rather than from semen itself so it's harder to extract..."
"But?" Grace asked as Frankie moved to the light box on the wall putting three transparencies onto it.
"But this and this are the two definite samples from Grace's sheets and from the evidence in the Julia Simmons case and this is the Veronica Smyth one. There are enough similarities that if this was a normal case and you were pushing me like you normally do Boyd I would say that it is unlikely to get these many similarities unless the owner of the conclusive samples and this one were closely related."
"So for the purposes of this very unconventional investigation you're saying..."
"Yes Boyd between the three of us standing here if that sample from Veronica Smyth's comforter isn't McKenzie's I will pack up and go work in Tesco because I don't see any way it couldn't be." Frankie interrupted folding her arms triumphantly across her chest as Grace smiled letting out the breath she hadn't even realised she was holding. It wasn't much but finally it felt like they had something solid to build on and they might actually get to Alan McKenzie before he got to her.