Chapter 22 - Dangerous Liaisons

Andrea Dunbar hung up the phone. She wondered if she should have told Smithy the truth but she wasn't sure that he would let her go through with her plan. She had told him she didn't yet have a plan and was 'working on it', which wasn't a complete lie but it certainly wasn't the truth either. She planned to ask Gabriel round to her apartment to talk, using the photo as reason for justifying why she would want to speak to him. Her real aim however was to get Gabriel to confess to her once again, but this time she would record the whole thing. Being a journalist she had plenty of sound recorders and she'd even managed to go to the office and pick up a couple of small cameras that she was hoping to place inconspicuously around the room.

It would seem logical that Gabriel would check for recording devices so Andrea had an extra little plan up her sleeve. One of the recorders she would keep somewhere more expected, tucked down the side of the armchair she would sit on. She expected Gabriel to find it and she'd expect him to get angry as a result. She hoped that he would assume that it was the only one. However, although Andrea had this much worked out, she didn't know how she'd get him to repeat what he'd already told her just before the explosion. It would seem somewhat nonsensical for her to want to have the same conversation with him again without raising suspicion. As much as Andrea hated to admit it, Gabriel Kent was clever. After all, he had managed to join the police with a false identity which couldn't have been easy. But Andrea knew she had to try.

Once all the cameras and recorders were in place she sent the following text to Gabriel, being careful with how she worded it:

Gabriel, we need to talk. I think you know why.

Come over to my apartment asap. Andrea

Then she took a deep breath. She wasn't to know if he would come or when, though knowing how Gabriel's mind worked she suspected he would at least show up at some point and probably sooner rather than later. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't frightened. Gabriel was a nasty piece of work and Andrea knew that she was taking a huge gamble. She felt guilty for not telling Neil what she was up to but she knew that he would certainly stop her. She remembered how he had disliked her going undercover to try and catch a rapist taxi driver. He didn't want Andrea to use herself as bait then; in comparison to what she was doing now, the risk to her safety then had been seemingly low. However, Andrea just needed to do this. She couldn't quite explain her drive to bring down Gabriel Kent but it was something she knew she couldn't turn her back on. Regardless of any other feelings she may have had, such as fear of the crazed PC, nothing and no one was going to stop her from having this attempt at getting another confession.

After pouring herself a cup of coffee, as she walked to the living room a text came through from Gabriel saying he was on his way. Andrea's heart began to pound and once again those doubts started creeping around her mind. She should have told Neil, she should have told Smithy, she thought. Nevertheless she knew she had to push these thoughts from her mind and continue with her plan.

She had purposefully told Smithy she would call him in a couple hours. That had been almost an hour ago. She hoped that if she didn't call because things went south with her encounter with Gabriel, that it might start to raise suspicion and that Smithy would come looking for her. That was the loose, most unsteady part of her plan: The hope that Gabriel's absence from his shift and Andrea's silence would be noticed. It was all very risky but it had to be done.

It wasn't long until the sound of Andrea's intercom buzzed through the apartment. She could feel her hand shaking as she pressed the button to let Gabriel enter the apartment complex.

"For God's sake, get a grip!" Andrea whispered aloud to herself. She knew now wasn't the time to show Gabriel she feared him, though she suspected he already knew that she wasn't quite as brave as she tried to make out.

"Andrea," Gabriel nodded as she let him into her flat.

"Do you want a coffee? Tea?" She said, feeling her voice tremor slightly, praying that it had gone unnoticed to Gabriel. She'd only just had coffee but she felt another might help calm her nerves.

"What is this supposed to be Andrea?" Gabriel asked, amused. "A catch up with an old friend?"

"No," Andrea sighed. "I was just being polite. You know as well as I that we need to talk."

"Do we?" Gabriel smirked, following Andrea into the kitchen. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play games."

"Me? I never play games, Andrea." Gabriel tried feigning his innocence, looking carefully around the room as Andrea put the kettle onto boil. Andrea noticed him staking out the room and wondered what he was planning and what his motives were. She turned to face the boiling kettle to hide her worried expression, before asking once again if he would like a cup of coffee.

"If you insist," he murmured, watching her intently.

Andrea grabbed two clean, white mugs from the cupboard, trying to think how to get their conversation started. She couldn't believe Gabriel was denying all knowledge of why she invited him in.

"So," she began. "Let's not beat around the bush here Gabriel... I know it was you who sent the photograph."

"Photograph?" Gabriel laughed as Andrea handed him his drink which was piping hot. "Maybe you should jog my memory."

Rolling her eyes, Andrea walked over to the kitchen table and picked up the photograph which was lying there upturned. She handed it to Gabriel.

"Well well well," Gabriel mused. "Someone has been naughty." He placed the picture back on the table and looked Andrea directly in the eyes. "Well I guess really you can do anything now you're not one of us, a little foolish though for a senior officer to be linked to a journalist. Quite clear where you got your information for your stories from."

"That's not what I did at all," Andrea said before pausing, thinking better than to argue over it. It wasn't as if Gabriel would believe her.

"Just how in deep is he?" Gabriel smiled. "Was Neil Manson knowingly an accomplice in leaking information? I mean, you'd think so given that despite knowing you're a journalist he's still sniffing around you."

"He didn't know I was a journalist before." Andrea sighed, not really wanting to continue this part of the conversation any further. However, she'd purposefully not put recorders in the kitchen so that hopefully anything about her and Neil's relationship would not be documented in the evidence she was trying to obtain. The last thing she wanted was to land Neil in hot water over their relationship; she still hoped somehow she could both save his career and be with him.

"Why have you been watching my apartment?" Andrea questioned while taking a sip of her drink.

"I haven't." Gabriel shrugged.

"But the photograph..."

"Ah yes, that." Gabriel grinned. "Right place, right time."

"Oh come on Gabriel, it's just you and I here. You might as well say you don't trust me after telling me you killed Kerry."

"I didn't kill anyone," Gabriel said calmly. Andrea knew that he suspected he was being recorded, and clearly wasn't going to say anything that would implicate him of any wrongdoing. "But, on the subject of the picture, I guess you could say I managed to work out that you and Neil were having an affair and I just hoped I might be able to get evidence of it. I didn't want there to be an officer at Sun Hill doing something he shouldn't."

"That's rich coming from you."

"I'm not a saint, Andrea. But I'm not the criminal you make me out to be."

A strong desire to contradict Gabriel almost took over Andrea but she held her tongue. She needed to move the conversation into the living room before she took the conversation in that direction, but first she was genuinely interested in how Gabriel had figured out her relationship with Neil. Aside from Okaro, no one else had suspected a thing or so she thought.

"How did you figure out Neil and I..."

"I had a few suspicions because I noticed you seemed to be CID's favourite PC. You were picked to work with them so often. Even then I wasn't sure there was anything to it and if I hadn't noticed you taking a particular interest in me and what I was doing I probably would have paid it no mind. But the night of the fire, I saw how panicked he was about your whereabouts; his face when they found you in the rubble confirmed it all," Gabriel explained. "I must admit though that I thought he'd stay clear of you after it was revealed what your real career was. DI Manson always struck me as somebody who was sensible and married to the job before anything else. I wasn't even suspicious of you both after the fire and our first little talk when you left hospital actually put my mind almost at ease. But then I saw DI Manson and Smithy talking a lot which seemed odd. I'd never really noticed them talk before. Then I wondered, and followed the DI here..."

"Right," Andrea said, the puzzle pieces moving into place. She glanced at her watch and realised it was only about 20 minutes until she was supposed to call Smithy. Timing was everything because if he raised the alarm too soon she could lose everything but if things went bad she needed to know that it wouldn't hopefully be too long until Smithy realised she might be in trouble. She knew it was time to get the conversation moving. "Let's go and sit in the living room, it's much more comfortable than standing out here."

Slowly she lead the way into the living room, sitting on the armchair where she had hidden what she hoped would become her decoy recorder. Gabriel took a seat on the couch.

"I want to talk about the night of the explosion," Andrea said, looking directly at Gabriel. "About what you told me."

"I said all I had to say that night," Gabriel said, being careful not to admit to anything.

"That night is hazy for me," Andrea lied. Despite what happened to her the event was ingrained into her mind. She could almost remember every word. "I just need to be able to process it all. I need to understand."

"Stand up!" Gabriel suddenly growled, walking towards Andrea. She did as she was told. He began to pat her down, clearly looking for a recording device.

"Where is it?" He asked angrily. "I'm not stupid Andrea."

"What?" She said, trying to sound innocent.

"I know you must be trying to record this. You, Manson and Smithy are probably in this together."

"Neil knows nothing about this," Andrea mumbled. "Honestly, he doesn't know you're here. He doesn't know the truth about you. Neither does Smithy." She added this hoping Gabriel would believe her.

As expected he next started searching the chair she had been seated on. It only took seconds for him to find the tape recorder she had shoved under the cushion.

"Oh look what we have here," he barked, turning to face Andrea. "Get me your phone now."

Andrea did as he said, knowing he would only find that she wasn't using it to record too.

"And get me the other recorders."

"Gabriel," Andrea muttered, trying to keep her voice steady. "There isn't any others, I swear. It was just the one."

"As if I believe that."

"It's true!"

"Andrea," Gabriel asked, annoyed. "Get me the other recorders you have set up." Gabriel reached to the inside pocket of his jacket that he had thrown over his uniform and pulled out a small black hand gun. "I won't ask again."