Chapter 23: Admittance

"Don't stand there giving me the silent treatment!" Gina Gold snapped. "Something is clearly going on and I want to know about it."

The inspector was being persistent with her Sergeant who was being hesitant. Smithy didn't want to talk to Gina about all of this; he didn't want her involved. He thought that maybe the situation could be nothing anyway. Gabriel's trip to the dentist and Andrea not calling back could all just be coincidental. However, Smithy couldn't stop the niggling thoughts in his mind that something bad was going to happen and that Andrea had in fact done something stupid for her 'plan'. Surely she wouldn't put herself alone in a situation with Gabriel, would she?

"Come on," Gina continued aggressively. "Spit it out."

"Mam, can we talk about this in the car?" Smithy muttered, aware that PC Hollis, PC Stamp and PC Harman were all looking in his direction, clearly intrigued by his altercation with the inspector. He didn't want to grab any more attention.

"Quickly then Sergeant, we do have a job to do." Gina wandered back to their patrol car and sighed as she got into the driver's seat. "So?"

"It's a long story, I'm not sure where to start," Smithy mumbled wondering where to start the story or just tell her of his immediate concern and worry about the rest later.

"Well you better decide because we haven't got all day," Gina said, rolling her eyes. She acted annoyed, which she was in part, but inside she was mostly worried. She'd rarely seen her Sergeant this flustered and she liked to think they were close and that he would be open with her.

"I found some things out about Gabriel..." Smithy began before trailing off, once again wondering how to explain everything.

"Like what? That he's June's son?" Gina gave a sarcastic laugh, remembering the time they illegally accessed Gabriel Kent's birth certificate and found Sergeant June Auckland's name listed as his birth mother, although she had gave him up for adoption. They couldn't tell anybody because firstly they shouldn't have had access to the certificate; secondly they believed that June was unaware that Gabriel was the baby she gave up. They didn't feel it was really their place to tell her, although they both had wanted to.

"That's the thing," sighed Smithy. "He isn't June's son."

"Smithy, we both saw that birth certificate." Gina said, confused. "What are you saying?"

"The man we work with isn't actually Gabriel Kent."

Gina laughed then. "You're expecting me to believe that one of our officers got into the met using a false identity?"

"It's true..."

"Oh, come on Smithy," Gina said, amused. "I don't like or trust Gabriel as well you know but this is a bit of a stretch..."

"I know it all seems surreal," Smithy agreed with his boss, understanding her disbelief. "But I swear on my life that he is not Gabriel Kent. He is actually David Kent, the biological son of the family the real Gabriel Kent got adopted in to."

Although Gina was struggling to come to terms with what was being said, she knew that the Sergeant swearing on his life meant that he was deadly serious. It couldn't just be a hunch. "So how exactly did you find this out?"

Smithy began to explain everything to Gina, from his original suspicions about Gabriel's version of the relationship he had with Kerry Young, to Andrea's own suspicions about him and the fact Kerry had told Andrea that Gabriel had raped her. He explained that Andrea had become convinced that Gabriel was involved with the Sun Hill sniper and managed to find out his true identity. He also told Gina about the night of the explosion, that Gabriel had confessed all to Andrea including admitting to shooting Kerry himself, before then leaving Andrea in there to perish.

"I can't ever say I will trust Andrea Dunbar after what she did," Gina commented after listening to what Smithy had to tell her. She was a little dumbfounded. She'd never thought Gabriel was a saint but it had never even crossed her mind that he could be a murderer. "But I trust you and if you say you have seen Andrea's evidence that proves Gabriel is in fact David, then I believe you. But what has this now got to do with your concern about him going to the dentist?"

"Andrea and I have been working together to get enough evidence on him to prove what he did..." Smithy began to say before getting cut off by the inspector.

"You what?" Gina said, shocked. "You're still working with Andrea after all she did? You didn't think to tell the Superintendent about any of this?"

"Look, I know what you all think of Andrea now and I get it. I'm still angry that she lied too. But she is also my only chance at gaining damning evidence against Gabriel." Smithy purposely omitted the fact that DI Manson had also been working with them. He didn't want to get the DI in any trouble and felt it was Neil's place to let his relationship with Andrea known to everyone when he was ready. "Andrea is the one that obtained the evidence of Gabriel's real identity and that he knew Jason Hardy..."

"But that's what I don't understand!" Exclaimed Gina, exasperated. "You said she got the evidence back so why haven't you both brought it straight to the attention of the Superintendent? Whatever he thinks of Andrea, he couldn't ignore hard evidence."

"Because what we have on Gabriel isn't enough," Smithy said. "We want proof of that he killed Kerry."

"And how exactly do you expect to get that?!"

"That's the thing. Andrea mentioned trying to get him to confess to her again. I'm worried that's what is happening now. Gabriel's got this sudden dentist appointment and I can't reach her."

"I think it's about time we went and spoke to Superintendent Okaro," Gina said, starting the engine.

"No, please," Smithy pleaded. "It could all just be coincidence. It's not like Andrea told me she was going to contact him or anything. I just have a bad feeling. If we could just swing by Andrea's apartment and then I can make sure she's okay..."

"Smithy, you can't expect me to keep this from the Superintendent. This is too serious."

"I know," sighed Smithy, knowing that he'd put Gina in an impossible position.

"Tell you what, we'll go to Andrea's so you can check on her. But even if there is nothing untoward, we are then heading straight back to talk to the Superintendent about this." Gina tried to appease her Sergeant but she knew she couldn't agree to keep all of this a secret. She trusted Smithy and she understood his desire for wanting to prove that Gabriel killed Kerry. However, now Gina was aware that Gabriel was using a false identity and potentially was involved with the Sun Hill sniper, she knew it would be irresponsible of her to keep quiet. If Gabriel did anything else while in the force that harmed more colleagues and she hadn't said anything, she'd never forgive herself.

She turned the car around and headed to Andrea's apartment, following instructions given by Smithy as she hadn't been there before herself.

As they turned the corner into Andrea's road, Smithy's heart skipped a beat as he saw one of their patrol cars parked a little further along, near the apartment block.

"Looks like you got Gabriel's whereabouts correct," Gina shrugged, pulling their own car up behind the other cop car.

As the car rolled to a stop, Smithy leapt out of the passenger seat and rushed towards the apartment building's entrance.

"Umm, excuse me Sergeant!" Gina called after him. "Where exactly do you think you're rushing off to?"

"I'm going to see if Andrea's okay, Mam."

"I appreciate that but if everything you told me is true we could be entering a dangerous situation which is not to be taken lightly."

"We can hardly call for back up, mam. We don't even know what's going on. It could all be fine. They could just be talking," Smithy said, rushed.

"Exactly, we don't know what's going on. And yes we can't call for back up but that doesn't mean we can't be cautious about what we are doing. Have some kind of plan."

"I'll get someone else to buzz me into the building and once inside I'll go up to Andrea's, check everything seems okay."

"You don't want to spook him," Gina observed. "Because either that'll make a bad situation worse or if Andrea is currently being successful in getting him to open up, it'll probably close him back down in seconds."

"I know," Smithy nodded. "But if he's found out I've been working with Andrea, that she's regained the evidence of his true identity that he believes she lost in the fire, she could be in real danger."

"Let's approach with caution," Gina said, "But we don't want this escalating."

"Mam," Smithy acknowledged his boss before pressing various buzzers until he found a resident who was at home and was also willing to give him access to the building.

Once they reached Andrea's floor, both Smithy and Gina crept along the corridor not yet knowing for sure that Andrea's door was closed and that they wouldn't be heard coming. Once they got closer all seemed quiet in the apartment and there was no sign of Andrea or Gabriel.

Smithy slowly put his ear up to the door. He could hear a vague mumbling coming from inside, certainly a male voice.

"I can hear Gabriel talking but I can't make out what he's saying," Smithy whispered to Gina who was standing a few yards behind him.

"If they're just talking we should leave it," Gina said softly, motioning for Smithy to follow her.

"That doesn't mean she's safe," Smithy muttered and before Gina could realise what he was about to do and stop him, Smithy knocked on the door.

The murmur from inside stopped and the apartment fell silent.

"What are you doing?" Gina hissed angrily.

Smithy knocked again. "Andrea?" Smithy called out loudly.

"Smithy!"

The sergeant could just make out Andrea's reply followed by Gabriel's voice telling her to 'shut up.'

"Gabriel, I know you're in there," Smithy continued, much to the dismay of Gina Gold who now felt that things were going from bad to worse.

"Smithy, are you alone?" Gabriel asked.

"Yes," Smithy shouted back. Though he was lying, he hoped that if Gabriel didn't see him as a threat that he'd open the apartment door to him so Smithy could see that Andrea was okay.

"I'll let you in, one sec." Gabriel's voice called back.

Footsteps began approaching the door but then Smithy heard Andrea call out his name followed by the word 'no'. Smithy could hear a struggle followed by a sound that made him turn pale. He knew that sound anywhere. It was a gunshot.