Chapter 24: A Tricky Situation

Andrea stared down the barrel of the small black gun that was pointed at her. She knew at this point she wasn't going to do a good job of hiding her fear from Gabriel.

"Okay, Gabriel. Calm down, please. Where did you even get a gun anyway?" Asked Andrea, her mind working so quickly she hardly had time to think about what she was saying.

"I told you, get the other devices," Gabriel growled, not wavering in his firm grip of the gun that was still pointed towards Andrea. However, Andrea could see some emotion hiding behind Gabriel's eyes. She wasn't sure if it was fear, guilt or both but she could tell he was uncomfortable. He'd said he had wanted to change and she was only hoping that she could appeal to that side of him once again, like she had before the explosion.

Admittedly, Andrea hadn't foreseen him having a gun and it made her extremely nervous; she'd thought he'd come much beyond his dark past already but she guessed he must still have contacts to get weapons from and such. Perhaps no one could be truly reformed. Maybe even she was now the cause of him drifting towards his older ways.

"Gabriel, please." Andrea pleaded with him. "There isn't any. There are no other recording devices in here. I swear."

It was risky to lie but Andrea had come this far and she didn't want to back down now even though she could feel herself trembling. She just prayed he didn't find any of the devices but she believed she'd hidden them well.

"How can I trust you on that?" Gabriel said sounding almost defeated, but yet again the gun didn't move an inch. "You were trying to record me confessing, weren't you?"

"Yes," Andrea admitted. "I've got no reason to lie about it. But I promise that was the only device I had."

"It's like you think I'm stupid Andrea! I knew as soon as you mentioned the explosion why I was really here. You were trying to catch me out, you weren't even worried about that photograph of you and the DI getting out."

"That afternoon of the explosion," Andrea began, though she was out of breath from the fear of the gun that was held only inches from her. "You showed guilt. You showed remorse. I thought you were going to do the right thing. A cold hearted killer isn't really you, Gabriel. I know that; you know that. The guilt has been eating you up."

"Shut up!" Gabriel shouted angrily. "You don't know the first thing about me."

"I learnt a lot about you that day, before you left me to die."

Gabriel stared at Andrea, remaining silent. Andrea knew she had got him thinking about that afternoon and the conversation they had. That's what she needed, him to replay it over in his mind and for her to talk long enough to distract him from the idea of being recorded so that maybe he would just open up.

"You were going to save me at first Gabriel, weren't you? Maybe it was you being changed, but I think that was a natural instinct you've always had. I think that you like helping people."

"As I said, you don't know me." Gabriel muttered, though his grip on the gun seemed to relax just a little.

"Maybe I don't but I do know that you leaving me to die and showing up here with a gun aren't signs of someone who has already changed! It's someone who still needs to!"

"What are you saying?" Gabriel questioned, becoming tense.

"I'm saying that until you can truly admit to what you have done and face it, that you won't change. I want to help you, Gabriel."

Gabriel laughed then. "Help me? What, by working with the DI and Smithy? It sounds more like a plot to bring me down that a self help intervention."

"I've already told you, they have no idea you are here. I promise that." This time Andrea could answer truthfully though she suspected Smithy would soon realise something was up. She glanced at her watch and realised Smithy would be expecting a call from her right about now.

Gabriel slowly moved backwards and sat back down on the sofa but carefully kept the gun pointed at Andrea.

"I'm no threat to you," Andrea continued , trying to keep talking though she was trying to avoid Neil coming up in conversation too much. She didn't want anything that confirmed their relationship on her recordings. The photograph had already been mentioned but that was nothing too incriminating that they couldn't plead ignorance to. "I truly want to help and as I said, the conversation we had is quite hazy. I want to help you come to terms with it."

"No one can help me," Gabriel mumbled. "I just need to keep moving forward."

"You can't move forward with secrets hanging over you," Andrea sighed. "I should know. Look at what happened to me. Undercover journalist, now hated by most of her colleagues even though she truly put her all into her work as a police officer. But I couldn't have moved forward if the truth hadn't come out. Yes, I miss being an officer. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. But I couldn't have lived a lie forever. The truth always finds a way of coming out. For example, you thought leaving me to die in the fire would rid you of all your problems but I'm still here. But you were also wrong because I wasn't even the problem. I'm still not the problem. Your past is. What you did, working with the sniper and killing Kerry, that's not just going to go away."

"But you are the problem, Andrea. You. And Smithy. Neither of you would leave it alone. Both always asking questions."

"Smithy was very close to Kerry," Andrea commented. "You know that's why he wouldn't let it go. He couldn't grasp that she'd had this secret affair with you. It wasn't very much in her character. And she'd told me that you had raped her. "

"You know Kerry had a reputation for that, she accused poor Smithy too, remember?" Gabriel replied, still saying nothing that confirmed what he had done for the recording , much to Andrea's annoyance.

"Honestly, I still regret that I didn't take it seriously enough for that reason. But when we found out she was carrying your child when she was killed I started to realise she must have been telling the truth. The timeline all fit together. Then you told me it was true just before the explosion..." Andrea noticed Gabriel looked sad then, tears glistening in his eyes. "It must have hurt when you found out you'd killed your own child."

"That's enough!" Gabriel cried out. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Why , Gabriel? Why did you do all this? What made you pretend to be your brother in the first place? To meet June? That's what you said before, right? But I don't know how that progressed so much."

"June. Oh blessed June. She had just given her son away. Into my family. Ruined my life. Gabriel was always so perfect and then I was always seen as this total screw up. Didn't matter that I shared my parents DNA. I just wasn't good enough. Not as good as him."

Finally, Andrea had him admit something on tape. Unfortunately it was only talking about his identity, which she already had proof of, but it was a start.

"That must have been hard." Andrea tried to sympathise. "But I don't get why even that led to everything that's happened. Not every boy with an unfair upbringing turns into a murderer."

"A lot happened," Gabriel said quietly. "Nothing would ever go right for me. I just wanted things to be fair and right."

"And so you did that by taking the law into your own hands? Bending the rules on the Cole Lane estate to bring about your own form of justice. Working with the sniper to kill criminals who you felt didn't get severe enough punishment. Did that make you feel powerful?"

"Yes, it did." Gabriel answered, wistfully. "I was actually listened to for once, respected. I never was by my family. And then Kerry, well, I did everything for her. Supported her, listened to all her woes. I really loved her. But she just wouldn't love me back."

"And then you killed her? Because you couldn't have her? And she knew about your true identity somehow, didn't she?"

"I couldn't let that get out," Gabriel sighed. "The police force was the first thing in life that had brought me moments of joy. I couldn't let that be ruined."

Andrea was glad that Gabriel was starting to admit to what he had done. She would have preferred to have got him saying 'I killed Kerry' directly on the recording, which were the exact words he'd used when they had spoke before. However, she hoped she had enough to get him sent away for a long time because an she wasn't convinced that she was going to get an outright confession this time. Now all she had to do was try to diffuse the situation. She had to remember that Gabriel still had all the power as he was sat there with a gun in his hand. Andrea didn't fully trust him not to use it.

She glanced at the time again, it was over half an hour since she was supposed to have called Smithy.

"You said it was over when we spoke before," Andrea said, quietly. "I think you were ready to confess. You were ready to truly move on. What if I came with you?"

"I can't," Gabriel said. "It would end my life. I've worked so hard to reach a point where things are working out."

"Gabriel, I said I wanted to help. Let me help you."

"How can you help me? I just need you to stay quiet and let me keep on," Gabriel said, absent-mindedly lowering the gun. "Though somehow I don't know if I believe you will."

"Gabriel," Andrea said, taking a deep breath. "You just can't keep on like this. What are you planning to do? Shoot me? Find Smithy and kill him too to get us to stop investigating the truth? We both know you'd never get away with that."

"I don't know," Gabriel said, frustrated. He stood up and began to pace up and down, not being particularly careful with the gun. "I don't want to hurt you Andrea. As I said, I've changed. I really want to keep it that way but you make it so hard. What can I do with both of you?"

Just as he said that, there was a knock on the door and Gabriel fell silent.

"Andrea?"

Andrea recognised Smithy's voice call her name loudly from outside the door of her apartment. She instantly called back his name in response, perhaps in relief that he was there. She only hoped he had brought back up along. She knew she needed to tell Smithy that Gabriel had a gun but she didn't want to call it out with Gabriel still only inches from her.

"Gabriel, I know you're in there." Smithy's voice rang out again.

"Smithy, are you alone?" Gabriel called back. Once Smithy confirmed he was alone Gabriel said he would go and let the Sergeant in.

It was in that moment that Andrea realised that would be exactly what Gabriel wanted, to have her and Smithy in the same room, merciless to his gun wielding self. She knew Gabriel disliked Smithy as much as Smithy disliked him. Suddenly Andrea realised she needed to stop Smithy from entering as it would only put them in more danger.

She seized the opportunity as Gabriel headed out into the hallway. She launched herself at him as hard as she could, knocking him sideways against the wall. Both parties had one hand each wrapped around the gun, pulling to get it free from the other. As they fought the gun went off.

Thankfully, the bullet missed both of them but it startled Andrea enough that she released her grip on the gun and Gabriel used the opportunity to take it. Immediately he knocked Andrea over the head with it, knocking her out cold. He knew he was trapped and he didn't know what to do.