Cienna avoided Gabriel for the rest of the day and was grateful Smithy wasn't on overtime. Smithy going home with her was a great excuse to avoid the gym! When they got in she saw the envelope on the floor. Her heart sank as she watched Smithy pick it up and she saw 'Private and Confidential' written on it.
'Is everything OK?' Smithy asked, her face already giving him an answer.
'Fine,' she replied taking the envelope from him and going into the bedroom closing the door behind her.
She sat on the bed and opened the envelope more photos of them but this time there was one word written accross Smithy's face, 'Bastard.' It was written accross his face on every picture.
Cienna jumped as she felt Smithy's hand on her shoulder, she hadn't heard him come in.
'What the fuck...?' He asked as he saw the top photo. Cienna buried her head into his chest.
They sat in silence as he flipped through all 10 pictures, when Cienna felt able to talk she told him about the others. To Cienna's surprise he didn't really say much she'd thought he'd be ranting and raving about her keeping it from him but all he did was pull her close and hold onto her.
-----
As soon as parade finished both Cienna and Smithy went to see Gina. They took the pictures with them plus the ones that had landed on the floor this morning. Again 'Bastard' was written accross Smithy's face on all of them. If Gina was surprised by Smithy's quiet reaction she didn't show it.
Smithy's mind was racing, if someone was going to try and hurt Cienna could he protect her when he didn't know who to protect her from.
-----
Jack Meadows had asked for a meeting between the 4 of them in Supt Okaro's office, he'd also asked DI Manson to sit in. The pictures were to be sent to the lab like the previous 3 sets. They were still waiting for the results from the other pictures.
'I want Neil to investigate these,' Jack said.
'Whatever,' Cienna replied, 'but I don't want the relief knowing our business.'
'You don't think it's a colleague then?' Neil asked.
'No, it couldn't be.' Cienna replied wishing she was as sure as she sounded.
Smithy hadn't said a word until Jack looked directly at him, 'What if someone tries to hurt her?' he asked trying to hide the fear in his voice. Mostly it worked but both Cienna and Gina heard it they both knew him too well.
'Right know it looks like whoever is resposible is just trying to scare her, lets hope we find him before we have to worry about anyone getting hurt,' Adam didn't really know what else to say.
'Him?' Cienna asked, 'what makes you think it's a male.'
'Nothing specific, we have no way of knowing, not yet.' Adam answered. His answer didn't make either of them feel any better.
-----
As they went downstairs Kerry was waiting in Smithy's office.
'Sorry Sarge,' she said as she saw Cienna, 'I need a word.'
'Give us a minute will you,' Smithy said as he ushered Kerry out of the office and closed the door.
'I won't let anyone hurt you, I promise.' he said.
'I've told you not to make promises you can't keep.' Cienna replied.
'I'll keep this one, I love you too much not to.'
'Love you too.' Cienna mumbled as he leant in to kiss her.
'I'll see you later,' he said as Cienna finally pulled away. Smithy let her go and watched her walk out of the office as Kerry walked in.
'Can I help you Kerry?'
'Is everything OK Sarge?' she asked as she leant against his desk.
'Fine,' he replied, 'now what can I do for you?'
-----
Cienna sat in the passenger seat wondering if letting Kerry drive was a good idea. Cienna hated driving but Kerry was a terrible driver.
'Is everything OK?' Kerry asked.
'If you don't try to hit every car we get behind it will be,' Cienna retorted, wondering how Kerry had ever got her license.
'Very funny,' Kerry didn't seem amused, 'I meant with Smithy he seemed preoccupied earlier.'
'Why? Didn't you get what you wanted,' Cienna was in no mood to be nice to Kerry today.
'I'm concerned about him,' Kerry ignored the comment, 'are the two of you happy together?'
'What's that got to do with you?' Cienna couldn't believe what she was hearing.
'I know when he's not happy,' Kerry continued to ignore Cienna's tone.
'Then stay away from him.' Cienna snapped. Kerry had used Smithy so often but he couldn't see it. Hell he'd almost died because of her and he still lied to Gina Gold about it, he'd had no choice but to tell Cienna the truth, but insisted that he would have done it for anybody. Yeah right, he was kidding himself, Cienna was convinced that if Kerry ever wanted a relationship with Smithy he'd dump her in a heartbeat. Sometimes she wished she could tell him to sod off before he broke her heart if only she didn't love him. Life's a bitch then you fall in love, she told herself on a regular basis.
To Kerry's credit she gave up on the conversation, to Cienna's relief a call came over the radio, now if only Kerry could get them there without killing them!
-----
'Cienna,' Neil pulled her to one side as she headed for the canteen, 'I thought you'd want to know the results are in on those pictures. The only prints are yours and Insp Gold's. I'll have to request that if you recieve any more they're not opened without gloves.'
'You mean open them here.' it wasn't a question.
'I'm afraid so, they're still working on the envelopes but there are so many prints from where they have gone through the post office its difficult to find a usable print at all.'
'I'll need you to make a list of anyone who may hold a grudge against you for any reason, even someone here, ex boyfriend, an ex of Smithy's, someone you've nicked... you know the drill.' Neil at least tried to make it sound like he knew how hard it would be.
'Is Smithy making a list?' Cienna asked.
'Yes, but I want it done separately just incase the same name turns up twice,' Neil watched Kerry walk towards them as he said it. 'Don't forget to include anyone here you have had problems with.'
-----
The worst thing about working with Kerry apart from knowing how Smithy felt about her and her driving was that she couldn't complain about her to Smithy, he just defended her and they got pissed off at each other it wasn't worth it.
So they drove home in silence, and didn't say more that 5 words to each other as they got into bed, at least Smithy put his arms around her, sometimes it's good not to talk!
When Cienna got up she saw it was 11-30 why the hell hadn't Smithy woken her?
She walked into the living room to find Smithy sitting on the sofa staring at an A4 envelope, she could tell he was debating whether or not to open it.
'We can't open it without gloves, Manson's orders.' Cienna said as she sat down opposite Smithy, when she saw the look of fear in his eyes she got up and sat next to him. The envelope staring at both of them from the table.
-----
Jack was in court so Neil decided to use his office to open the envelope as it was more private than his own. He put on a pair of latex gloves and carefully sliced the envelope open as Cienna felt her grip on Smithy's hand tightening. If she was hurting him he wasn't showing it, did he have to be so damn tough?
Neil reached in and pulled out more photos, Cienna recognized the Tesco sign that was where she shopped, Smithy was also in the picture it must have been taken two weeks ago Smithy almost never went shopping with her. He only went this time as Cienna had refused to buy him any beer if he didn't help.
Again there was writing accross Smithys face but it was a diffrent word 'Rapist'. Smithy visibily flinched. He'd thought all of that was over, Gabriel's conversation with Cienna started to swim around his mind only coppers at Sun Hill knew about the allegation. It was never official so it was kept in house. Though it got into the local rag there were no names mentioned, that meant someone at Sun Hill was involved, didn't it?