Every available officer decended on the Coal Lane, every available officer except Cienna. Gina wouldn't let her leave the nick! Cienna was beside herself, partly guilt for thinking he'd been cheating on her with Kerry but mainly fear. 'He won't know what hit him' ran through her mind. The minutes seemed like hours, Smithy was the target and she was the one hiding!
Gina was heading down to the estate, she had told Cienna not to worry he was probably in a dead spot, that was the problem with the Coal Lane it was covered in dead spots.
All officers were trying to radio in their positions and where they had checked, it didn't make Cienna feel any better. It could take weeks to search the estate properly and even then some spots would be missed, damn place was like a rabbit warren.
Cienna was really panicking now, their last words to each other hadn't been pleasant, if that was the last time she was ever going to speak to him she'd never forgive herself. And to make it worse she had thought he'd been too 'busy' with Kerry to radio in! Why didn't she just trust him? Oh yeah he still 'cares' for her.
Cienna had never been so grateful to hear Gabriel's voice,
'Sierra Oscar from 416, found him, he's OK.'
'What happened?' Cienna asked.
'Looks like he's twisted his ankle, he's in a dead spot,' came the reply.
Cienna slumped back into her seat with the relief evident on her face.
'See, l told you,' Yvonne said.
'Yeah,' Cienna said, she was going to kill him when she saw him for scaring the hell out of her!
-----
Cienna finally caught up with Smithy in the FME's room, 'Don't you ever do that to me again!' she wrapped her arms around him.
'Excuse me,' Gina walked in, 'not interupting am I?'
'l'll get Kerry to take you home,' Gina continued before Cienna could tell her that yes, she was interupting.
'l'll take him home,' Cienna said she didn't want Kerry alone with Smithy in her flat.
'No Cienna, you won't,' Gina saw the look on her face, 'you're still confined to the station, and if l let you take him home you probably won't come back!'
'Sounds good to me,' Smithy said trying to hide a smile.
As Smithy got into the car with Kerry, Cienna made sure she gave him a huge kiss, hoping Kerry would take the hint and keep her hands to herself.
'She doesn't trust me,' Kerry said as they pulled into the car park outside Cienna's flat.
'She's fine, I just scared her that's all,' he replied, Kerry didn't need to know she was a sore point between them.
'No, it's more than that, are you sure the two of you are OK?'
'We're fine,' he didn't add that Cienna was being stalked, knowing Kerry she'd say something and Kerry knowing would really piss Cienna off.
Kerry helped him into the flat and went to get him a bowl of cold water for his ankle.
'l'll have a cuppa while you're there too,' he added with a grin on his face. Cienna couldn't make tea either!
Cienna was getting more and more agitated watching the clock waiting for Kerry to radio in to say she was back on the clock. The station to home was 10 minutes at this time of night. They'd been gone for 2 hours, what the hell were they doing? Just as she was going to call home the radio crackled.
'Sierra Oscar from 202, sorry it took so long he needed a little help,' Kerry said.
'l'll bet,' Cienna said under her breath, when she got home she was going to ask Smithy exactly what kind of help he'd needed for 2 hours!
-----
The rest of the night was drama free, which gave Cienna plenty of time to convince herself that not only was Smithy the target but he had been up to something with Kerry, please not in her bed!
As she put her stuff away in her locker she saw her gym bag from the other day, if she went home now she'd start an argument if he was awake. Maybe a quick workout would help sort out her head it would definatley help her sleep.
After an hour in the gym she really couldn't bring herself to climb onto the bike, she headed into the shower then out to the car. She still didn't know what to think but she had to know if he'd 'been' with Kerry last night. She threw her bag into the boot and felt an arm around her neck, something over her mouth, then nothing.
-----
Smithy woke with a start, he reached out accross the bed then realised Cienna wasn't there. He turned over to look at the clock, the display read 12-30 and it was light outside, where the hell was she? He got up wincing at he put his foot on the floor, it was sore but he could walk on it. He walked towards the living room expecting to find Cienna asleep on the sofa. Cienna wasn't there but an A4 envelope was on the floor by the door. He picked it up and ripped it open, sod the forensics. Not surprisingly there were photos of him and Cienna but this time his face has been scribbled out with a pen. There was one word at the top of the picture 'Soon'. What the hell did that mean? Smithy picked up the phone and called Manson. Neil didn't know where Cienna was but also hadn't been aware that Smithy had gone home hurt either. He told Smithy he'd make some checks and call him back then hung up. Smithy knew she wouldn't have done any overtime if she couldn't leave the nick. And she would have called if she had been expecting to be late home. He looked at the answerphone the message counter was on 00. Then the phone rang, Smithy was gonna give her hell no matter what excuse she had.
'Where the hell are you?' he barked into the reciever.
'Well good afternoon to you too, nice to hear you're feeling better,' it was Kerry.
'Sorry, I was hoping it was Cienna,' he told her and he meant it.
'She can't still be in the gym,' Kerry answered him.
'The gym?' he asked, 'What makes you thing she's gone there?'
'That's where she looked like she was going, she had a bag with her and drove off in the wrong direction to be heading home, have you had a fight?' Kerry asked.
'l'll call you back,' he hung up on her before she had a chance to reply.
'Guv,' Smithy was straight on the phone to Neil, 'Kerry Young has just told me Cienna looked like she was going to the gym when she left this morning,' he gave Neil the details of her gym and then tried her mobile. It was turned off, no surprise there, it was very rarely turned on, he didn't know why she had the damn thing.
-----
Cienna awoke to find her head swimming, it was dark, and she could feel something across her wrists. She felt like she had a hangover without the pleasure of drinking Smithy under the table first! She remembered being at the gym, but didn't remember anything after opening the boot, did I faint? She wondered, she chided herself for going to the gym on an empty stomach again. She tried to move her hands and felt the handcuffs, she hadn't fainted, unless that was now a crime. She reached up to her face and felt the blindfold, should she remove it? Probably not. Did she want to know where she was? Maybe. She pulled down the blindfold anyway, she was in a dimly lit room. She realised she wasn't gagged which meant there was no one to hear her if she shouted, and next to the bed she was lying on was a can of diet coke. That can worried her, all she ever drank at work was diet coke, whoever had brought her here must have known that. As her eyes adjusted to the light she saw she was lying on a double bed in a standard bedroom, there seemed to be an en-suite bathroom, how thoughtful! The room was so dim because the windows had been blacked out, letting very little light into the room.
The door opened and the light went on, it was too bright and Cienna had to shield her eyes. A man walked in, he was white, tall (Cienna was useless at heights, when you're 5'6 everyone is tall), medium build, wearing a 'Jason' style hockey mask. He walked over to her and looked at her. He had dark eyes, familiar eyes, though she couldn't place them at the moment. Please keep the mask on she wished, she knew if he took it off she was never getting out of here.
He put a sandwich down next to the coke and left. She was starving she hadn't eaten since yesterday or the day before, she had no idea how long she'd been out for. Somehow she doubted the cheese sandwich and coke would be dangerous, it wasn't like she could go anywhere, she started eating. The sandwich added to her feeling she knew this guy, she was vegetarian, most people just assumed you ate meat unless they'd been told otherwise.
After eating she went into the bathroom, the window was blacked out and padlocked, no help there. The bedroom door was locked on the outside. She heard the bolt slide back and thought about rushing the door but knew she didn't stand a chance in the cuffs. The man walked in and had a bag with him, he also had a knife in his hand. Stay put for now, see what he wants, she told herself.
'What do you want?' she asked, 'Who are you? Where am I?' he didn't answer any of her questions, he showed her a key for the handcuffs and she raised her hands, he slid the key into the lock and turned the key, before Cienna even had a chance to react he pushed he back onto the bed and left.
She got out of the cuffs and was about the throw them away when she changed her mind and put them near the bed out of sight, they might come in handy if she could get him off balance. She opened the bag, there was some food, lots of diet coke, looked like he wasn't going to be back for a while, and clean clothes, her clothes, she had wondered where that T-shirt had gone, he'd been in the flat!